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(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

CHARLESTON, S.C. — When Senator Lindsey Graham joined forces last month with Senator John Kerry on a compromise to the climate change legislation known as cap and trade, it was the last straw for the Charleston County Republican Party. The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. The county party, which has traditionally been considered moderate, voted by a wide margin to censure Mr. Graham in harsh terms. Their grievance list was long: it cited the senator for calling opponents of immigration law change “bigots,” holding the Republican Party...

Apparently there are still some posters on FR who are fast asleep. Wake up! Dammit! We are in the middle of a conservative rebellion! While you were sleeping we, along with millions of other freedom loving grassroots Americans have participated in hundreds of tea parties all across this great land and fully intend to keep it up until all of America is awake. We are fed up and mad as hell! We grassroots Americans are delivering a message to the ruling class: NO MORE!! No more big government! No more high taxes! No more government bailouts! No more government takeovers!...

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has become a media celebrity. On constitutional issues, aside from the right to life, gun rights and national security, he takes a center-left position. Graham opposed the Republican option on judicial nominees and also voted yes on Sotomayor, knowing she supports abortion and gun control and is not for a strong national defense. Graham is determined to again attempt to pass an immigration reform bill with amnesty for illegals, never mind his 2007 resounding defeat on this issue. Graham is said to be working with far left Sen. John Kerry on cap and trade and seeking...

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain. “Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.” McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career. Now the Arizona Republican is more likely to repeat GOP talking points on cap and trade than...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s public support is collapsing in South Carolina – driven by a wholesale revolt among the GOP electorate and a steady erosion of his support amongst independents. Already consistently loathed by a solid third of GOP voters, Graham’s recent leftward bent – including his co-authoring of a controversia"Cap & Tax" proposal supported by President Barack Obama and liberal Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) – has him locked in a "terminal free fall," according one prominent Republican consultant. "A chunk of the GOP has always detested him but in the last month a dam has broken," said the consultant,...

Senator Lindsey Graham’s leadership on climate change is a bold example of true conservatism that his fellow Republicans in Congress should follow, Republicans for Environmental Protection, a national grassroots organization, said today. "We are very pleased with the New York Times op-ed that Senator Graham co-authored with Senator Kerry. The most important thing that Congress must do to address climate change is to put a price on carbon emissions. That can only happen if there is conservative Republican input and buy-in. Thanks to Senator Graham’s leadership, the odds for passing an effective, balanced bill have improved greatly," David Jenkins, REP...

FINALLY, the people in South Carolina are awakening to the fact our values are not being represented by Lindsay Graham.

WASHINGTON – A trio of senators with differing political views is working behind-the-scenes to rescue troubled climate legislation. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate. The three senators met individually with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change. "Our effort is to try to reach out to broaden the base of support ... ," Kerry said at an...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

Those angry town hall meetings are back. Last night, at a forum at Furman University, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was pilloried by protesters for his decision to back Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and for his support for climate change legislation. During the 75-minute event, one man told Graham he had “betrayed” conservatism and made a “pact with the devil” by working with Democrats, and asked when the senator planned to change parties. . . . . . Maybe what really ticked off the conservatives was when Graham argued that the problem should be addressed as soon as...

I hate to say “I told you so.” But, well, I told you so. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has signed on to the Democrats’ massive green redistribution scheme masquerading as a planet-saving, national security-enhancing “energy independence” scheme. Can John McCain and the rest of the Climate Change Republicans be far behind? Now, the announcement of Graham’s alliance with Big Government Democrats. In the NYTimes, natch. Kerry and Graham go on to argue that we must buy into their plan because the EPA regulatory power grab will be worse. It’s greenmail: Sign on or else the out-of-control bureaucrats (and the unaccountable...

