Posted on 01/24/2014 6:16:44 AM PST by cotton1706
The pungent scent of sauerkraut permeates the room, but Lindsey Graham doesn’t have time to try it, or the pretzels, bratwurst, and schnitzel at the buffet. Each one of the few dozen business types gathered to celebrate the opening of a local chapter of the German-American Chamber of Commerce wants a chance to meet the senator, and Graham is more than eager to chat. An aide brings him a Coke Zero (his favorite), which he sips intermittently.
Graham, with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, meets reporters after discussing Benghazi with Graham, with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, meets reporters after discussing Benghazi with administration officials.
Graham is unassuming in his ordinary gray suit and dusty black shoes. The businessmen mostly look a little sharper. That doesn’t matter, though. They all want to shake the powerful senator’s hand, have their picture taken with him, and get in their word or two. He smiles at them all and asks, in his nasal twang, “How’s business?”
In an interview on our way to the reception, Graham says he sees himself as the “go-to guy” for South Carolina. That’s why he pushed for federal funding to deepen the Port of Charleston and fought against the National Labor Relations Board’s objection to Boeing’s relocation to South Carolina, a right-to-work state. If BMW, the German luxury auto giant that located its only American plant in South Carolina in 1994, has concerns about new federal seatbelt regulations, Graham wants to fix it. If immigration reform will make it easier for BMW to bring in high-skilled engineers from overseas, well, Graham will fight for it. “What I try to offer back home is to be the guy that will go to bat effectively in Washington,”
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Lindsey Graham is the GO TO HELL Senator. And that’s what I wish he would do.
Graham is the GO TO SENATOR!
The Senator liberals GO TO when they need a Republican to vote with them!
One of the things that conservatives ignore to their peril is that one of the traditional functions of a Senator or Congressman is to get things for their constituents. Sometimes that means getting things from the Federal government (such as a highway or infrastructure work) and sometimes it means getting some policy that will favor their district or sometimes even helping out an individual with a particular problem vis a vis the bureaucracy.
So don’t scoff at the importance of this. It’s gotten many people elected over the centuries.
It would be nice to have a conservative candidate who projected the ability to do these practical things. You can have all the principles and ideals that you want, but what it comes down to for most people is, “What is this guy going to do for me?”
Supplicants gathered to ask a boon of their master. Exactly the way incumbents like it.
Agreed that bringing home the bacon is part of a senator’s job. It’s just that he’s the “go-to” repub and will reliably compromise with the opposition at the national level. Maybe he thinks that’s how he can squeeze more pork out of the Senate?
Go to - when you need an enema.
Grahamnesty can run as a DemocRat. That would fix his problem.
Oh, I entirely agree about Graham’s positions, generally. I just meant that conservative candidates also have to be able to project the sense that they will help their constituents, because sometimes we act as if people were voting based solely on principle. People here might, but by ourselves, we’re not enough to elect anybody to anything!
So there’s got to be something that will appeal to voters who are focused on the “bottom line” - that is, how will this candidate make my life better? Bring jobs to my state, deal with bureaucratic problems, etc. A candidate has to project an image of competence and also that he or she cares about the day-to-day and is on the side of the constituency.
I would not vote for Graham or Christie for dog cathcer, if someone like that gets the nomination, count me out.
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