Free Republic

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. (snip) Former aides are mystified by what they see as a retreat on the issue, given McCain’s...

Senator Lindsey Graham, of all people, destroys Our Attorney General (and Obama) on their idiotic decision to fight this war as a law enforcement issue: Ann Althouse: Holder imagines that he can hide inside that “thoughtful” routine that Obama so often relies on, but it is utterly pathetic here. Either he knows damned well what he’s doing and he’s lying or he’s outrageously unqualified for his job. His evasive style is so similar to Obama’s that he makes Obama look worse. Dan Karipides at Wizbang isn’t buying it. He doesn’t believe Holder is this much of an amateur: Which unfortunately...

Graham vs. Holder at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, Holder gets his a** handed to him (Video)

Here is outstanding video of Sen. Lindsey Graham today on Capitol Hill questioning Attorney General Eric Holder about why he has chosen to try the 9/11 Conspirators in civilian court. Graham put Holder on the spot (it gets good at the 2:00 mark of the video) by asking him where he would try Osama bin Laden if he were to be captured. Holder was left hemming and hawing, saying only "it would depend." Graham kept at Holder, asking whether bin Laden would be read "Miranda rights" if captured, to which Holder said he was not sure. Graham then said this...

The Nov. 12 story about Sen. Lindsey Graham found on Page 4A belonged on the front page in my opinion. ("Charleston County GOP censures U.S. Sen. Graham") Graham does not represent the policies of the Republican Party. He is a RINO, Republican In Name Only, who should exit the party like Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. I have written and called the senator often regarding his opinions and his voting record, but of course received no response. He doesn't seem to care what his constituents think or believe. Why I voted for this man I'll never know. He doesn't deserve to...

GOOSE CREEK -- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham escaped another censure Monday after his chief of staff promised a meeting with disgruntled Berkeley County Republicans. The Charleston County Republican Party's executive committee passed a resolution last week censuring Graham for departing from their values. They were unhappy that Graham is siding with Democrats who believe in global warming for an energy bill, that he supported the federal bank bailout and that he favors granting amnesty for illegal aliens and that he called those who disagree with him on the issue bigots. Berkeley County Republicans showed up at their executive committee meeting...

There are few organizations in the United States as steeped in tradition as the military. And one of the oldest customs is the giving of "challenge coins," privately made medallions stamped with a unit or service emblem. The ritual reportedly started during World War I, when new aviators were given coins from officers upon joining a squadron. According to one tale, a pilot was saved from execution in France after proving his identity with his coin. In a memorial ceremony this week, President Obama placed the commander in chief's coin in front of the photos of the 13 soldiers slain...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - An energy advocacy group is launching another television ad in South Carolina taking aim at Sen. Lindsey Graham for his support of energy legislation that would include a cap-and-trade program. The 30-second spot is the latest salvo in an ongoing campaign against the Republican by the American Energy Alliance, a group funded in part by oil and gas companies that has spent roughly $375,000 over the last month knocking Graham on South Carolina's radio and TV airwaves. The newest ad comes one week after Graham was censured by the Charleston County Republican Party for supporting the legislation,...

Dis gustin' Cease all those donations to Joe Wilson.

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,...

CLEMSON — While political supporters of Sen. Lindsey Graham continue to be widespread, the criticism he’s facing now may only get worse down the line, especially in 2014 when he’s up for re-election. David Woodard, a political scientist at Clemson University, said times now are different, and voters aren’t crazy about moderates. “Moderates generally don’t do well in S.C.,” Woodard said. “The electorate here likes people who are more ideological and willing to ‘take a stand.’ Look at Jim DeMint, he is waltzing to re-election without any opponent, and is likely to win overwhelmingly. He is perceived as ‘strong’ while...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who led an effort last week to prevent the Obama Administration from doing just what it did today in directing prosecution of the alleged Sept. 11 plotters into federal court, says he's keeping mum about that decision for now at the request of the White House. "I have been asked by the White House to withhold comment about today’s Guantanamo decision until I can meet face-to-face with the President after he returns from Asia," Graham said in a statement released by his office. "As our Commander in Chief, I will honor his request. I look forward...

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...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is pushing back against home-state conservative critics who have sought to censure the independent-minded lawmaker, arguing that he will not allow the criticism to block his efforts to find common ground with others in the Senate. The Charleston County Republican Party this week formally censured Graham over his repeated efforts to work across the aisle on the economy, climate change and immigration. The county party also asked the state party to rescind a resolution commending Graham. Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop issued a statement defending the Senator’s legislative work and his track record on conservative issues. “Senator...

