Bye, judgemc."He's dead, Jim!"
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."
She's been banned.
One does NOT go from voting for Bush the elder and Dole, to voting for Gore and Kerry! Clinton was fobbed off as a "moderate", when he first ran. She's a Dem and didn't vote for him, but voted for a raving Gore and that traitor Kerry ?
Go read ALL of her pathetic post! She was smarmily insulting, from the beginning; claiming that it was really stupid to be upset about the compromise and how it was no big deal not getting all of the stalled judicial nominees out of limbo. She had troll writ large, all over her UNREASONABLE posts.
The lying troll was hard to take!
You're absolutely right; I couldn't agree more.
The troll was NOT here to "learn", she lied through her teeth, and she deserved far more of a pounding than she got.
For nearly fifty years the Democrats controled the sentate with a combination of Liberal Northern Industrial state Democrats and Southern Conservative Democrats. Republicans had both Liberal and Conseravtive members as well. Both parties were a mixture of conservative and liberal. New England 50 or 50 years ago was the home of Liberal "Rockefeller" Republicans. The Mid-West and West was the home of mostly Conservative Republicans.
Then with Dick Nixons Southern strategy people started crossing party lines. Conservative Southerners like Phil Graham, Strom Thurman, and others changed parties. In other races conservative Republicans started to win southern states.
In other states Liberal Republicans were replaced by liberal Democrats.
But the realignment is not complete. New England still has some liberal Republicans, but Democrats have few if any Consevatives left. Zell Miller was the last of that breed of Democrat.
There are also states that have changed from Democrat states to Republican. West Virginia has two liberal Democrat Senators, but the state is trending conservative.
Main has Liberal Republican senators .. they will soon be liberal Democratic senators.
When we run the numbers, and alignment is complete, there will be about 55 Republicans and 45 Democrats in the Senate. But there will be no Liberal Republicans and no Conservative Democrats.
There will still be a combination of about 8 or 10 RINOS and DINOS in the senate. But by then the Republicans will be in complete control with 50 or 51 solid conservative votes.
We are frustrated now, becase we have about 10 RINOS in the Senate. They go off the reservation pretty easily. What we need is a much better leader than Bill Frist. Frist is unable to control the RINOS and he has yet to get even one DINO to come off the reservation.
The one thing we can't allow to happen is a RINO like Lindsay Graham to be elected from a conservative state like South Carolina. I have always argued that in tight swing states the most we can hope for is RINOS but in South Carolina there is zero reason to tolerate Lindsay Graham.
I have always felt that Lindsay Graham is a bad choice for a South Carolina Senator. He should be challenged and defeated in the 2008 primary and his challenger elected in the General Election. It would be a lesson heard in many conservative states, and would put the fear of GOD in a lot of RINOS and DINOS in Conservative states.
Brilliant analysis; many thanks for your input.
I notice that you referred to this lady as a newbie. I've seen that term used a lot at FR but I've been here a little over 5 years still don't know what constitutes a newbie. When is a newbie no longer a newbie? As I said, I've been here 5 years, you've been here 7. Am I still a newbie?
I lurked here for almost a full year, before I joined. Most people, who joined after FR was started, lurked for a number of months prior to joining and posting. Sadly, today, that is no longer the case. So when a newbie starts posting, they don't understand how FR works, what any of the slang and inside jokes mean, and often, they come off sounding silly, stupid,and/or petulant.
After being here this long, I can smell a troll three threads away. If I call someone a troll, they are one and trolls do NOT deserve to be handled with kid gloves. They are here to disrupt.
No, you aren't a newbie and have been one for quite a while.
Bye, judgemc."He's dead, Jim!"
He's not a butt kisser, or a hater. He's a selfish backstabbin' sellout. He's not in it for the good of the GOP, for him, it's all about him.
What I want to know is:
Is the same sort of pressure being applied to Warner and DeWine?
>>He should be challenged and defeated in the 2008 primary and his challenger elected in the General Election. It would be a lesson heard in many conservative states, and would put the fear of GOD in a lot of RINOS and DINOS in Conservative states.<<
Spector and McCain should have been cut out a long time ago but no, our President had to go and campaign for these bastards. Didn't that show you anything about what's happenning to America?
