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Lindsey Graham Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 03, 2016 36 Comments
As Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R[?]-SC) rush to make Obama's Dreamer executive order (EO) law, cat fights are erupting on Twitter regarding immigration and Trump's intentions in this regard. In 2010, the DREAM Act failed in the Senate, so Obama picked up his pen and his phone and, by EO, made it happen.  Now, Republicans are working again with Democrats to revive the failed bill . . . they hope before Obama leaves office, though this is highly unlikely. The Hill reports:
Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are working on legislation that would limit deportations if President-elect Donald Trump repeals President Obama’s executive orders on illegal immigration.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 21, 2015 19 Comments
Monday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham became the fourth Republican presidential candidate to call it quits. "I got into this race to put forward a plan to win a war we could not afford to lose and to turn back the tide of isolationism that was rising in our party," said Graham in a video message to his supporters. "I believe we've made enormous progress in this effort."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 10, 2015 16 Comments
Lindsey Graham is soon to join the GOP primary field that so far (officially) consists of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee.  According to Fox News,
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham plans to announce his presidential campaign on June 1, GOP sources tell Fox News. Graham, a three-term senator from South Carolina, is known as a foreign policy hawk in Congress. Though he is considered a long shot -- and ranks near the bottom in recent polls of declared and potential Republican presidential candidates -- Graham could help drive the debate on national security among a GOP field that includes candidates who sharply question policies ranging from drone strikes to NSA surveillance.
While it's true that Graham's views on national security are more palatable to the conservative base than (say) Rand Paul's, there are areas that may not be reconcilable.  Graham is trying to establish himself not as the squishy "RINO" (Republican in Name Only) but as the "realist" in the field who will work in bipartisan fashion to accomplish his agenda.  It seems reasonable, in that case, to recall some of his bipartisan efforts in recent years: Remember the "Year of Immigration Reform"?  That was 2013, in case you missed it.  The Gang of Eight is often evoked in discussion of Marco Rubio's amnesty flip-flop, but it's worth remembering that Rubio was not the only Republican member.  Lindsey Graham was right there, effectively leading the GOP side:   "We're going to be aggressive in marketing the bill. This is an all hands on deck approach."

