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(snip) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the dinner was scheduled long before POLITICO reported about the sexual harassment allegations that have since rocked Cain's campaign. "I never met Herman Cain, I'm going to meet him tonight at dinner," said Graham, who is expecting the Cain controversy to die down. "He's going to meet some people in town. I think people are intrigued by him." (snip)

(snip) Graham said it is crucial for the U.S. to continue to support Israel, and said the president has "thrown Israel under the bus" by talking about settlements and pre-1967 borders. "It is our best friend in the Middle East," Graham said. He did praise the president for sending military advisers into Uganda.Graham said he is hoping to hear more on foreign policy from the Republican presidential candidates. "Rick Santorum is speaking like Ronald Reagan better than anybody else on peace and strength," Graham said. "Ronald Reagan confronted the challenges of his time. He did not isolate America." Graham declined...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s taken on tough tasks from immigration reform to climate change, faces another one as he calls for spending billions of dollars overseas on unpopular foreign aid programs that he insists are vital to U.S. national security. With Congress facing mandatory spending cuts and previously sacrosanct military programs on the chopping block, Graham is trying to protect funding for foreign aid even as most Americans oppose it – 71 percent in a recent poll – and other Republican leaders call for focusing U.S. resources at home. “It is a tough sell, but you can be...

The president of local biotechnology firm GenPhar is accused of defrauding the federal government out of at least $3.6 million the company received to research vaccines against deadly diseases. The charges are contained in federal indictments unsealed today that also accuse GenPhar president Jian-Yun Dong and his estranged wife of making at least $31,000 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his political action committee. Dong, who also is chief executive officer of GenPhar, is accused of submitting false claims to federal agencies, converting grant funds to his own use and committing wire fraud to scam the...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says the recent debate over the nation's debt ceiling shows he's in line with the tea party. The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Graham met with the Charleston Tea Party on Monday in a rather relaxed meeting. A year ago, the meeting was so tense with tea partiers questioning his positions that the senator asked the media to leave.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday called on the U.S. government to send more money to Middle East countries in turmoil to push them toward democracy. Speaking to the Columbia Rotary Club, Graham — the ranking Republican on a Senate foreign policy subcommittee — said he is working on a $1 billion package of aid for Egypt before that country’s November elections.

ROCK HILL, SC - U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said the recent downgrade of the country's bond rating by Standard & Poor's is a "wake-up call" for national leaders to keep looking for ways to boost the economy and spur job creation. The S.C. Republican also said it's important for bipartisan talks on those issues, saying neither political party alone can solve the major problems facing the country. Graham spoke Thursday before more than 50 attendees of a luncheon held by the Rock Hill Rotary club. His talk focused primarily on the economy, military efforts in the Middle East and immigration...

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says a balanced budget is the only way to deal with the country’s long term fiscal situation, even as the White House continues to reject the proposal as “draconian.” Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union" Sunday, Graham said that Republicans would raise the debt ceiling only in exchange for the requirements in the “Cut, Cap and Balance” legislation the House is expected to vote this week. That bill would cut government spending to 2008 levels, cap spending for the next decade, and require the passage of a balanced budget constitutional amendment. “For those three things,...

As Congress and the president try to strike a deal to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling, one Republican Senator tells ABC News that prospects look bleak. “Right now I’m very worried,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told ABC News “Subway Series.” “If I were a betting man, I’d bet no [deal].” (snip) Senator Graham said Republicans should be willing to accept a deal that curbs entitlement spending and increases tax revenues by closing loopholes. (snip) The obvious solution, Graham said, is for Republicans to give some ground on taxes and for Democrats to give some ground on entitlements. But...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Tuesday that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is "serious" about attacking European cities in order to pressure European officials to cease their airstrikes against Libya. "He actually means it," Graham said of Gadhafi. "Hitler meant it. He means it." Graham spoke in a colloquy with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and used borderline apocalyptic tones about the need to remove Gadhafi from power. "I know we're a war-weary nation, but there is no upside to Gadhafi staying in power," he said. "That is a national security nightmare for this country." Graham added that while the top...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that any Republican-backed plan to raise more government revenue would have to come from eliminating subsidies and tax deductions, not by raising taxes. "No one on the Republican side is going to vote to raise taxes, but I think many of us would look at flattening the tax code, doing away with deductions and exemptions and take that revenue and help pay off the debt," said Graham on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that Congress should not interfere with U.S. operations in Libya. "Congress should sort of shut up and not empower [Libyan leader Muammar] Qadhafi," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Congressional critics of the Libya action have been floating the possibility of defunding military operations there, or invoking the War Powers Act to force and end to the military operation. "I would take the course that conservatives have been taking for the last 30 years -- The War Powers Act is unconstitutional, not worth the paper its written on," Graham declared. "It's an infringement...

(snip) Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said Mr. Obama "was absolutely wrong" in his decision to intervene in Libya. "I'd bring them home as quickly as possible," Texas Rep. Ron Paul said of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, "and I'd get them out of Iraq as well, and I wouldn't start a war in Libya, I'd quit bombing Yemen, and I'd quit bombing Pakistan. I'd start taking care of people here at home, because we could save hundreds of billions of dollars." "I was incredibly disappointed," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said. "No one seemed to have a passion for...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that it’s time to consider international intervention in Syria to avoid the further “slaughter” of people there by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. “If it made sense to protect the Libyan people against Gadhafi, and it did because they were going to get slaughtered if we hadn’t sent NATO in when he was on the outskirts of Benghazi, the question for the world [is], have we gotten to that point in Syria,” Graham said on the CBS' "Face the Nation."

(snip) Shortly after Obama’s speech, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters that he is prepared to go out on a limb for the president to support his plan for investing billions of dollars to spur democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. “I am willing to take the bruises and stand by Obama to engage countries like Egypt and Tunisia and stay involved in Libya and finish the job in Iraq,” Graham said. “I am willing to take American dollars at a time when we’re flat broke, go back home and suffer the consequences of sending aid to Egypt...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), when talking to Capitol reporters, said that Fox News makes it difficult for him to garner support for his stance on immigration reform, which includes a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens already living in the country. The senator, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said that Fox News using the word “amnesty” during the 24-hour news cycle has hindered support for his position on reforming the U.S. immigration system, which lawmakers on both sides say is broken. “In today’s world, it’s very hard for bi-partisan agreements to be formed,” said Graham, “because...

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Lindsey Graham, old-style politicians who wear their emotions on their sleeves, traveled the world together when Biden served in the Senate. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, guessed why Biden might be calling him at home on a Sunday night. "Did we get the bastard?" Graham asked. "We got him!" a jubilant Biden responded. (snip) Graham...asked Biden to extend his congratulations to President Barack Obama. "I said, 'Please tell the president that all of us appreciate his persistence when it comes to being aggressive along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and going after bin Laden,'"...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee sees a Libyan stalemate and wants NATO to bomb Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle and military headquarters. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says those closest to Gadhafi "need to wake up every day wondering, 'Will this my last?'" Graham tells CNN's "State of the Union" that the quickest way to end the stalemate is "to cut the head of the snake off."

Call him the little metrosexual that could. The fussy, fastidious, and pampered senator from South Carolina just keeps chugging along supremely impressed with the face looking out from the mirror in his posh Senate office and his status as the Beltway insiders' favorite Republican. "I'm [...] at the front of the line" for Barack Obama on Capitol Hill, he brags to the New York Times, which describes his "delight" in letting "people know" how important he is. After all, he is Lindsey Graham and he is Washington, nestled among the Beltway's palace courtiers like a flea on a Carolina Dog....