We're back from Thanksgiving feasting, disgusted with ourselves and terrified to look in the mirror. But you know who isn't afraid to look in the mirror? Rand Paul, after hedging his bets in Kentucky and filing for both the Senate and Presidential races. More on that later.But first, the big story about Rand this past week...Will the revealed collusion between Clinton staffer and CNN reporter be a boon to Paul? The biggest story coming out of this Thanksgiving malaise was surely the news that a staffer for Hillary Clinton had colluded with a CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott to smear Rand Paul during the Benghazi hearings in 2013. This took the form of social media slamming on Elise's Twitter account.

Sen Paul most critical on committee of Clinton, but a little late to the #Benghazi game.Not sure he was at many of the 30 previous briefings

— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) January 23, 2013

The Rand camp responded with the outrage one would expect.

"The liberal media has taken their Clinton sycophancy to a new low. CNN needs to address this bias and lack of journalistic integrity,” Doug Stafford, Paul’s chief strategist, said in a statement. “This email revelation should give Republicans pause as to their coverage and possibility of fair treatment towards Sen. Paul during the next debate. All eyes will be on CNN's response to their employee colluding with Hillary Clinton in order to attack a prominent U.S. senator on their dime."

This is potentially beneficial to Paul in multiple ways.Naturally, it's going to make Hillary and her people look bad, which is always great to see. Clinton is a horrible person and candidate, and there's almost no misfortune I wouldn't wish upon her, at least politically.On another level, it brings focus again to Rand Paul as someone the Clinton camp specifically looked at as a threat and one that they had to act to quash. That should encourage GOP voters and the bigwigs in the party to back Paul, who has held his own against Clinton in head to head polls.Additionally, though CNN still hasn't fired the reporter - which is frankly ridiculous and disgusting for an "unbiased" media organization to tolerate the actions of Elise Labott - I would expect them to have a reaction which would benefit Rand.To prove that they are indeed unbiased and that the rest of the network doesn't have overt marching orders from Clinton to ignore or slander Paul, we may see a rise in positive coverage from CNN to try to push the public perception back to center. I wouldn't be surprised if Rand got extra questions and speaking time during the Dec 15th GOP debate - one that CNN sponsors and will supply its anchors to moderate.Not a bad upside for a tweet that didn't do much to harm Rand in the first place.Every action has a reaction, and this reaction can help Paul immensely.- PAULUSRand gives back $600K of allocated Senate budget Not much to banter about here.  Just like he did in 2015, Senator Paul sticks to his promise of being fiscally conservative and to return every nickel unspent to the taxpayers of America. Last year's return was $500K. This year he bettered that amount by $100,000, bringing his grand total for the past two years to $1.1 million.- PAULUSRand files for Senate & Presidential Primary ballots in KY File this under "Why wouldn't you if you can?"The pundits on the slower side of the scale are somehow taking Rand's filing in Kentucky for both the Senate and Presidential ballots simultaneously as his putting up the white flag on his presidential hopes. As Rand noted in an interview with the Associated Press, running on two ballots at the same time isn't a first. Current Speaker of the House Paul Ryan ran for re-election in 2012 while also being on the ballot as Mitt Romney's VP.If you're Rand Paul, knowing the fickle nature of the presidential race and public perception, why would you NOT run for re-election in the Senate? Especially considering past election cycles where we have seen "front runners" come and go on almost a weekly basis? Any sane person would hedge their bets. If it were me, even if I were leading the presidential polls right now I would still make sure I was on that ballot for the Senate.Paul's contributions in the Senate have been impressive and his is a voice that is desperately needed there. If he can't be POTUS, he damn well better get back into those chambers. There is some chatter that his state's voters will abandon him, but if they elected him based on his positions, he hasn't backed off of them. If they are looking at his record in the Senate, he's missed 2% of votes and is a very active participant.If Rand wants his seat back after a failed presidential bid, it's his for the taking.- PAULUSThe Current “Paulus-Minus” Tally: 136 Pauluses / 41 Minuses / 11 PushDiscuss this and so much more in our private Facebook Group: The Lions of Liberty Forum!Be sure to check out our latest Rand Pauluses and Minuses podcast (new episode coming this Thursday)!Check out the full “Rand Pauluses and Minuses” Archive!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Check out our YouTube Channel!Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!