Free Republic

Republicans on Capitol Hill weighed in on news that Mitt Romney might be exploring a possible third bid for the White House, but it was Arizona Sen. John McCain who might have drawn the most laughs of the day in talking about the potential presidential aspirations of his best friend Sen. Lindsey Graham. McCain said Romney was dedicated to serving the country and was a fine and decent American with a reservoir of support and called himself "a great admirer of Mitt Romney's", but he said he was pushing Graham to run. "My illegitimate son Lindsey Graham is exploring that...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said his experience passing an immigration bill with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) left him convinced his younger colleague isn't up to the presidency, in part because he's “so afraid of the right.” Graham made the comments to the Weekly Standard's Steven Hayes, and in the interview declared that he may run for president himself, saying he would want to inject his hawkish national security views into the debate. But his remarks about Rubio were perhaps more notable. Graham, for instance, compared Rubio's level of experience to President Obama's before taking offfice – albeit just before saying...

Actual quote: “I’m a Verizon customer. I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States. I don’t think you’re talking to the terrorists. I know you’re not. I know I’m not. So we don’t have anything to worry about.” That’s the eternal rationale for the surveillance state: If you’re not doing anything wrong, you should have no objection. What happens when the definition of “wrong” changes after your information’s been collected? Why would any Republican...

Sen. John McCain on Friday pleaded with business leaders to rally behind the immigration reform bill that he negotiated as part of the Senate’s Gang of Eight. Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's immigration reform summit, McCain (R-Ariz.) said the bill needs the full-throated support of industry to make it to President Obama’s desk. “We need your help. We need you to inform the people you represent. We need their active support, not just passive,” McCain said. “We need all of you, we need all of the people you represent to be actively engaged in the community.” Business groups...

The Boston Marathon tragedy is a reason for Congress to move faster – not slower – to overhaul the nation's immigration system, according to two co-authors of a Senate reform package. Some conservatives on Capitol Hill have suggested Monday's deadly bombings – allegedly orchestrated by a pair of young immigrants from Russia's volatile Caucasus region – should cause lawmakers to move more deliberately in their approach to immigration reform this year. But Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – chief architects of a sweeping bipartisan immigration proposal unveiled last week – argued Sunday that their bill will help...

As some Newtown families, props being used by the very gun grabbers who have set up the kinds of gun-free shooting galleries in which their children were slain, held hands and prayed for more than 60 votes (having been flown in at taxpayer expense to lobby our representatives to take away our natural rights), it occurred to me that, with 16 Republicans voting that a debate on amending an unalienable right is perfectly in keeping with the Constitution, the Republican party then and there died. Went t*ts up. Ceased to be. If John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander...

Dear Friends, President Obama wanted three things on gun control -- to ban assault weapons, limit magazine sizes, and expand background checks. Fortunately, he lost on all three. I’ve always been confident if the Senate debated the Second Amendment, the Second Amendment would win. Yesterday, the Senate took up, debated, and voted on gun violence legislation. I am very pleased we had this debate, and was always ready and willing to vote in support of what I believe. Here’s how I voted yesterday: Voted Against the Manchin-Toomey Background Check Amendment (Failed 54-46, required 60 votes) No matter how well-intentioned, the...

Yesterday, the federal government fired its starter’s pistol and began the race for the coveted and relatively rare H-1B visa. This year, our government will allow 85,000 people to work in the United States on these visas. Last year, if you waited longer than 2 1/2 months to apply one, you were out of luck. If your business needed a worker you could have hired if our government didn’t have such a silly quota system, you were likewise out of luck. The Chamber of Commerce wants a much larger number of visas available, which would rely on more government meddling....

Despite Mitt Romney's consistently placing at or near the top in polls of the GOP presidential field, Governor Haley Barbour, R-Miss., says he's "not a true frontrunner" - even if he is "the best known of our candidates." Barbour, in a Sunday appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," said there is no real frontrunner amid the 2012 GOP candidates, in part because he thinks Republicans are more focused on unseating President Obama than picking a candidate who shares their views. "This [election] reminds me of a lot of past Democratic presidential contests, like Jimmy Carter in '76, Bill Clinton in...

