Posted on 10/13/2009 2:44:49 PM PDT by GoldStandard
(CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has always enjoyed a little back-and-forth with belligerent audiences.
He was at it again on Monday night as he faced down an angry town hall crowd in Greenville packed with libertarians and Tea Party activists who accused at the Republican senator of ditching conservative principles by working with Democrats on issues like climate change and voting to send Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
But Graham stressed a mantra he's repeated many times since his friend John McCain lost the presidential election last November — that the GOP must reach out to different constituencies, or face extinction.
"I'm not going to leave the Republican Party," Graham said when one questioned asked him why he hasn't yet joined the Democrats. "I'm going to grow it. We're not going to be the party of angry white guys."
His comments were met with a salvo of boos and shouts of "Ron Paul!"
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Ron Paul and his supporters are nothing but anti-American apologists for al Qaeda. Neither you or your messiah will ever be allowed anywhere near the reigns of power.
Conservatives have nothing without the GOP. Either play ball or become disenfranchised entirely. The GOP will survive without you by moderation. Conservatives will never come to power on their own. Power will either reside in the hands of moderates or liberals but never conservatives.
How about “The GOP, love it or leave it”?
Sure to be an interesting thread.
It’s not going to be the party of RINOs, either.
A very insightful post. Too bad there are so few such as yourself here who can see the need for change.
Nobody will be driving him anywhere. He was just reelected last year by SC voters. He won’t be up for reelection until 2014 and there is no provision for a recall. By then, South Carolina will be a much different place.
Conservatives aren’t enough. Moderates are where the numbers are as well as the booming Hispanic population.
The same Barry Goldwater who was routed by LBJ over forty years ago?
That’s not what the polls are showing. For all the hootin and hollerin that goes on around here, 2010 is looking like a bloodbath for the Democrats. More proof that we don’t need your type. Obama/Pelosi will drive moderates right into our camp where they will stay indefinitely.
Obviously he’s showing angry white males the door. I would thought it would have been clear you were not wanted after Bob Dole told Pat Buchanan and his brigades to get out back in 1996.
You and Graham have fun fighting over which one gets to kiss McCain’s butt.
South Carolina has seen a mass influx of Hispanics and Northerners as of late. That trend will only further increase over the next five years. Republicans don’t need the old South anymore.
That’s what you people said about him back in 2007. Didn’t quite work out that way, did it? Luckily, for the party, the adults are in charge.
They are the only life that the GOP has left. They are the youth and energy of the Party -- they are the future. And all Party-first guys like you do is piss them off, insult and alienate them.
"Neither you or your messiah will ever be allowed anywhere near the reigns of power."
My "Messiah" is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whose yours? John McCain or Lindsay Graham, Jerry?
It’s not emails and phone calls that matter; it is elections, and Senator Graham won his by in a landslide. Obviously SC voters don’t agree with you.
So what are you telling the Conservatives here, Jerry? Just suck it up on immigration, abortion, gun rights, State's rights and the Constitution so that Republican candidates can get the numbers to get elected?
Been there, done that.
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