Posted on 06/04/2005 9:28:03 PM PDT by CHARLITE
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Sen. Lindsey Graham's role in a compromise on filibusters against President Bush (website - news - bio) 's judicial picks did not go over well with some GOP regulars in this Republican state. The first-term Republican, who in 2002 succeeded Strom Thurmond, was among 14 lawmakers - seven from each party - who abandoned their leaders and reached a deal among themselves. They agreed to confirm some of Bush's stalled federal court nominees while leaving the door open for rejecting others.
"It's one of the hottest issues I've seen since I've been chairman," said Katon Dawson, South Carolina's GOP chairman for three years. "There was a lot of heartburn inside the base of the Republican Party. President Bush won 70 percent of the counties in the United States and people wanted his agenda moved forward."
Hundreds of people have called state Republican headquarters to complain about Graham's participation in the negotiations. Graham's role has given Charleston businessman Thomas Ravenel further reason to consider a primary challenge to Graham in 2008.
Ravenel, the son of a former congressman, finished third in a crowded field in last year's race for South Carolina's other Senate seat, now held by Republican Jim DeMint.
Ravenel does not like Graham's positions on trade and objects to the senator's Social Security proposal to increase payroll taxes on those earning more than $90,000.
"He has long since offended the fiscal conservatives," Ravenel said. "More recently he has offended the other Republican coalition - the social conservatives."
Those same social conservatives were instrumental in derailing Arizona Sen. John McCain's "straight talk express" bid for the presidency five years ago in South Carolina's GOP primary.
In 2000 Graham supported McCain, a driving force behind the filibuster deal two weeks ago. By 2002, however, Graham had mended his fences with President Bush's supporters.
"Some people said they did not intend to have two John McCains in Washington, D.C., when they voted for Lindsey Graham," said Beaufort County GOP Chairman Doug Robertson.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Graham was confident he would weather the storm.
"This state respects senators who are independent, who share their conservative values and who treat their colleagues with respect," he said. "I'm not going to conduct myself in a way where I'm the loudest guy and I'm not going to be satisfied with rhetoric that gins up a small group of people."
Graham said the deal gives the Senate a fresh start and allows lawmakers to consider some of Bush's judicial nominations. Changing the approach to filibusters is still on the table if the compromise fails, he said.
But even in his home county, some people said Graham's role in the negotiations was out of order, according to Oconee County GOP Chairman Ed Rumsey.
"They wanted him to stand firm and have an up-or-down vote on every candidate," Rumsey said. Still, he added: "Lindsey Graham is our hometown guy. We're going to stand by him."
In strongly Republican Lexington County, most people thought the compromise was "typical Lindsey," said Tim Miller, the county's GOP chairman. "He said: 'Look, we can't allow something like this to bog down the country. We need to do what's best for America.'"
South Carolinian Roberta Combs, president of the national Christian Coalition, said the compromise was not what the conservative group wanted.
"What people were upset about and what I was upset about was these judges had been waiting so long and you couldn't get them to the floor," she said.
But she does not think Graham's base is damaged.
"In politics a day is forever. Only time will tell," she said. "I don't think this is going to hurt Lindsey because he is strong on defense and supports the president on the war and has been a team player."
Doug Woodard, a Clemson University political scientist who often serves as a Republican consultant, said Graham always has had an independent streak and a flair for attracting attention.
"He's got the best political instincts of anyone I have ever seen," Woodard said. He noted that Graham won, without any primary opposition, the GOP nomination for Thurmond's seat, which had been coveted by South Carolina politicians for decades.
Graham said that while some people will disagree with the compromise, he and most Republicans want to achieve the same thing - getting more conservative judges on the bench.
"For some people in politics it's not enough to agree with them on the issue, you have to hate the people they hate," he said. "I'm not going to be a hater. I'm going to be a solid conservative and a reformer."
Graham is just another guy in politics that represents himself. I'm sick of the whole lot of them. We need to can everyone in Congress and just pick people off the street instead.
Your opinion of the Cornyn (R-TX) Kolbe immigration plan is ??
>>but I just don't care that much. Sorry.<<
I think you just described yourself better than I could have.
