Creator of fictional 'Festivus' holiday rips Rand Paul: He's a 'lizard that’s crawled into a suit'
Television writer James O'Keefe, who introduced the fictional holiday of Festivus on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, lit into Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Wednesday, accusing him of ripping off his creation for "venal, immoral purposes."
"I hate the guy," O'Keefe told HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps. "I think he's some form of lizard that's crawled into a suit and somehow been allowed in the Senate."
O'Keefe also admitted that he has tried to troll the Tea Party senator and Republican presidential candidate in retaliation for Paul "celebrating" the occasion, which calls for the airing of grievances, on his Twitter account. This year, Paul's targets included fellow candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), as seen below.
For O'Keefe, however, the matter was personal. He said that his father actually came up with the idea in the 1960s, and would not have appreciated Paul appropriating it.
"I lost it when I saw that Rand Paul -- whom my father strongly disliked before he died -- was using my holiday to make warmed-over, 10 year old talking points," O'Keefe said. "My father was a strong, 1950s-era liberal Democrat [who] hated the reactionary nature of today’s Republican Party."
Watch the interview, as aired on Wednesday, below.
[h/t The Hill]