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This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and editors about politics.

It's Thursday, October 2nd. I'm Dorothy Wickendon, executive editor of The New Yorker writers and editors about politics. It's Thursday, October 2nd. I'm Dorothy

Wicenden, executive editor of The New Yorker. Rand Paul, the Republican junior senator from Kentucky,

is emerging as a major figure in his party. He's likely to be a contender in the 2016 presidential race.

I do want to be a different kind of Republican in the sense that I want to reach out to new people we haven't been reaching out to. I frankly think that we are the party of voting rights. We are the party of the Bill of Rights. We are the party of emancipation. That we really should be the party that's reaching out to the African American public and saying, hey, give us another chance. Take a look at us. That was Rand Paul on CBS last week. Hendrick Hertzberg and Ryan Liz are here to talk about what his rise means for the Republican Party and for Democrats, for that matter.

Brian, let's start with you. In your profile in the current issue, you show how Paul over the summer began to alter his policies on race and foreign policy in particular. Talk a

little bit about that. 2014, the sort of Rand Paul project has really been rehabilitating his image on

those two really important issues. On race, you know, not to be too cynical, but I think it's partly

driven by a long and fairly

controversial history on issues like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he basically

opposed since as long as he's been thinking about public policy. It became hugely controversial

for him in 2010 during his Senate campaign when he let it be known that he hadn't changed his view on that.

...