Lindsey Graham may have a 90% Conservative voting record in the Senate, but his 10% liberal vote is too much! He claims to be an independent thinker, but check his rhetoric...he's a mouth piece for John McCain. People in SC have plenty of reasons to dislike John McCain and Lindsey Graham. If you want to know what happened in the 2000 Presidential race, go to your local library and read some SC newspapers from that time! You might be surprised at how dishonest and disingenuous McCain and Graham were!! Sure McCain and Graham have some supporters in SC now who were against them in 2000, but those folks may find themselves in a heap of trouble when they come up for re-election. I know of two who have come out for McCain, and they were against him in 2000. Well, that old leopard hasn't changed his spots and he has done his damnedness to undermine our President when he could do so. He has only supported him when it was to his advantage, and I wouldn't trust McCain for anything! Graham has become impressed with himself and thinks more of himself than he deserves! I'm from SC, and I do not apologize for my opinions of these two men.
We found strong, elected officials who were "true conservatives" to take on both Chafee and Specter, who are 20X more liberal than Lindsey Graham will ever be. What happened? Oh yeah, we were told we HAD to support Chafee & Specter, because they were "electable". And for all the whining about McCain constantly on FR, what "true conservative" ran against McCain? NOBODY!! (Actually there some token opposition in the form of a write-in campaign, which was ignored on this forum). If McCain is pure evil like you guys claim, you think Arizona conservatives would get off their butts and find at least ONE candidate to oppose him. Nobody ran against McCain or Graham, so those who "regret" voting for them are saying they would prefer if the RAT had won. Fine, join the RAT party and get it over with.
>> Lindsey Graham may have a 90% Conservative voting record in the Senate, but his 10% liberal vote is too much! <<
Really? Someone who votes conservative 90% of the time ain't good enough? Let's see if you apply the same standard to other Senators. Here are some Senators with the same amount or even more "liberal" votes than Graham: SHELBY, GRASSLEY, ROBERTS, McCONNELL, BOND, BURNS, GREGG, DOMENICI, BURR, SMITH, SANTORUM (88%, 3 points less than Graham), THUNE, ALEXANDER, HUTCHISON, HATCH, BENNETT, THOMAS, ENZI, and so on.
I must have missed all the vanity threads pointing all the times they "betrayed" us by voting with the Dems. BTW, George Allen, who got nothing but worship on this board for a while, scored a lifetime conservative record of 92% -- a whooping one percent higher than Graham. Can you say double standard? Graham votes conservative 91% and is a traitor. Allen votes conservative 92% of the time and we should nominate him for President. What about the 10% of the time Allen "voted with the Democrats" and "agreed with McCain"? Why not post vanities about it and call for his head in the primary? Hmmm.
>> He claims to be an independent thinker, but check his rhetoric...he's a mouth piece for John McCain.
Ah, you Graham=McCain people sound just the Tancredo=Buchanan ranters on this board. Fine, let me take your advice and compare their voting records on "key conservative issues" Here's just 2005 alone:
Tax Cuts -- Fiscal 2006 Budget Resolution.
McCain OPPOSED Tax Cuts, Graham SUPPORTED them
Climate Change -- Energy Policy. HR 6 (Roll Call 148) “Greenhouse gas” emission levels
McCain SUPPORTED Clinton-era emission levels, Graham OPPOSED them
Mercury Emissions Rule -- Passage. S J Res 20 (Roll Call 225)
McCain SUPPORTED strict mercury emission standards, Graham OPPOSED them
ANWR Oil and Gas Leasing -- Budget Reconciliation. S 1932 (Roll Call 288)
McCain OPPOSED drilling ANWR. Graham SUPPORTED it.
Raise Tax Increases on Oil and Gas Development -- S 2020 (Roll Call 332)
McCain SUPPORTED higher taxes. Graham OPPOSED them.
Federal Interference in Energy Markets
McCain OPPOSED federal intervention, Graham SUPPORTED it
Those were the major votes where the two of them deviated from the "conservative line" McCain voted the "wrong" way on the first 5, but correct on the last one. His rating last year was 80% conservative. Graham voted the "right way" on the first 5, but wrong on the last one, for a 96% rating. At no time did they even vote the same "liberal" position. If Graham is really McCain's little puppet, he must have somehow forgotten McCain's position on tax cuts and ANWR because those are two HUGE issues in the Senate.
In reality, all this "Graham is a traitor and McCain's evil henceman" crap is based SOLELY on the following two votes: 1) Gang of 14 compromise, 2) Terrorist detainee methods. The Graham haters are on a fishing expidiction to "prove" he's liberal and ignore the other 90% of his record.
I could just as easily "prove" Mel Martinez is a "McCain puppet" because of his liberal votes on immigration. While I strongly disgaree with Martinez and oppose his appointment as RNC, I don't spend every thread ranting that he's an evil homosexual socialist, that the no. #1 priority for this nation is defeating him in the next primary, and that things would be so much better if Republicans voted for Betty Castro instead.
>> People in SC have plenty of reasons to dislike John McCain and Lindsey Graham. If you want to know what happened in the 2000 Presidential race, go to your local library and read some SC newspapers from that time! You might be surprised at how dishonest and disingenuous McCain and Graham were!! <<
I remember the 2000 election quite well, thank you very much. One of the things that annoyed me about McCain is Mr. "Straight Talk" claimed to be neutral on the confederate flag in SC and then AFTER the primary was over, he admitted he didn't like the flag but had been on script to win the primary. The guy is obviously a shallow media whore and a arrogant jerk, which is why I would oppose him in a primary for President. However, his voting record is fairly good and certainly isn't the evil socialist some nuts on this board make him out to be.
Graham's record is far more impressive, and while I remember 2000, you all seem to have collective amnesia about what happened two years earlier in 1998. Read David Shipper's "Sellout" for a crash course on Graham's character. Never in my wildest dreams would I guess Freepers would heap praise on the likes of Peter King over Lindsey Graham. No wonder Hillary has a shot at the White House when conservatives defend scumbags and try to purge everyone who stood up to the Clinton's. Slick Willie is laughing all the way to the bank. Graham isn't the best Senator, but he is far from the traitor the anti-Graham lunatics make him out to be. On the contrary, he has more spine than about 3/5ths of the ciphers in that body. McCain is a jerk, but he isn't the anti-Christ. Linc Chafee & Arlen Specter vote with the Dems on a regular basis, which makes them far more dangerous.
Unlike the rest of FR, I remember Graham's record during impeachment, and do apologize for standing up for the man who stood up for us and led the fight to impeach the first popularly elected President, against overwhemingly opposition from the Dems and the media.
Some freepers here think Katherine Harris was entitled to a Senate seat for simply doing her job in 2000, and we were supposed to bow down and get behind her, and ignore the fact she was an awful candidate with a less than steller record. If those people can shove Harris down our throats, I will stand firm for Graham. What HE did is far more impressive than what Harris did, hands down.