During his four plus years in the Senate, Lindsey Graham has voted with conservatives more often than not. OnTheIssues.com lists him as a libertarian leaning conservative. Many, including Graham himself, will claim that he really is a conservative. But Graham only departs from conservatives when it really matters and that is unforgivable. Below is a partial list of examples where Graham left the reservation when conservatives and the Republican Party needed him the most.
Graham’s membership in the Gang of 14 is well documented. When Senate Republicans were prepared to use the “nuclear option” to end Democrat filibusters of Bush Judicial nominees, Graham, along with McCain and five other RINOs and seven Democrats joined together to thwart that effort. Virtually everyone in the Republican Party and conservatives in general believed that the filibusters were an unconstitutional abuse of Senate rules. Graham actively participated in allowing that abuse to continue.
Graham didn’t stop there, however. In the case of Fourth Circuit nominee Jim Haynes, Graham continued to declare that he was not trying to prevent an up or down vote on the Senate floor while behind the scenes he was doing exactly that. The July 17, 2006 Power Line had this to say:
While Lindsey Graham publicly insists that he is not denying Fourth Circuit nominee Jim Haynes an up-or-down vote, all indications are that he is working overtime behind the scenes to do just that. For example, Graham reportedly is lobbying hard against Haynes with key gang of 14 members such as Senator Collins of Maine, trying to persuade them that the Haynes’ nomination constitutes an “extraordinary circumstance” which would justify a filibuster. I understand that Haynes has the support of gang members like Senator De Wine, but his supporters within the group are at a disadvantage when it comes to countering Graham. For one thing, unlike the South Carolina Senator, they don’t see themselves as on “a mission from God” when it comes to the Haynes nomination. For another, they are not on top of the substantive issue that is the key to Graham’s anti-Haynes campaign — what Haynes did and did not do with respect to setting our policy on treatment of terrorist detainees, and especially the extent to which he included the JAGs in the process.
As a member of the JAG Corp in the Air Force, Graham clearly had an ax to grind with Haynes and he engaged in precisely the behavior conservatives and Republicans opposed. That is, allowing the full Senate to vote on a nominee if the Judiciary committee released them. While virtually everyone else believed Haynes was well qualified, Graham singlehandedly stood in the way.
The website Congresspedia gives the full voting records of members of Congress but they go far beyond that, even to ratings of the member’s websites. Graham’s website, rated by the Sunlight Foundation, was rated a 32 on a scale of 0-100 for “member’s sites on whether they provided basic information on their legislative activities, post their legally required disclosures such as on personal finances and travel, and any other information that furthers transparency.”
With talk in the news lately about the possible closing of Guantanamo Bay, it is important to note that Graham is directly responsible for that possibility. Graham uncovered classified memos in 2005 dealing with the use of extreme measures to get information from detainees at Gitmo. Graham made sure those memos were declassified and caused the entire controversy regarding supposed torture, a charge that Democrats have exploited to this day, despite all evidence to the contrary. Now we are faced with Terrorist detainees being transported to the US and having full access to US courts and law. Does anyone believe this will make America safer?
In 2006 Graham, along with McCain and Senator John Warner, publicly and vociferously opposed Bush administration supported legislation that would have given the government much latitude in the treatment, interrogation and prosecution of terrorist detainees. Graham’s efforts were aimed at giving terrorists full Geneva Convention protection, even though such individuals are expressly exempt from such protections. Graham apparently believes we should treat terrorism as a legal matter rather than a national security matter. I think we’ve seen the damage such an approach leads to. Had we treated terrorism as a national security issue prior to 9/11 there is good reason to believe the World Trade Center might still be standing today! But Graham thinks the Constitution and the Geneva Convention extend to everyone everywhere, under all circumstances. His argument boiled down to, “I’m a JAG lawyer and you voters aren’t so just trust me on this.”
Graham has carefully orchestrated his rise to maverick status. His Senate hero is John McCain who also revels in the maverick label. But maverick is not the right label for Graham. Opportunist is more appropriate. Graham’s prime motivation appears to be as well known as possible. He never misses an opportunity to get “face time.” I;m convinced Graham would mow his own grandmother down if she got between him and a TV camera.
I’m sure there is more to be said about Graham’s record. That is why I’ve asked for volunteers to do research, write articles or anything else you might think of to help. As you can see from the blogroll on the left, there are at least a few other sites that exist primarily or solely to oppose Graham. I stand with them and it is my desire that we all work together for this common goal. If Graham is defeated in ‘08 this blog will go away. There will be no reason for it to continue. So this is not about building up a readership or monetizing a blog or anything else other than sending Lindsey Graham packing. So I’m asking for your help.
Post Note:
I ran across an interesting blog while doing research for this post. written, apparently, by a liberal Democrat. I know he is a liberal Democrat because he talks about working on the John Edwards campaign in ‘04. This guy purely gushes about Graham! I decided against linking to that blog because I just don’t want to give it any traffic. From the blog:
I started out volunteering for the Presidential campaign of John Edwards two years ago. I went to Iowa and Milwaukee as a volunteer. I cam home from one of these trips and I was watching the Senate on C-SPAN 2 when I happened across a specch by Lindsey Graham, who was the Jr senator from South Carolina at th time. The speech was about trade. I remembering who would dare present the unorthodo position that he did.
I have followed his Senate career for the last two years and have defended him every chance I get becasue I do plan to pattern myself after him. I like his style of hammering out compromises and tackling current and controversial issues head on without fear.
You just have to wonder about any Republican who continues to get this kind of praise from liberal Democrats. And of course, Graham has said his job in the Senate is to work with Senate Democrats. Nothing about working for the good of the country or any of that ideological stuff. Graham wants to work with Democrats whether they are right or wrong. How much more do you need to know?
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