With local Republicans trying to censure Lindsey Graham over his apostasy on, in particular, energy and climate issues, the state's highest-profile conservative is standing by him.

I realize this is old news by now...but we really need to follow up and show our support when GOP officials take this kind of action against a big-government Republican. Please go to http://www.charlestongop.org/ and send Chairwoman Bennett a note of support. We've also linked to her e-mail at removerinos.com . I have a feeling that the same tidal wave that's going to wash the Dems out of office is also going to be sweeping a bunch of RINOs out to sea.....

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Republican leaders in a South Carolina county have censured their own U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for working with Democrats on a climate bill and other legislation. The Republican has often worked with Democrats in Congress, but Charleston County Chairwoman Lin Bennett says his work on climate legislation is the last straw. The party resolution passed Monday says Graham has weakened the Republican brand. Bennett expects a similar resolution to be introduced at the state GOP convention next year.

Lindsey Graham on Foxnews Greta explains that if a Health Care bill is passed in the Senate, when it goes to conference it only needs 50 votes, hello public option...(Video from Greta)...

Last week, FITS published an in-depth report about how liberal special interests were the real driving force behind a new “conservative” advertising campaign aimed at protecting embattled U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. The massive radio and television blitz – which features RINO State Sen. John Courson as its spokesman – has been bombarding the state’s airwaves all week. The ads portray Graham as “fighting to protect South Carolina,” of course they conveniently neglect to mention that the climate change legislation he is currently drafting with President Barack Obama and Democratic Sen. John Kerry is likely to significantly raise South Carolinians’ power...

WASHINGTON — When it comes to combating global warming, Sen. Lindsey Graham is right where he loves to be — ahead of the curve, in the mix on a major issue, at the table for high-level, bipartisan talks behind closed doors. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is working with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to craft a climate change bill. They face the dual challenge of overcoming widespread GOP opposition and withstanding relentless attacks by Big Oil and allied energy interests. "Our goal is to create a vision that not only will...

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., both sons of the segregated South, grew up in parts of South Carolina that were much farther apart than the mere 175 miles between them. Thursday, the two men - a black Democrat and a white Republican - will share an honor that the Jim Crow laws of their youth would have prohibited. The Columbia Urban League will present to Clyburn and Graham its annual Whitney M. Young Award in recognition of their efforts to advance race relations in South Carolina.

TOP 10 LINDSEY GRAHAM QUOTES 10) "It's not about how to get back to fiscal discipline or how you relate to the U.N. It's how you relate to Americans who tell you to go to hell politically." 9) "The green economy is coming." 8) "If I make [McCain's] day better by being someone he can talk to, confide in, have a good laugh with, I am honored." 7) "Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party as far as I can tell. He's aligned with cynicism." 6) "We're not going to build this party around libertarian ideas." 5) "Raising money...

Even as a Senate global-warming bill remained in limbo with Democrats refusing to delay a committee vote until an economic analysis was completed, hopes rose for a potential bipartisan compromise. The Senate, meanwhile, appears to be moving away from the bill, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., which would require a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and would have the government sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. Even as Boxer conducted an unusual one-sided hearing on her bill in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Kerry, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and...

The morning after Republicans lost an upstate New York House seat, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that conservative activists will bring destruction to the Republican Party if they drive out moderate candidates across the country. “To those people who are pursuing purity, you’ll become a club not a party,” Graham told POLITICO in the Capitol Wednesday. “Those people who are trying to embrace conservatism in a thoughtful way that fits the region and the state and the district are going to do well. Conservativism is an asset. Blind ideology is not.” Graham, who has sparred with his party’s right wing...

Earlier this month, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stirred up a tempest when they announced that they could overcome their political differences and agree on the critical need for a national policy that addresses the threat of climate change and moves the United States toward energy independence. Since the publication of their opinion piece, “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation)” in the New York Times, pundits and policy experts alike have declared the Senators’ announcement a “game-changer” and possible tipping point that could lead to the passage of a bipartisan climate change bill — maybe even...

Lindsey Graham's behavior is so outrageous and arrogant that he must be planning on making his exit from the Senate by his next election. There have been ads on South Carolina radio supporting his recent initiatives to impose ruinous energy taxes (cap n trade) on US citizens. This radio ad was funded by the Truman Project, which turns out to be a Center for American Progress (John Podesta) effort, which is just a front for Van Jones style Marxism. So Graham has well and truly gone over to the Dark Side.

