Here is Lindsay Graham:
compared to Jonathan Edwards:
and Mike DeWine:
and his alter ego from aiders of the Lost Ark.
Full Disclosure: Cheers!
Posted on 06/20/2005 8:27:07 PM PDT by nypokerface
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and his aides have denied Rep. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) assertion to home-state conservative leaders that he and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) acted as emissaries for Frist in negotiations among 14 Republican and Democratic centrists that resulted in a compromise last month on judicial filibusters.
Dr. Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council based in Columbia, S.C., said, “Graham has been meeting with groups of conservative opinion leaders to explain his actions and to comfort conservative leaders by assuring them he was sent by the Republican leadership to broker a deal.”
As a result of Graham’s assurances, conservatives’ anger over Graham’s role in the controversial deal has slackened, Smith said.
“There’s a mixture of residual anger and ‘let’s wait and see’ because he said he was sent as an envoy and dispatched by the leadership, he and DeWine,” Smith added.
Joe Mack, the director of public policy for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, who met with Graham and discussed his role in the brokering the deal, confirmed that Graham told him “words to that effect that he was assisting the leadership.”
But when asked whether he had dispatched Graham and DeWine as emissaries, Frist replied firmly “No. No.”
Amid a conservative backlash to the deal, particularly against DeWine in Ohio and Graham in South Carolina, Frist aides have told conservative leaders that they did not encourage the two lawmakers to forge a deal to avoid a floor vote on shielding judicial nominees from filibuster.
Jeff Mazzella, executive director of the Center for Individual Freedom, said, “Frist’s staff and other have assured us that they were not behind that deal and we are satisfied that they are committed to moving forward with up-or-down votes on all of the president’s nominees.”
Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, said, “I’ve heard it from one of Frist’s liaison people that it’s not true.”
Graham did not answer yes or no when asked by The Hill if he was an emissary for Frist during the negotiations. Instead, he described a nuanced role.
“Both leadership teams were very well aware of what was going on,” he said, referring to the Republican and Democratic leaders.
He added that “everyone knew what was going on” and that some lawmakers liked it and some didn’t.
Both Graham and DeWine have been the targets of intense conservative anger since they appeared alongside five other Republican senators and seven Democrats last month to announce a deal they struck on judicial nominees who Democrats had blocked.
The deal was announced the evening before Frist had planned to trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to strip senators of the power to filibuster judicial nominees. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the majority whip, had announced a few weeks before that Frist had enough Republican votes to execute the tactic.
“I talked to McConnell and Frist during the negotiations,” Graham said. “I think Senator Frist’s primary goal was to change the rules and, barring that, felt it was better to live and fight another day.”
Conservative leaders in South Carolina responded angrily. Mack, with the Southern Baptist Convention, said “a number of our have been concerned about that role and were looking for a vote to break a filibuster.”
Thomas Ravenel, a wealthy developer who self-financed much of his race against Sen. Jim DeMint (R) in a GOP Senate primary last year, announced shortly afterward that he would consider challenging Graham in 2008.
In Ohio, conservatives responded with similar ire, saying that DeWine’s role in the filibuster negotiations was the latest in a series of actions and positions he has taken at odds with them.
Conservatives said they would retaliate by working against Pat DeWine, the senator’s son, who ran earlier this month for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). Despite having the highest name recognition in the race and having outraised his opponents significantly, the young DeWine finished a distant fourth in the race.
“His showing was extremely poor,” said Dr. John Wilke, head of the Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion group based in Cincinnati. “A showing that bad after that good a start has reasons. Some people are saying that Mike’s business of being in the ‘Gang of 14’ hurt Pat.”
The ongoing battle between Republicans and Democrats over the makeup of the federal judiciary has been one of the highest concerns of social conservatives.
After the judges deal was struck, Ohio conservatives led by Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, another Cincinnati-based group, stepped up its efforts to find a candidate to challenge DeWine in the 2006 Republican primary.
As conservatives in Ohio and South Carolina responded angrily to news of the Senate centrists’ deal on judges, Major Garrett, a Fox News correspondent, citing “senior Republican sources,” reported that “Frist and the Bush White House were worried enough about possibly losing the vote to end the judicial filibusters that they dispatched two conservatives, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Ohio’s Mike DeWine, to cut the best possible deal.”
Burress said he suspects that DeWine is the source of that report.
“He will do anything he can to cover his tracks,” Burress said. “I call upon him to prove that, or he will be exposed as a flat out liar. I use that word very carefully. My sources tell me. I have people close to what’s going on up there that that’s not what happened.”
