Oh Boy, Rand Parties in the Hampton's Instead of Attending a Family Fellowship Summit in Iowa...

...to the chagrin of Iowa evangelicals.

The Des Moines Register reports:

An Iowa evangelical Christian leader stood on stage and told the 1,200 conservatives in the audience and the dozens of reporters that U.S. Sen. Rand Paul had told him he couldn't be at the event Saturday because of a "family commitment."

Then the New York Post's "Page Six" published the news that Paul was in the Hamptons on Saturday with Alec Baldwin. Paul was "among the intellectual elite" at a fundraiser for a library in East Hampton that Baldwin co-sponsored, the column says.

It raised some eyebrows in Iowa. Had Paul skipped the Family Leadership summit, an event that served as an early audition for five other potential GOP presidential candidates, because of a family obligation or another reason?

Aides for Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told The Des Moines Register this evening that Paul and his wife, Kelley, did indeed have a family commitment. It was in New York, and they took one of their three sons with them. The party with Baldwin was just an extra event on the itinerary for the weekend.

"The biggest surprise among the intellectual elite at the East Hampton Library fund-raiser — co-sponsored by liberal Alec Baldwin — on Saturday afternoon was the conservative triumvirate of Rand Paul, Bill O’Reilly and George Pataki, who all showed up as guests...Sen. Paul (R-Ky.) was schmoozing for free and getting tips on where to go in Montauk for a lobster roll," said NyPo.