When it comes to the thorny issue of Guantanamo, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is the closest thing President Barack Obama has to an ally on the Republican side of the aisle. But with the White House’s drive for Congressional approval to close the prison stalled for nearly six months now, Graham is sounding increasingly restless and is even opening a battle with the administration that could be politically damaging to Democrats. “I’m a bit frustrated. The interaction I was hoping for has kind of come to a standstill,” Graham complained in an interview with POLITICO. “Some of the things being...

THE promise of immigration reform benefiting the undocumented Irish in America took a quiet but very important step forward in Washington, D.C. last week with a pivotal meeting between Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ciaran Staunton, president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) and South Carolina Ancient Order of Hibernians board member Jim Lawracy. The meeting, also attended by ILIR consultant Bruce Morrison, discussed immigration reform proposals and their impact on the Irish American community. Graham was very interested to learn of the Irish dimension to the immigration reform debate and urged Irish and Irish American...

It must be very lonely being the last flat-earther. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a compromise bill -- the traitor! And as Inhofe listened, fellow Republicans on the committee -- turncoats! -- made it clear that they no longer share, if they ever did, Inhofe's view that man-made global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."...

It’s hard to imagine a Republican more useless than South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Whether spearheading legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, stumping for the $787 billion taxpayer theft known as “TARP,” being the lone GOP committee vote to confirm liberal Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, or his recent joining with John Kerry to promote cap-and-trade—without shame and without fail—conservatives have never had a friend in Graham. And yet in 2008, Graham was reelected in the deep Red State of South Carolina over a Democratic candidate, Bob Conley, who staunchly opposed amnesty, TARP and was well...

(snip) U.S. leadership is crucial. That is why I am encouraged by the spirit of compromise shown in the bipartisan initiative announced last week by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham. Here was a pair of U.S. senators — one Republican, the other Democratic — coming together to bridge their parties’ differences to address climate change in a spirit of genuine give-and-take. We cannot afford another period where the United States stands on the sidelines. An engaged United States can lead the world to seal a deal to combat climate change in Copenhagen. An indecisive or insufficiently engaged United States will...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., drawing fire from energy industry group after saying he would seek bipartisan consensus on energy and global warming, said Friday reducing pollution and energy independence go together. The lawmaker told reporters he wants a bill to do both.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – An interest group supported by energy companies is attacking Sen. Lindsey Graham in his own backyard over his willingness to support cap-and-trade legislation. The Republican has been collaborating with moderate senators to put together bipartisan energy legislation that would link a cap-and-trade program to expanded nuclear energy production and offshore oil and gas drilling. But many in Graham's party view a cap-and-trade program as a tax on energy companies that would be passed along to consumers. Now the American Energy Alliance, a group funded in part by oil and gas companies that back offshore drilling, is launching...

When a runaway hot-air balloon reported to be carrying a six-year-old boy made headlines last week, many were surprised to find out it had all been a hoax. Admitted the six-year-old boy on live television, “We did this for a show.” Another hot-air balloon by the name of Lindsey Graham also made headlines last week by putting on a show of his own, as the South Carolina Senator held court at a town hall meeting, touting his conservative credentials before an angry crowd that wasn’t buying it. “They’re a political fringe group” Graham said of his critics, “I’m the conservative...

Politics: Move over, John McCain and Olympia Snowe. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is fast becoming the Democrats' favorite Republican as he partners with John Kerry to push cap-and-trade through the Senate. Earlier this year, eight Republican congressmen made it possible for Waxman-Markey, the 1,400-page job- and economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation, to barely pass the House of Representatives. At the time it seemed dead on arrival in the Senate if it was brought up there this year. Once again, as with their medical plan, the Democrats seek to better the odds by putting a GOP hood ornament on a Democratic clunker....

Some say U.S. senator should focus on emphasizing his conservative record. BY BEN SZOBODY The shouts of "traitor" that rained on Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham last week at a local town hall meeting revealed rifts among conservatives that some analysts say might signal trouble for center-right politicians such as Graham. Political experts say a burgeoning group of right-wing activists long seen as the fringe of the party is growing in influence, fueled by economic fears and populist ire over unchecked Washington spending and magnified by the power of the Internet. Whether they represent a vocal minority or the seeds...