When we have controlled the Congress, the Senate and the White House and we still can't get a damn judge put on on the bench that tells me someone has been compromised. Now whether the entire Republican Senate or the White House is compromised I don't know but something STINKS! These people act asif they are UN puppets!
I don't have any faith that bowlin is going to straighten out the UN or get us out of it either. Shake them a bit maybe, but get us out? Never!
We have a President who is giving America to the Saudi Muslims and giving whats left to the Mexicans and OTM with our open borders. The sonofabitch doesn't have the balls to stand up and tell us just what his plans are regarding this illegal alien invasion. Had he told us before he ran for office that we needed and he wanted 25 million aliens in the US because ------- and ------ or because ------- and -------, I might still have some respect for him. Just the fact that he has avoided the issue and snuck out of the room every time the subject comes up ticks me off to no end.
I have my own ideas as to just why he thinks we need these people here. Now had he made them come through the Ports of Entry like every other legal entrant, I would have more respect for them too but criminals are just not the types I associate with.
I guess I can say that my respect for the titles Senator, Congressman and President has been tarnished substantially under the Bush/Clinton/Bush regime.
FReepers jump for joy everytime the Republicans win a little backroom fight or the Democrats stumble in public. They never criticize the Republicans for failure to perform. The constant adoration is as if they were swooning over a singer with a hit song reminds me of empty-headed teenagers. None of these people are going to listen to the public if we aren't allowed to tell them what is wrong on FR!
IMO, all of these people need to be brought up on charges of Failure to Perform by the guidelines of their Oaths of Office. The Muslims are ticked because a Marine splashed some urine on the Koran. We don't say a word when our elected officials constantly urinate on our Constitution. They are enjoy watching the ink run off the pages. America has serious, serious electoral problems, quite probably terminal ones.
Now, I can see where a newbie might not understand the subtleties of FR. On the home page, it states Jump right in! A newbie could easily take this at face value and start posting right away. He could thus risk being attacked as a troll. He might not realize that rather than jumping right in, he should really lurk for quite a while in order to get a full feel for the nuances of FR.
In my case, I was posting mainly elsewhere at the beginning and just gradually eased into FR.
Your post pretty much captures the flavor for my feelings, maybe it's a Jersey ex pat thing. This is the kind of nonsense I expect from McCain, Snowe, or Collins.
Here is my letter to Graham's office. I have yet to receive a reply. I hope Ravenel bakes Graham on this issue:
Senator Graham,
As someone who has been very pleased and supportive of your ascendancy to the US Senate, I have to say that I am VERY disappointed in your involvement in the conservative cave-in with regard to ending the judicial filibuster. It's a disgrace that you were outmaneuvered, outflanked and outsmarted by the minority party.
Your position validates the liberal assertion that fundamental truths found in our Constitution can be manipulated and are relative. Clearly, you do not understand this concept, as reflective in your statement: "If you thought we were winning this debate, you weren't reading the polls right," Mr. Graham said.
Since when do you need a poll to know the difference between right and wrong?!?!
I'm very disappointed in you.
At least it's better then living in NJ and having Lousenberg drive me crazy without any hope in beating him. I have lots of hope here in South Carolina. You should come on down!
SoCar in the summer?!? No thanks for this Yankee. There is only one other place that I know could be hotter,..and I'm fairly certain that it's pretty crowded there.
Lots of bluster from my conservative friends in SJ, but I don't hold out much hope for Forrestor or Schundler, though I do like the latter of the two. Who knows we're only 3 years out from a GOP Governor here in the Free State, formerly a "Cool-Aid Brigade" stronghold, so I suppose guess anything can happen? Now we're looking to a real Senatorial race, too.
Lautenberg is a bit of a kook, but personally I find Corzine's stupity to be an unparalelled marvel. He's really funny. It would be nice to have him out of the Senate though. A NJ Governorship would at least contain the damage that he can do to one state - not the Constitution.
Stay cool,....but ride on Senator Graham and the Spineless Seven!
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