Senator Paul and the Speech and Debate Clause

The Speech and Debate Clause [Article 1, Section 6] is, indeed, part of our Constitution and the TSA employees who detained Senator Rand Paul were not trained to observe a part the Constitution they are sworn to protect and uphold.
That said, having worked as a Congressional staffer, I have personal knowledge of Members of Congress leaving Capitol Hill for home at the wheel of their cars in a state of drunkenness that would qualify the average citizen for immediate arrest for DUI.

Because their vehicles bore plates identifying them as Members of Congress or Senators, no cop would dare stop these Congressional drunk drivers, much less give them a breathalyzer test.  Unlike the TSA agents in Nashville, the cops in the District, Virginia and Maryland do know about the Speech and Debate Clause.

But James Madison and the other Framers of the Constitution, despite their purported divine inspiration and omniscience, apparently had never heard about something called the internal combustion engine that could allow mere mortals, including Members of Congress, to move at speeds of up to and over 100 miles per hour.
To the Framers of the Constitution who in their wisdom wrote the Speech and Debate Clause, if a Member of Congress or a Senator left Congress and returned home drunk on some of George Washington's home-made corn liquor, about the only untoward thing that could happen is that he would fall off his horse.
But that's what happens when you try to govern a 21st century country under an 18th century constitution.
And that is food--or drink--for thought.
Jagor