Can Congress drill its way to legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions? Perhaps, says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who believes there is public support for both reducing reliance on energy imports and curbing carbon dioxide emissions. "If you married these two ideas up, I think you could get 60 votes, but that means give and take," Graham said yesterday."My hope is that if you marry these two ideas up you would get the votes for a reasonable climate change proposal, that's blocked now, and you would be able to become energy independent, that's blocked now," Graham added. "Both ideas run...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is working behind the scenes to help Democrats craft a new version of former President Bush's immigration reform bill. Graham also supported the Bush/Kennedy/McCain bill back in 2007. As The Wall Street Journal reports: Wes Hickman, a spokesman for Mr. Graham, said in a statement that "Senator Graham is ready and willing to play a key role in immigration reform. He intends to work with many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle." The new bill will most likely be introduced in September by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Graham has been working with...

Wes Hickman, a spokesman for Mr. Graham, said in a statement that "Senator Graham is ready and willing to play a key role in immigration reform. He intends to work with many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle."

As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. By the same token, there is more than one way to lose liberty. Specifically, liberty can be taken away or given away. Perhaps history's most famous example of giving away freedom is the 1938 Munich Agreement. Brittan's Neville Chamberlain and other European leaders believed they could stop the advance of Nazi Germany with a policy known as Appeasement. The Munich Agreement allowed Germany to vastly expand its borders without military opposition. In the days following the summit Chamberlain fatefully declared that they had achieved "peace in...

Along largely partisan lines, the Senate Judiciary Cmte backed SCOTUS appointee Sonia Sotomayor, Pres. Obama's first high court pick, this morning by a 13-6 vote. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was the only Republican to support Sotomayor. The Senate cmte's Dems voted unanimously for the Bronx native. The full Senate will vote next, but with the Dems' 60-vote majority, Sotomayor's confirmation is all but a done deal. She will be the first individual of Hispanic heritage to sit on the SCOTUS.

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Sen. Graham said Judge Sonia Sotomayor has not "been an activist judge" and is "within the mainstream."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says he'll vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, breaking with his party's conservative leaders. . . . . . Graham is generally conservative but has been known to flash a maverick streak similar to his mentor, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

On June 8, 2009 Lori Donohue and her daughter Kayla were walking through the parking lot at the Seven Stars School of Performing Arts, in Brewster, NY where 8-year-old Kayla had just finished a dance class, when they were killed by a drunk-driving illegal alien...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's lawyers and law enforcement leaders gave Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ringing endorsements Tuesday, even as Republicans tried to rally opposition. With Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing less than a week away, the American Bar Association announced that the 54-year-old appellate judge is "well qualified" to serve on the nation's highest court. The unanimous recommendation is the association's highest grade for a potential judge. "The only way she can get derailed is if she performs poorly next week," acknowledged Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Senate Judiciary Committee member. He said he was still undecided, but added, "I...

Grand Strand marketers turn eyes toward Europe. BY MIKE CHERNEY MYRTLE BEACH — When it comes to attracting foreign visitors to the Grand Strand, some local tourism leaders are looking to Congress for help. The Travel Promotion Act of 2009, which has been introduced in the House and Senate, would create a nonprofit corporation to advertise the U.S. as a travel destination in foreign countries. The campaign would be funded by industry contributions and a $10 fee on foreign travelers who do not have to pay for a visa. The travel industry, including the U.S. Travel Association and the American...

GREGORY: ...the potential of revisiting a second stimulus come the fall. Do you think that’s appropriate? GRAHAM: Yes, I think we should revisit it and make sure that it’s focused on jobs, not adding to the debt. If you had another vote in the Senate or the House, I think it would be redone, it would be more focused on job creation, because it clearly has not helped jobs, has added to the debt, and I think it just missed its mark. So I’d love to revisit it.(snip) GRAHAM: I can be a leader on an issue, quite frankly. I...

(snip) I want to especially commend John McCain, who's with me today, because along with folks like Lindsey Graham, he has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing. I stand with him, I stand with Nydia Velázquez and others who have taken leadership on this issue. (snip)

A rather intriguing reaction from one of John Ensign’s Senate GOP colleagues to the news of Ensign’s extramarital affair: . . . . . Graham let out a laugh and said: “I’ve got plenty of sins that I’m not going to share with anyone else.”