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 10, 2014 8 Comments
UPDATE - At about 9:15 PM, the Associated Press called the SC Senate race for Lindsey Graham and projects he will not face a runoff election. With 71% of precincts reporting at 9:45PM, Graham is close to garnering 60% of the vote. Notably, Graham won nearly all of the counties in SC and exceeded the 50% threshold in all of them except Greenville, Spartanburg, Laurens and Union Counties. Lindsey Graham Primary Win Results Tim Scott is easily winning his primary getting vote margins above 90% at this point. In fact, Scott is over performing Graham by 60,000 votes statewide.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 10, 2014 12 Comments
After a lot of speculation and angst by conservative voters in South Carolina, today is Judgment Day for Lindsey Graham. Over the past year, SC grassroots activists have attempted to organize with the goal of defeating Graham in his re-election bid.  The problem always came back to the lack of a serious challenger to the incumbent Senator. Graham was first elected to Congress in the Republican Wave of 1994.  But the voters who watched O.J. Simpson huddled in the back of his white Bronco 20 years ago are not the demographic force of the electorate today.  South Carolina has a very eclectic mix of Republican voters:  Establishment/old school, Tea Party patriot grassroots groups, Christian conservatives and a libertarian streak that gave Ron Paul some hope in the 2012 South Carolina primary. Unlike the McDaniel/Cochran Senate race in Mississippi, none of these odd fellows in S.C. were able to coalesce behind a single candidate to go up against Graham. However, South Carolina is very interesting as it is one of the few states left that requires a 50%-plus-one vote in order to avoid a runoff election.  Most runoff states have a lower threshold of 40%. The main competitors to Graham are S.C. State Senator Lee Bright from the Greenville-Spartanburg area of Upstate South Carolina.  Bright was well-postioned in the crowded field as the only elected official with some statewide name recognition to challenge Lindsey Graham.  Bright also brought together a number of the numerous Tea Party and patriot grassroots groups throughout the state.  However, he never seemed to be able to gain momentum statewide or make a compelling case as to why he was a good alternative to Graham.  Bright struggled with fundraising throughout the contest, but recent polls suggest he may finish in second place to Graham in voting today.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2014 22 Comments
There hasn't been a lot of polling in the South Carolina Republican Senate primary, but what polling there is shows Lindsay Graham ahead by 30%+ against potential challengers. But it may still be a challenge for Graham to get the 50% he needs in the primary to avoid a runoff, and generating a runoff in which all the anti-Graham vote could coalesce, has been the strategy all along. Politico has essentially called challenges to Graham dead on arrival, How Lindsey Graham outmaneuvered the tea party:
Sen. Lindsey Graham recognized the threat years before it had a chance to form — and knew immediately what he had to do.... Graham’s deft maneuvering shows why he’s become the dominant political figure in this deeply red state and is skating to another six years even as he’s angered the base on immigration and other hot-button issues. Far from pandering to the party’s tea party wing in order to get reelected, he’s challenging it head-on: Graham warns that the GOP is caught in a “death spiral” with minorities, says it needs to get real about climate change and defends his move to open debate on gun control legislation after a school massacre. His legwork to protect his seat could serve as a model for other endangered incumbents looking to fend off more conservative challengers.... Even as he cruises in the polls, the senator has blanketed the state with more than $1 million worth of ads promoting his work. He faces several lesser-known, underfunded candidates — including state Sen. Lee Bright, pastor Det Bowers, businessman Richard Cash, attorney Bill Connor, attorney Benjamin Dunn and Nancy Mace, a consultant and the first female graduate from The Citadel military college — in the June 10 primary. They’re trying to keep Graham under 50 percent and trigger a runoff, which would give Republican outside groups that have sat out the race a chance to rally behind a single candidate and potentially hurt Graham. But his opponents have not demonstrated much viability. One of them even credited Graham with ensuring a lackluster GOP field....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 11, 2013 26 Comments
Nancy Mace is one of the challengers to Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary, along with Richard Cash. There probably will be others. Mace is a newbie as a candidate, although she's been involved as a political consultant for years, and also co-founded the controversial FITS News website. I don't know enough about Mace to say that I'll support her versus the other challengers, but I do know enough to say that I hope a strong challenger emerges and that Graham is forced into a runoff. Mace seems to have the sound-bite friendly bio (1st female graduate of The Citadel, long family military history) to be an attractive candidate. I'm willing to give her a chance, to find out more, and to see how she develops as a candidate. The one thing I do not expect is a slick talker, who has a pat answer for everything. So it really troubled me to see Jay Severin attacking Mace as "not ready for prime time" because of an interview she had with Glenn Beck. Here's the Beck interview, in its entirety: Was it a great interview? Probably not. She seemed to have a few canned answers she kept coming back to, but it wasn't a terrible interview. And Beck asked some weird questions about her "soul" which probably caught her off guard. Sure, she also should have been better able to answer questions about why she was running, the influences upon her, and so on. I trust she'll earn from these interview experiences. But Severin declared her candidacy all but over:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 03, 2013 24 Comments

Lindsey Graham deserves a primary challenge. He has several million in the bank, and surely will receive a lot more from those who want to keep him fighting for amnesty (assuming he doesn't pull it off prior to the election). There now are two people are...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2013 45 Comments

Sure, I disagree with Marco Rubio on the Gang of 8 immigration bill, particularly the amnesty part. But what's most galling is that Rubio appears to have been played by Chuck Schumer on the Democratic side, and McCain/Graham on the Republican side, suckered into being the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 23, 2013 25 Comments
Via NBC, Lindsey Graham is about to declare victory:
On Monday the Senate is scheduled to vote on a 1,200-page amendment offered by Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., and Sen. John Hoeven, R- N.D., which has an initial cost of $46.3 billion – money to be used hire 20,000 Border Patrol agents and to deploy them along the Mexican border, as well as building add border fencing and setting up an electronic visa entry/exit system at all air and sea ports of entry where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are currently deployed. “The bill will pass,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday. “I think we are on the verge of getting 70 votes. That is my goal. It's always been my goal. We are very, very close to 70 votes. The Hoeven-Corker Amendment I think gets us over the top.”

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But don't think this will gain any love for Republicans: https://twitter.com/allahpundit/status/348814113075511296 Via The Hill:
A senior Democratic senator predicted Sunday there could be massive demonstrations in Washington if House Republicans try to block a bill to grant legal status to millions of immigrants. Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the Senate immigration reform bill, said House Republicans would likely spark massive civil rights rallies if they try to quash measures to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. This has the potential of becoming the next major civil rights movement. I could envision in the late summer or early fall if Boehner tries to bottle the bill up or put something in without a path to citizenship — if there’s no path to citizenship, there’s not a bill — but if he tries to bottle it up or do things like that, I could see a million people on the Mall in Washington,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
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