Posted on 07/24/2009 8:13:13 AM PDT by STARWISE
When Sen. Lindsey Graham announced his support for Sonia Sotomayor this week, right-wing radio talk show host Mark Levin said it was a sign that Graham is “unreliable ... as a thinker and a leader.”
Wendy Long, counsel for the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, called it proof that Graham “still lacks courage, statesmanship and an understanding of the Constitution and rule of law.”
“May his antics get the attention they richly deserve.”
The response from Graham: Enjoy life in the minority.
In an interview with POLITICO Thursday, the South Carolina Republican defended his decision to back Sotomayor by laying out a broad critique of conservative activists who push “ideological purity” and refuse to cooperate with a Democratic Congress and White House.
“If we chase this attitude … that you have to say ‘no’ to every Democratic proposal, you can’t help the president ever, you can’t ever reach across the aisle, then I don’t want to be part of the movement because it’s a dead-end movement,” Graham said.
“I have no desire to be up here in an irrelevant status. I’m smart enough to know that this country doesn’t have a problem with conservatives. It has a problem with blind ideology. And those who are ideological-driven to a fault are never going to be able to take this party back into relevancy.”
While a handful of other GOP senators have said they’ll back Sotomayor when her nomination comes to the floor, Graham is the first Republican on the Judiciary Committee to support her.
He may be the only one. Not all of the Republicans on the committee have announced their views, but the two who would seem mostly likely to defect — Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), two veterans who have voted for every Supreme Court nominee they’ve faced in the Senate — have both expressed reservations about Sotomayor.
Hatch said that he’s “troubled” by her nomination, and Grassley said that “people take things into consideration now that they didn’t used to before.” He added: “So obviously, there are other things to consider than just qualifications.”
Graham said that Sotomayor is not the nominee he would have chosen.
But after questioning her extensively during her confirmation hearing — asking about everything from her views on abortion to the charge that she’s a “bully” on the bench — he said Sotomayor deserves his support because a review of her 17-year record proved she was well-qualified, her confirmation would not upset the ideological balance on the court, and Obama is entitled to some latitude in making his pick because he won the election.
Most of all, he said, he wanted to return to the days where ideology was not part of the equation when choosing judicial nominees — citing the 98-0 confirmation of Antonin Scalia in 1986 and the 96-3 confirmation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
“I don’t want to politicize the judiciary any more than has been done,” Graham said. “My goal is to ensure the rule of law isn’t taken over by special-interest groups.”
Whether it was his efforts to prevent the “nuclear option” in 2005 over George W. Bush’s judicial nominations, to back the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility or to pass an immigration reform bill that the right calls “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, Graham is used to the heat.
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Rest at link.
Graham, Lindsey - (R-wannabe - SC)
Graham, Lindsey - (R-wannabe - SC)
Washington DC 20510 - (202) 224-5972
It’s time for the politicos to feel our righteous anger!
Way to go Starwise!
What's the matter, Sen. Grahamnesty, forgot to give the examples of Robt. Bork and Clarence Thomas, too, to show how conciliatory the other side is?
Really???
In the ‘heat’, people squirm. This guy has been squirming around for a long time...trying to remain ‘relevant’. He has not succeeded!
Instead, he has been equivocating to the point where he is NOT someone Conservatives can count on to represent their interests.
IS THIS or IS THIS NOT a representative system? These politicians get to DC and instantly forget where they came from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is a pitcher and a catcher is a San Francisco manner.
Yea, kinda of like “Lindsey, Barney has a basement pad for rent”,
.
“I have no desire to be up here in an irrelevant status.”
_________________________________________________________________
Then move aside and let a real conservative take your place!
That’s funny. I recall the Dems saying “NO” to every thing Bush, in process demonizing him at every turn.
In the end. They win. We lose. Bush ends with a 30% approval rating. I guess Ms Lindsay missed this strategy.
Graham is a get-a-longer.
Lindsey, you are merely channeling Meghan McCain. Despite your grandstanding in questioning Sotomayor to appear 'tough' (“you have said some things that just bug the hell out of me”), you have exposed yourself as the limp-wristed pushover you really are with your “Yes” vote on Sotomayor.
Lindsey, don’t join the McCain/Powell choir on what the GOP needs to do, just go away since YOU are irrelevant.
(Enjoy life in the minority.)
Yeah, that’s right you little finook, between you and McCain you have made sure we will stay in the minority.
Now go back your bath house and STFU.
“If we chase this attitude … that you have to say ‘no’ to every Democratic proposal, you can’t help the president ever, you can’t ever reach across the aisle, then I don’t want to be part of the movement because it’s a dead-end movement,” Graham said.
There it is folks. The “moderate” Rinos like being the minority in cahoots with the Democrat majority. They like the GOP being in the minority. They hate the conservative majority of the GOP and with McCain in the lead, they killed the GOP majority.
So next time the “moderates” puke about extremism...know what they are up to in the effort to keep the GOP in a minority.
Heavy sigh.
(Graham gives as good as he gets)
That’s the word in the gay community.
Thanks. I made the call. If nothing else, I want his aids to have to listen to all the complaints.
Kick him out of the party... Problem solved...
Grahamnesty just won reelection in 2008. He’s not up again until 2014.
I tried, but the putz running against him in the primary was not good enough! I even wrote in a vote in the general rather than vote for the RINO.
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