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Sen. Graham predicts Tea Party movement will eventually 'die out' By Jordan Fabian - 07/01/10 11:57 AM ET Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has earned the ire of Tea Party groups for his penchant for negotiating with Democrats, predicted this week the movement will "die out." Graham, who has partnered with Democrats on immigration reform and energy and climate legislation, made the observation in a New York Times Magazine profile titled "Lindsey Graham, This Year's Maverick" to be published this Sunday: “Everything I’m doing now in terms of talking about climate, talking about immigration, talking about Gitmo is completely opposite...

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Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, got lots of well-deserved grief during the 2004 presidential race for saying he actually voted for the War in Iraq before he voted against it. But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, appears determined to give Kerry a real run as the Senate's champion flip-flopper. Last fall, I described the South Carolina GOPer as the densest Republican in the Senate because "he thinks he's brokering a bipartisan deal on cap-and-trade. What he's really doing is pulling the Democrats' fat out of the fire on the issue." That deal didn't go anywhere, but more recently some sort of anti-global...

Did somebody just say “gas tax?” Maybe, but they know better now. Sens. John Kerry (D., Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman are supposed to unveil, some day, a tripartisan energy and climate bill they’ve been working on for months. Sight unseen, the plan caused a ruckus Thursday because of fresh reports that it could propose a new tax on gasoline. The White House quickly turned the hose on that fire. “The Senators don’t support a gas tax, and neither does the White House,” the White House said in a statement Thursday afternoon, as the gas...

As Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., work toward their goal of introducing climate change legislation by Earth Day (April 22), transportation groups are petitioning the trio to invest revenues raised from a carbon fee that would increase the cost of gas and diesel fuel back into transportation. A coalition of 27 groups led by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the American Public Transportation Association, and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, wrote in their April 1 letter, "New fees placed on transportation fuels should be dedicated to the Highway...

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled their bipartisan blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday, a move hailed by President Barack Obama as progress on an issue for which he has been criticized for ignoring. “The American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation. We urge the public and our colleagues to join our bipartisan efforts in enacting these reforms,” the Senators said in a Washington Post editorial posted online Thursday. The Schumer-Graham outline entails four key components: a biometric Social Security identification card for employment verification; strengthened border security and interior law...

(snip) “Why did I do this? I want my time to count. I want to be seen as someone who can solve a hard problem by working with my colleagues across the aisle. I want to do something that matters. I can’t think of a better use of my time than to work with Democrats and Republicans to break our dependency on foreign oil, to create jobs for our next generation of Americans that will never go to China. And yes, leave behind a cleaner planet.” (snip)

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who led an effort last week to prevent the Obama Administration from doing just what it did today in directing prosecution of the alleged Sept. 11 plotters into federal court, says he's keeping mum about that decision for now at the request of the White House. "I have been asked by the White House to withhold comment about today’s Guantanamo decision until I can meet face-to-face with the President after he returns from Asia," Graham said in a statement released by his office. "As our Commander in Chief, I will honor his request. I look forward...

The morning after Republicans lost an upstate New York House seat, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that conservative activists will bring destruction to the Republican Party if they drive out moderate candidates across the country. “To those people who are pursuing purity, you’ll become a club not a party,” Graham told POLITICO in the Capitol Wednesday. “Those people who are trying to embrace conservatism in a thoughtful way that fits the region and the state and the district are going to do well. Conservativism is an asset. Blind ideology is not.” Graham, who has sparred with his party’s right wing...