When asked about the Fox report, DeWine said, “If you look at the transcript, I never said that. What I said was that we had — people inside the meeting were talking to leaders — both sides were talking to leaders. But I never said that I was an emissary at all.”
“Lindsey and I got involved at the same time,” he added. “We looked at a early proposal and had the same reaction, that we couldn’t have an agreement where we would agree that under any circumstances we would not use the constitutional option,” the Republicans’ term for the nuclear option.
I just spent a week in Ohio at my Mom's -- boy was I glad to get back to Conservative Oklahoma. When people talk of RINO's they must mean Ohio. I hope a conservative can take out DeWine -- that State has gone too moderate to suit me. When I crossed the border into Kentucky, I celebrated to be back in the south.
Sorry, you are wrong.
The gang of 14 voted for cloture.
Ending the filibuster.
Frist could not call for a rules change without an active filibuster.
Frist was not a party to the agreement and did NOT take the Constitutional Option off the table.
I was on many threads at the time. I do not recall him EVER stating agreement.
I'd settle for even a moderate IF they were loyal to the Party, rather then McCain, MSM and Dems.
I think Ohio has two of the worst Senators. I actually understand Snowe and Collins being from Maine. I don't understand Voinivich and DeWine especially DeWine. Anyone following McCain from a State like Ohio and especially SC needs defeated IMHO.
BTW, Frist did not agree to take the Constitutional Option off the table nor did he agree to be part of the agreement -- you are correct.
Bill Frist: 'So let me say this: Senate Republicans reserve the right to use the constitutional option. And we've demonstrated, if necessary, we will not hesitate to use it. We have the votes to use the constitutional option. If the Democrats' campaign of judicial obstruction returns, we will not allow the Constitution to be sacrificed.'
http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1641
Frist said he wasn't a part of the RINO deal, and wouldn't have signed on becaue people got thrown overboard. Deal is silent on Saad and Myers, no certainly to Kavanaugh and others. Frist says that the others not mentioned in this deal have to go through Committee and he'll take them to the floor. Rightfully asking "Who will they call "extraordinary"?" If they filibuster I'll go w/ nuclear option.
He rolled over.
Ohio is drifting left, but I contend the reason is because the Republicans in that state have become corrupt Liberals. This is why I want Blackwell elected.
I posted two different sources of Frist's comments. very few were as active as I was in those threads for months. Frist did not take it off the table.
It can be questioned if he'll bring kavanaugh, Myers and the others to the floor. he hasn't yet done so. That would deserve rebuke if he does not and I admit increasingly impatiance. But I won't allow he took it off the table when he clearly did not, nor allow the idea the rules change could occur without a standing filibuster.
as a side note he COULD jhave called for a rule change with Bolton, but i suspect the W.H. prefers to recess and save the nuclear option solely for judges.
Here is Lindsay Graham:
compared to Jonathan Edwards:
and Mike DeWine:
and his alter ego from aiders of the Lost Ark.
Full Disclosure: Cheers!
Trent Lott is saying he's going to be the next speaker.
RE: Your comments Frist never said what he said.
ping
I can't begin to tell you how disgusted I am with Frist. NO GUTS NO GLORY!!! He was on Sean Hannity radio today and I thought I was going to throw up. I was yelling in the car! Frist is going to WRITE A LETTER to Durbin I guess to say some polite junk about how Durbin should not have bad-mouthed our military. Frist says Durbin did not violate any rules of the Senate. So he's going to WRITE A LETTER! Oh, now that's going to put Durbin in his place. Sure thing.
Leave it to the Republicans. With friends like that, we don't need any enemies.
Wow. That's just devastating.
Apparently he doesn't really want a second term when he is up in 2008 - I have a feeling his tone will be changing when the next attempt at a filibuster is made.
HA! A couple of weeks ago they were taking media bows. Are the chickens coming home to roost?
Frist-"Rightfully asking "Who will they call "extraordinary"?" If they filibuster I'll go w/ nuclear option."
As stated, extrodinary was undefined. he queries what they find extrodinary. You can believe otherwise, but when discussed in great detail Frist mocks the term as impossible to adher to.
In every interview given he defies your reading of his remarks.
Here's a very disturbing new
photo of Senator Graham:
I was listening to Major Garret on Tony Snow's program today, and he was decidedly not liberal about the subject at hand.
Major Garrett left, I forget, CNN or MSNBC, to come to Fox. Garrett is conservative. Garrett is very respected as a reporter. He is thorough and fair. I really like him. Don't understand those that don't. Brit Hume likes him too, and if he's all right with Brit, he's all right with me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.