Lindsey Graham gets combative over GOP future Posted: 10:45 AM ET From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby (CNN) – A combative Lindsey Graham got into a sharp back-and-forth with some audience members at the South Carolina GOP convention on Saturday as he made the case for an open-tent Republican party. According to The State newspaper and video posted on YouTube, the South Carolina senator told the convention he wants to build a party that can compete in Pennsylvania and Connecticut as well as in his home state. “You’re a hypocrite!,” one man in the audience yelled. “I’m a winner, pal,”...

Key lawmakers from both parties have held tentative talks about overhauling the Social Security system, and Congress could turn its attention to the federal retirement program as soon as this fall if a bipartisan concensus emerges, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said yesterday. "I am hopeful. It's a tough issue," Hoyer (D-Md.) said in an interview. . . . . So far, Democrats have found a willing partner in the Senate, where Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has stated his desire to work with President Obama to make changes to keep Social Security solvent. . . . . Graham...

...and the RINO you rode in on. Don't let the door hit ya!

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HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam and other United Nations Security Council members should take a strong stand against North Korea's missile programme, a visiting US senator said Tuesday. Republican Lindsey Graham made the comment after Pyongyang hailed its weekend rocket launch as a victory that put a satellite into orbit, but the United States and its allies say the satellite never made it into space and Sunday's launch was really a ballistic missile test that failed. "Vietnam sits on the Security Council and we would urge Vietnam along with China and all members of the Security Council to take a strong...

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, who made a political splash by speaking in favor of bank nationalization, said this week that Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. "has a very positive outlook." That's a change from last week, when Graham said in an interview with the Observer that he doubted whether Bank of America would ever repay its $45 billion capital infusion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Graham has advocated that the government temporarily take over some of the banks that fail the Treasury's so-called "stress test," and he hinted in the Observer interview that Bank of America could...

If anyone else called him “little jerk,” Sen. Lindsey Graham might be offended. But the jab comes from Sen. John McCain, so he wears it like a badge of honor. “If John’s not belittling you, you’re in trouble,” Graham said. “He calls me lots of other names, too, but they’re not appropriate for the newspaper.” McCain and Graham aren’t just friends. They’re inseparable, so much so that colleagues, staffers and journalists have begun making cracks about the relationship between the freshman senator from South Carolina and the man who would be president. Some call Graham a lapdog. Others say he...

BY JACKIE CALMES WASHINGTON — President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and other priorities. Mr. Obama considered announcing the formation of a Social Security task force at a White House “fiscal responsibility summit” that he will convene on Monday. But several Democrats said that idea had been shelved, partly because of objections from House...

In light of today's impressive interview on FOX I am wondering what the general consensus around here is regarding Lindsey Graham. I always thought of him as just a more mellow version of McCain, RINO basically. Am I wrong? Or is the GOP just using this bill for leverage to gain the public's favor?

BY JESSICA M. SIBLEYWASHINGTON — While President Barack Obama has a measure of Republican support in his attempts to jump-start the economy, methods for doing so appear at odds.Though some Republicans have said a stimulus package isn’t needed on the road to economic recovery, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Central, said, “Yes, we need one, just not the one the Obama Administration is proposing.”Graham said he wants to focus more on spending less, while doing more.“It’s very possible, and by do more, I mean create jobs for an ailing economy, while helping people who have lost their jobs and are struggling due...

The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on whether to approve Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, after several high-powered senators voiced their support for the former first-lady's swift confirmation. Clinton's confirmation was delayed until Wednesday by a single senator, Texas Republican John Cornyn, who voiced concerns about foreign donations made to former President Bill Clinton's foundation. But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on the floor that he had talked to Cornyn and that Cornyn has no objections to a voice vote. "We need to immediately, or as soon as possible ... move forward with the nomination," McCain said. He...

