Rand Paul withdraws from appearance, but dominates discussion

Rand Paul backed out of his Sunday morning talk show appearance, but that didn't stop people from talking about him.

Paul, the Tea Party-backed eye doctor who won Kentucky's Republican Senate primary last week, cited exhaustion as well as a desire to put behind him controversy over his comments on the Civil Rights Act in deciding against a previously scheduled appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," according to host David Gregory.

Gregory also said Paul's spokesman issued a statement saying Paul wanted to avoid the "liberal bias" of the media.