Seniors should be older before the receive Social Security and wealthy Americans should receive less benefits across the board, says Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He made the argument in an interview on Sunday's Meet the Press, but it's a position Graham has advocated for on the stump in South Carolina, including a 2009 stop at The Citadel with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "What I'm going to do is challenge this country to make some hard decisions," Graham said at the time, telling the crowd of cadets, Tea Partiers, and Graham supporters that they shouldn't give Congress a pass on the...

A blogger who specializes in outing “closeted” gay political figures claims that evidence of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.)’s homosexual lifestyle is about to be released. “I wonder if Lindsey Graham knows I have pictures of a man who spent the night at his house,” blogger Michael Rogers recently tweeted. A later tweet from Rogers indicated that he was meeting with an attorney on December 21 to discuss the release of the alleged pictures. On his website, BlogActive, Rogers writes that the meeting with his attorney indeed took place and that a letter has been sent to Graham’s office. “I’ve...

(VIDEO AT LINK) Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Jesus’s Golden Rule inspired him to vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court and suggested it would be a good thing for his Senate colleagues to also ponder Jesus’s words as they prepared to vote on Kagan. “It is divine in its orientation, and it is probably something that would serve us all well if we thought about it at moments such as this,” Sen. Graham said on the Senate floor, as he pointed his colleagues to the Golden Rule and counseled them to look...

Canada’s House of Commons passed the New Democrat Climate Change Accountability Act in a final vote of 149 to 136. The legislation will reduce greenhouse gases by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, reports Winnipeg Free Press. The legislation, also known as Bill-C311, is more stringent than the Harper government’s goal of a 17 percent emissions cut from 2005 levels by 2020, which matches the Obama administration’s targets in the United States. The bill still has to be approved by the Senate before it becomes law, reports the Toronto Sun. The legislation also establishes a long-term target to reduce...

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...

(CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has always enjoyed a little back-and-forth with belligerent audiences. He was at it again on Monday night as he faced down an angry town hall crowd in Greenville packed with libertarians and Tea Party activists who accused at the Republican senator of ditching conservative principles by working with Democrats on issues like climate change and voting to send Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But Graham stressed a mantra he's repeated many times since his friend John McCain lost the presidential election last November — that the GOP must reach out to different...

Lightning-rod talker Glenn Beck is taking a hit from an unexpected source. The Fox News host isn't aligned with any political party, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday, Beck is "aligned with cynicism." And, the South Carolina Republican added, America isn't a nation of cynics. Graham, who spoke at The First Draft of History conference sponsored by The Atlantic, also took at shot at "birthers." He said those who question President Obama's citizenship or claim he's a secret Muslim are "crazy" -- and he urged them to "knock this crap off." Graham's remarks came a day after the White House took...

Yes, yes, yes, it's much too early to start thinking about running mates. Too bad. People are doing it anyway. And even though they won't admit it, odds are that Sens. John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are giving it at least some thought. So, too, are people who turn up their noses at the suggestion they might be a good fit, yet secretly harbor ambitions of getting the nod. Veepstakes speculation - always an undercurrent with a presidential election afoot - intensified this past week after Mitt Romney dropped out of the race, helping to clear McCain's...

MEXICO CITY President Felipe Calderon decried Wednesday what he called "the growing harassment" of Mexicans in the United States and said his government will work to counter it by funding a media campaign to show migrant success stories. Mexican officials have expressed concern over a recent wave of immigration raids and a U.S. political climate perceived as anti-migrant. Calderon said U.S. presidential candidates were using migrants as "symbolic hostages" on the immigration issue. "I am especially worried about the growing harassment and frank persecution of Mexicans in the United States in recent days," Calderon said at a meeting of the...