According to most conservatives in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has officially gone over to the dark side. Under the guise of 'bipartisanship,' Graham has signed on to one of the left's most ambitious plans to impose a socialist agenda in America - government control of the formerly free market through implementation of cap-and trade, the 1,400 plus page Waxman-Markey bill approved earlier this year by the House.   The main (scientifically unproven) premise of cap and trade is that the earth is melting and government must step in to save the world. Of course, it will be expensive,...

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who has long resisted climate change legislation, has joined the ranks of those pushing for a bipartisan agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. We welcome his change of heart. Mr. Graham has sensibly decided that it helps neither the planet, the country nor his party to block efforts to solve the problem of global warming. . . . . . Mr. Graham’s conversion could encourage Senator John McCain and Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — all past supporters of climate change legislation — to come forward again, and it could attract fence-sitters...

President Obama gave a nod yesterday to a budding bipartisan Senate effort on energy and climate legislation during a New Orleans town hall meeting where he also pledged to push for the bill's passage once Congress finishes its work on health care. "What I think we need to do is increase our domestic energy production," Obama said in response to a question about environmental policy from an audience member. "I'm in favor of finding environmentally sound ways to tap our oil and our natural gas." Obama also mentioned his support for nuclear energy, one of two key points of possible...

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.

Although Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) vowed this week to introduce comprehensive immigration reform next month, his Senate counterparts expected to take the lead on the issue aren’t heeding a similar timeline. “That’s new to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Gutierrez’s announcement, made Tuesday at an immigration rally on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been talking to Sen. Schumer, and we hope to get something done that’s comprehensive,” Graham added. “We just don’t know when yet.”Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, has been meeting periodically with Graham to discuss ideas on immigration,...

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has held a series of meetings in Washington with leading Democrats and Republicans on the issue of US immigration reform. Senior Republican Senator John McCain said he was still committed to a comprehensive deal. He said he hoped Congress would address the issue early next year. Senator McCain also said he was particularly anxious to resolve the difficulties facing up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

An outburst at an angry South Carolina town hall meeting has exemplified the growing fissure in the Republican Party across the nation. “We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," liberal Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told a Greenville, South Carolina, audience at Furman University where some supporters of Congressman Ron Paul were heckling him. Ron Paul responded on CNN's Situation Room October 14 that Graham's attack was unfair. “For him to ... say that everybody who is upset with the government and upset with his type of voting record are angry white people or angry men, that...

Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul took to the cable networks today to jab back at South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who over the weekend said he would not sit back and watch the Texan “hijack” the GOP with his brand of Republicanism. “My first reaction would be, ‘What does he have against the Constitution?’ And the supporters I have support me because I’m a traditional conservative and I support the Constitution,” Paul told CNN in an interview tonight. He cited Graham’s support of TARP funds and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “all the big government things” as...

I am going to be on TV twice tonight to respond to Lindsey Graham's attack Monday that I am trying to "hijack" the Republican Party, and that our movement is a bunch of "angry white men." Please tune in to CNN at 6:00 pm ET and MSNBC at 6:30 pm ET and help me defend our Constitutional principles from the Neo-Conservatives!

Periodically, a Republican senator is seized with desire to be the front man for the Democrats' latest regulatory monstrosity in Washington. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina is now in the throes of this pathological urge, which usually appears just when defeat seems imminent for a big-government scheme like the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy bill. Democrats and their liberal buddies in the mainstream media need only whisper the magic word "bipartisanship" and soon enough along comes a gullible GOPer to take the bait. Graham made clear in a Sunday New York Times op-ed written with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, that he...

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...

It is being reported this morning that US Senator Lindsey Graham will hold a Town Hall meeing Monday Oct 12 at 6:15pm at Timmons Arena on Furman Univ, Greenville SC. No signs or materials will be allowed in Timmons.

If there's anything Lindsey Graham does for the Republican party, it's that he reminds his constituents that political principles are more important than winning. In these videos, Graham simply has no shame as he continues to defy principle for compromise in the name of "winning." Since when did morality become all about winning? Regardless, the last time I checked Mr. Moderate John McCain didn't exactly excite voters in last year's presidential race other than to vote against Democrats. Honestly, I'd rather have one Republican in office who actually stood behind the Constitution than a super majority made up of two...

This isn’t the best audio but more evidence of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s complete dismissal of Ron Paul’s adherence to rigid constitutional government. Notice in the first video that instead of addressing the woman’s criticism head on, Graham simply asks her who she voted for in the presidential election. When she replied “Chuck Baldwin” Graham then attempts to marginalize her based on her support for the Constitution Party, slamming Paul in the process. The following took place 10/12/09 at a town hall meeting in Greenville, SC: