NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBS) -- Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was detained by the Transportation Security Administration in Nashville, Tennessee this morning after refusing to undergo a full-body pat down.

According to Paul's chief of staff Doug Stafford, the senator went through the scanner at the airport but was told there was some sort of "anomaly" with the scan and would have to get a full-body pat down. Paul did not consent to this and offered another scan, but the TSA insisted on the pat down.

Paul's father, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, quickly tweeted about the incident: "My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming."

Ron Paul left a similar message on Facebook, and Rand Paul's communications director Moira Bagley also tweeted the news.

Both Rand Paul and Ron Paul are known for their libertarian policy positions, and last year, Rand Paul blasted the TSA for conducting unnecessary pat downs.

In a June 2011 hearing, Paul told TSA administrator John Pistole, "I think you ought to get rid of the random pat-downs. The American public is unhappy with them, they're unhappy with the invasiveness of them."

After reports surfaced of young children getting intense, random pat-downs, Paul said in the hearing, "It just really just shows that no one is thinking... We need to be doing better police work and doing less of the universal giving up of our freedom to live our life the way we would like to live our life."

He suggested there should be a "trusted traveler" program in which people who travel frequently and are known to be not a threat, like congressmen, don't have to be searched.