<snip> Still, there were signs that people hope for change. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, told NBC that "the Republican Party needs to reach out in a serious way to our Democratic colleagues. We will gain nothing by saying no just blindly."</snip>

Sen. John McCain avoided reporters during the lame-duck session of Congress last week. But Tuesday, shortly after President-elect Obama had his own news conference about the economy, McCain broke his silence by speaking with reporters in Phoenix. This came after the two former contenders met last week, and Tuesday, McCain continued to make nice. When asked what advice he had for right-wing supporters who say the prospect of an Obama presidency terrifies them, he was categorical. "Respect this landmark election, respect the fact America faces great challenges, and Americans expect us to work together. That does not mean we won't...

As pollsters predicted, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham won a second term, defeating Democrat Bob Conley. The Associated Press called the race for Graham — a close friend of Sen. John McCain — shortly polls closed at 7 p.m. The call was based on an analysis of voter interviews, conducted for the Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. “Number one, I’m grateful — appreciative — to have a second term,” Graham told the AP in a telephone interview. He said he’ll continue reaching out to Democrats and mainstream conservatives as he returns to Washington. “I’ll just keep...

There are many things South Carolinians are expected to be ashamed of — slavery, segregation, low SAT scores. These are the least of our state's embarrassments. Our deepest shame is in being represented by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham is the worst kind of politician — he votes against the interests of his own state on a consistent basis to serve the agendas of political and corporate elites.When 63 percent of South Carolina voters opposed amnesty for the estimated 12 to 20 million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States, Graham not only supported "comprehensive immigration reform," but he...

A Democratic voter passed on a mailer he got from Lindsey Graham yesterday and it looks like a piece of mail targeted at Democratic voters. “An independent voice. Reaching across party lines,” it reads (his bold, not mine). Inside, it says that Graham “isn’t afraid to speak his mind,” and that “he has the courage to stand firm, even when it’s not popular, and reach across party lines to solve tough problems.” That’s followed by the line, “A leader we can ALL trust.” (Again, his emphasis, not mine).

COLUMBIA, S.C.—A group supporting U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's opponent in next week's election said Monday it would pay to broadcast ads showing the Republican senator referring to immigration critics as "bigots." The ad shows him telling a Latino group that supporters of a 2007 immigration law overhaul effort were "going to tell the bigots to shut up."

You see them together everywhere these days: The streets of Iraq, the halls of Congress, the campaign trail. If Lindsey Graham isn't with John McCain, there's a good chance he's representing him on the TV talk shows, in the Wall Street bailout talks or at the vice presidential debate. But South Carolina's senior senator said that doesn't mean he'd follow McCain to the White House. "Those folks who like seeing my smiling face will be seeing me around here for a while," Graham said Friday in North Charleston. "I will stay in the Senate if re-elected and serve out my...

(The Greenville News) - Saying that Americans can "no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration," U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint broke Monday with the Bush White House and will oppose what he calls its "irresponsible" bailout plan. But fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham continued to lean toward some form of buying up banks' problem mortgages, although "it's too early to say" if he will support Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's still vague plan, said Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop. "The administration said the bailout of Bear Stearns would stop the bleeding and solve the problem, but...

WASHINGTON — If Andrew Jackson created the notion of a president’s “Kitchen Cabinet,” Sen. John McCain is reinventing it months before his possible election to the White House. And Sen. Lindsey Graham seems to be McCain’s one-man Kitchen Cabinet. Graham’s visibility as the Arizona senator’s closest political confidant has risen in recent weeks as the two men crisscross the country and travel abroad on McCain’s presidential quest.

There's no mistaking Lindsey Graham's loyalties or liabilities as he seeks a second term in the U.S. Senate. The 52-year-old Republican makes it clear that his future and that of Republican presidential candidate John McCain are tightly interwoven. "My re-election, I think, will benefit South Carolina because if he gets to be president, South Carolina's interests will have a receptive audience due to our relationship," Graham said in a recent interview. "I want to help him do the hard things." McCain recently made his first stop in the state since winning South Carolina's January primary, and Graham pumped his fists...