Lindsey Graham

This opinion piece by Jim Jenkins about Lindsey Graham is hilarious:

We archconservatives thought he was "one of ours." Yessir, ol' Lindsey Graham, who succeeded ol' Strom Thurmond in the United States Senate, seemed to have all the credentials: high ratings from the American Conservative Union (90 out of 100, a solid "A" most places) and to boot, he was one of the lead guys, when he was a House member, in trying to run Bill Clinton out of the White House with all that impeachment stuff. Big backer of John McCain for president.

And, we archconservatives trusted the people of South Carolina to pick and hold on to a good 'un. This is the state that gave us that congressman who shouted "You lie!" right at the president of the United States during a joint address to Congress, and elected Sen. Jim DeMint, who has called President Obama everything but a junkyard dog in the course of his tenure in the high chamber. Then there's Gov. Mark Sanford, the courageous conservative who told the federal government what it could do with its stimulus money, if you know what we mean. Well, OK, there was that situation where, as we prefer to put it, he went a little Clinton on us, but still the guy has been a fire-breather.

Alas, Sen. Graham has of late been flirting with statesmanship, and it's shocking, fellow archconservatives, just shocking. He has been seen talking to Democrats. He has worked toward compromise on climate change legislation. He voted to confirm Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, for goodness sakes. He's suggested that Republicans need to reach out to minorities and younger people to bring them into a bigger tent.

Read on

The teabaggers are starting to take on Republicans and their first target is Lindsey Graham.

Now, after voting to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and expressing a willingness to build a compromise approach to clean energy legislation, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appears to be the new target of tea party activists. At a Graham town hall in Greenville yesterday, activist Harry Kimball of “RINO HUNT” protested by constructing a display that depicted Graham, as well as moderates like Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), being flushed down a toilet:

KIMBALL: This is for every RINO who has failed to represent us. [...] [the toilet represents] flushing them, flushing them.

One attendee of the event asked the senator, “when are you going to announce that you are switching parties?” The question drew loud applause from the crowd. Graham defended himself, and denounced the influence of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) on the Republican party:

They pushed Specter out and now are targeting Graham. Add to that Collins and Snowe and you can see the Republican numbers in Senate drop down to less than 30%. Here’s a video of this exchange, with more thoughts after that:

Chris Cillizza thinks we could be seeing the emergence of a new Republican Leader in Lindsey Graham:

Graham, who spent the 2008 election cycle as Sen. John McCain's loyal sidekick, appeared alongside former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner in advance of 2012, and managed to stand out.

Why? Because unlike other Republicans who seem to be so fixated on scoring political points on President Obama, Graham was willing to point out where his own party had strayed while also making a reasonable argument for GOP ideals.

Asked about Gov. Mark Sanford's extramarital affair, Graham, who is close to the governor, said that he was "disappointed" in his friend's behavior and praised Obama as "one of the better role models in the entire country for the idea of being a good parent, a good father."

Graham is playing the good guy right now, but that isn’t what the higher-ups in the GOP want. Instead they want attack dogs; people who will viciously attack anything President Obama does. That will prevent someone like Graham from becoming a de facto leader, and will help keep the GOP in the minority for some time to come.

Lindsey Graham told Tim Russert this morning that we will leave Iraq when OUR generals say so, even though al-Maliki has said we could leave. In other words, we will not recognize the sovereignty of the Iraqi government.

I don't remember anything in the war authorization saying we would be an occupying force. Sounds like this war is even more illegal now.