Better to be disappointed once on Election Day than to be disappointed week after week by these stoneless creeps!
Just because she is a Dem doesn't make her a troll. As a moderate Dem who is here to learn what makes conservatives tick, she is just the kind of person who can be swayed over time with thoughtful civil discourse.
Judgemc, I hope you don't judge all conservatives based on the way you were treated on this thread. There are lots of freepers here who will treat you with respect and from whom you can learn much. I hope you'll be back for another visit.
Hmmmmm.
Dead troll.
And the coffee isn't quite done...
Ah, yes. One can certainly see the polling of 'real' people by reading the MSM. Does anyone actually trust the letters selected for publication to be typical? My guess is they get 3 for and 3000 against, then publish all the for and 3 of the against. I'm from SC and will NEVER vote for Graham again.
That goes for everyone I know here. His main characteristic is his wierdness and I don't trust him with my representation.
I can NOT wait to vote against him!
"Graham and McCain gave the Democrats enough rope to HANG THEMSELVES with"
Because, the Democrats are going to renege, and when they do renege, they will be the ones who are the bad guys, there will be no way the Democrats will be able to spin this to suit them, and it will tremendously help us, and it will make the option MUCH MORE POPULAR.
That was from an earlier post by AzaleaCity5691. Miss Marple has a take on the McSellout in post 234 but here's mine:
Yes, the Dems will renege, but what McCane and his cohorts have done is give them the opportunity to reengage the judicial filibuster battle under circumstances more favorable to their cause. They were going to lose the judicial filibuster because not many Americans were paying attention to the fight.
The average voter who only occasionally pays attention to politics simply didn't, and won't, get wound up over an appellate judge. If the Deems are smart, they will withhold their fire on the judicial filibuster until a supreme court nominee is up, a situation that is likely soon. While the average Joe may not know how many justices are on the supreme court, or how long they serve, he does know they are important.
He will pay attention for a SC fight. The Dems will trot out the word "extremist" and the media will endlessly repeat it. The RINOs will be under intense pressure to "keep their word" on the filibuster agreement. In this environment, it will be much more difficult for the conservatives to nuke the judicial filibuster. It could still happen, but we had our best shot and the prey was snatched away just before the trigger was to be pulled.
Spare me the wide eyed act.
You're absolutely right. Among Bush supporters that I know, very few would be considered right-wing social conservatives. Yet everyone of them is angry about the compromise.
I've just looked at your exchange with judgemc. Yeah she's a Democrat and she voted for Gore and Kerry - my stomach churns at the thought that those two received nearly 50% of the popular vote. However, judgemc's posts were for the most part thoughtful. She didn't strike me as a troll, just a reasonable person with some misguided beliefs who could possibly have been persuaded to move rightward.
I disagree with that whole circumstances more favorable thing.
It won't be more favorable in the red states where 5 of the 7 Dems are from. If any member of that team from the red states reneges, their seat will be gone. And Landrieu won't be voting with the Dems anyway, because she saw what happened in Louisiana last year. Her father was a sneak and he taught her how to be a sneak.
Also, trust me, if Lindsey Graham actually gets burned on this, by the Democrats, you are going to see Graham become the biggest proponent of the option in the country, and you'll see probably see him publically attacking Byrd and co.
For some reason, I don't think Graham went into this naive or without a backup plan, he's a politician, he'll find a way to save his butt, and most people will fall for it.
This being said, I'm from Alabama, so a few things.
First, for the purposes of honesty, it should be noted Shelby didn't support either article of impeachment on Clinton, not that it would matter, he's the most powerful Republican in the state, and when he came into the party, he brought alot of monied people in too.
About the Dems from the red states, we've got one here, Salazar. I don't see any down side for him in filibustering anything. Colorado may have gone red for Bush, but otherwise is was a blue massacre. We gave up a U. S. Senate seat, both state houses and a U. S. Rep. seat from a solid Republican district.
The hard reality is that almost 1/3 of the voters in Colorado are unaffiliated. As for Graham, I hope you're right, in fact I hope you're right about the whole affair. But, I prefer a victory in hand, which we could have had, as opposed to an even higher stakes and uncertain battle in the future. We shall see.
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