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Lindsey Graham's Hot Air Conservatism [Southern Avenger] [RINOs want to co-opt Tea Parties]
Charleston City Paper ^ | 2009-10-20 | Jack Hunter aka Southern Avenger

Posted on 10/20/2009 7:23:59 AM PDT by rabscuttle385

When a runaway hot-air balloon reported to be carrying a six-year-old boy made headlines last week, many were surprised to find out it had all been a hoax. Admitted the six-year-old boy on live television, “We did this for a show.”

Another hot-air balloon by the name of Lindsey Graham also made headlines last week by putting on a show of his own, as the South Carolina Senator held court at a town hall meeting, touting his conservative credentials before an angry crowd that wasn’t buying it. “They’re a political fringe group” Graham said of his critics, “I’m the conservative in the room.”

Is Graham a “conservative?” Are his detractors merely a political fringe? In a headline reading “Graham aims to tackle ‘radical’ views,” The Greenville News reports:

“Political experts say a burgeoning group of right-wing activists long seen as the fringe of the party is growing in influence, fueled by economic fears and populist ire over Washington spending and magnified by the power of the Internet… Whether they represent a vocal minority or the seeds of a serious election challenge for Graham remains to be seen, though at least one Republican consultant believes the state’s senior senator has ‘real problems’ outside of just a raucous town hall meeting… ‘If he were running right now, he’d be in serious trouble,’ said Dave Woodard, a Clemson University political science professor and former campaign manager for Graham who said he has Upstate polling to support his view.”

Woodard’s findings coincide with another story published in the Wall Street Journal the same day entitled “Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy” in which the author Naftali Bendavid notes:

“The rise of conservative ‘tea party’ activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win… the tea-party movement appears aggressively nonpartisan, much like Ross Perot's supporters in 1992. ‘The tea-party movement, in my judgment, has proven to be very real, but it's precisely the fact that it's real that makes it difficult to take advantage of,’ says Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and now a top Republican strategist. ‘They don't want to be co-opted by the Republican Party.'

For his entire career, Graham’s strategy for victory has been the same as his party’s - dangle conservative-sounding rhetoric before easily duped constituents during an election year so that Republicans can be returned to Washington to do as much damage as the Democrats. It’s refreshing to learn that according to some experts, a growing number of grassroots conservatives are tired of being duped.

Not that establishment Republicans won’t stop trying. Graham is a master of this long-standing Republican hoax, in which politicians will float their own hot-button, hot-air balloons, especially concerning social issues like gay marriage, abortion and the 2nd amendment, but are actually far more concerned with the much more important business of spending trillions of dollars on needless “bailouts” and stimulus packages, even more needless trillions on unnecessary wars, collaborating with the Democrats to expand the domestic welfare state and appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court. Said Graham in Greenville last week “I’ll put my record as a pro-life politician against anybody in this country… I’m a lifelong NRA member.” It should be noted that alleged, staunch pro-lifer and gun rights advocate Graham has done very little to actually overturn Roe vs. Wade or federal gun laws, but has worked overtime to promote TARP, cap and trade and amnesty for illegal aliens.

Perhaps an even better example of Graham’s posturing was his bi-polar treatment of liberal Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Said Graham at first “When I look at her record, her ideology, I'm deeply troubled.” The Daily Beast even ran the headline “Lindsey Graham Attacks Sotomayor.” A few short weeks later, Graham became the sole Republican on the senate judiciary committee to confirm Sotomayor.

The biggest difference between the so-called “balloon boy” and Graham, is that the six-year-old finally admitted his disingenuousness. Sheriff Jim Alderden, who worked on the runaway balloon case, rightly noted that the boy’s family had “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it.” Graham and his Republican Party have put on a show for years - millions of conservative voters have bought it - and yet the GOP still refuses to fess up. Said Graham of his critics without the slightest hint of irony, “The reason I can stand up there and smile confidently and tell them I disagree is I know that most people are with me.”

Whether conservatives continue to buy Graham’s hot-air is something only time will tell. But rest assured that in the meantime, Lindsey Graham and similar self-described “conservatives” will never admit to their hoax - and worse - will insist that the same old Republican show must go on.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: gop; gopcleansing; gopenema; gopfailure; gopfuture; gopimplosion; lindseygraham; rinos; southernavenger; teaparty
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1 posted on 10/20/2009 7:23:59 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
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To: upchuck; bamahead; djsherin; dcwusmc; Impy; fieldmarshaldj

Good read!


2 posted on 10/20/2009 7:24:52 AM PDT by rabscuttle385 (http://restoretheconstitution.ning.com/)
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To: rabscuttle385

The leadership of the GOP need to have a closed door meeting with this traitor to get his mind glued back together. They need to drag Snowe and Collins in at the same time. I’m sure these RINOs are too busy sucking up to the Fuhrer to take time out of their day.


3 posted on 10/20/2009 7:26:13 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: rabscuttle385
WE need to get this phony out of our party.......FAST.

He is doing more damage to the conservative cause than any single person I can think of right now.

4 posted on 10/20/2009 7:28:19 AM PDT by ohioWfan (Proud Mom of a Bronze Star recipient!)
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To: rabscuttle385

The G0P party of RINOS need to get a clue. We hate your traitorous asses as much as we hate the socialists.


5 posted on 10/20/2009 7:32:03 AM PDT by DogBarkTree (Support Sarah. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/sarahpalin?ref=nf)
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To: stylecouncilor

You sc’ers gott’a defeat this clown.


6 posted on 10/20/2009 7:33:14 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: onedoug

SC just re-upped with LITL Graham last year. They screwed the rest of the nation and reinforced the RINO GOP.


7 posted on 10/20/2009 7:35:01 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Big Ears + Big Spending --> BigEarMarx, the man behind TOTUS)
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To: rabscuttle385

Graham is a disgusting POS!!


8 posted on 10/20/2009 7:35:33 AM PDT by blam
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To: ExTexasRedhead

scuse me but the “leaders” are the problem the are no better than Gramnesty


9 posted on 10/20/2009 7:37:11 AM PDT by Breto
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To: rabscuttle385

When all of the GOP are RINOS, the term ceases to have any meaning. They are all simply Republicans.


10 posted on 10/20/2009 7:39:18 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: rabscuttle385
The writer has it exactly correct. They all CLAIM conservative values at election time and then go right back to their RINO ways after we send them back to Washington to SCREW us again. ENOUGH I SAY! We can't fix the party unless we get rid of the RINOs. And there are alot of them. We can't keep doing the same old thing (sending RINOs to Washington) and expecting them to vote conservative. They are PHONY conservatives.

Make a pledge today that you will not vote for a RINO or a faux-conservative. Let's take our country back from liberals and RINOs. They are the same species and they are breeding in Washington.

11 posted on 10/20/2009 7:39:28 AM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts ma'am, just the facts)
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To: Breto

The leaders are all busy searching for their gonads with both hands and a mirror and coming up empty. IMO, they’re spineless, gutless, gonad-less schmucks.


12 posted on 10/20/2009 7:41:48 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: rabscuttle385

He can try to co-opt them but he can’t. The TEA Party is not the Republican Party, it doesn’t follow any leaders.


13 posted on 10/20/2009 7:42:22 AM PDT by GeronL (They Made It Happen On Purpose Economically. MIHOPE)
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To: rabscuttle385

Last week saw “I want to help Obama be a success Mathews MSNBC” defending Grahm on his show. He likes Grahm just like he used to like McCain.


14 posted on 10/20/2009 7:43:11 AM PDT by sickoflibs ( "It's not the taxes, the redistribution is the government spending you demand stupid")
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To: ExTexasRedhead

The leadership of the GOP agrees with them.


15 posted on 10/20/2009 7:44:27 AM PDT by GeronL (They Made It Happen On Purpose Economically. MIHOPE)
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To: GeronL
He can try to co-opt them but he can’t. The TEA Party is not the Republican Party, it doesn’t follow any leaders.

D@mn straight.


16 posted on 10/20/2009 7:45:34 AM PDT by paulycy (PUBLIC OPTION = PREDATORY PRICING = UNETHICAL COMPETITION.)
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To: rabscuttle385
For his entire career, Graham’s strategy for victory has been the same as his party’s - dangle conservative-sounding rhetoric before easily duped constituents during an election year so that Republicans can be returned to Washington to do as much damage as the Democrats.

Hence, my name for him..."Flimsy" Graham...I can see right through his rhetoric.

17 posted on 10/20/2009 7:48:55 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: ohioWfan

Lindsay Graha, and all other RINOS who have been bloviating for YEARS need to GO

Anyone who has been around for 20 years IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MESS!!!!

We can have this level of incompetance from any place

THE NEXT TEA-PARTY MARCH SHOULD BE ON GOP HEADQUARTERS!

AND SOON!!


18 posted on 10/20/2009 7:51:08 AM PDT by Mr. K (My biggest fear is that one of my typos becomes a freeper catchphrase...I'm series!)
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To: rabscuttle385

“Lindsey Graham also made headlines last week by putting on a show of his own, as the South Carolina Senator held court at a town hall meeting, touting his conservative credentials before an angry crowd that wasn’t buying it.” THe Senate and House are filled with liars and thieves, with “D” or “R” after their name (and one with “I”). It is liars like Graham who have known for more than a decade that the debt accumulation was unsustainable. The thirty trillion dollar unfunded liabilities didn’t pop up in Bush’s administration, it took decades to accumultae, following the little sneaky move of dumping all revenues in ‘the general fund’, making IOUs the means to raid the tax collections for FICA and spending them then going in debt each year. Graham is just another ... no, that’s incorrect, since Graham is more pernicious than the typical R or D politician because he lies so openly for both sides of the aisle! A degenerate mind like Graham’s is so easily extorted for leverage ... he cannot conceive of giving up his power, so he sells it for the silence of those who hold his secrets. The Republic cannot survive with such pernicious corruption so completely ignored.


19 posted on 10/20/2009 7:52:47 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Dems, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)
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To: laotzu
When all of the GOP are RINOS, the term ceases to have any meaning. They are all simply Republicans.

I disagree. We have a national platform and 50 state platforms. These spell out our identity as a party and what it means to be a "Republican". RINOs give lip service to our values and work against us where it counts. They are not simply republicans...

20 posted on 10/20/2009 7:55:01 AM PDT by pgyanke (You have no "rights" that require an involuntary burden on another person. Period. - MrB)
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