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Graham-Paul Dispute Highlights GOP Fissure [Paul says GOP should live up to professed beliefs]
The New American ^ | 2009-10-15

Posted on 10/14/2009 9:10:18 PM PDT by rabscuttle385

An outburst at an angry South Carolina town hall meeting has exemplified the growing fissure in the Republican Party across the nation. “We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," liberal Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told a Greenville, South Carolina, audience at Furman University where some supporters of Congressman Ron Paul were heckling him.

Ron Paul responded on CNN's Situation Room October 14 that Graham's attack was unfair. “For him to ... say that everybody who is upset with the government and upset with his type of voting record are angry white people or angry men, that is preposterous. That is a real insult.” Rep. Paul termed his rallies “very diverse.”

The controversy highlights the growing fissure among members of the Republican Party nationwide.

Prompted by outbursts from loud, rude, but exceptionally well-informed voters, the liberal and interventionist Graham told the audience he was a pro-life conservative while being taunted with chants “Sotamayor,” reminding him and the other members of the audience about his vote to put pro-abortion liberal Sonia Sotamayor on the Supreme Court. Graham told the audience that he was staying in the Republican Party and “I'm not going to let it get hijacked by Ron Paul. I'm not a libertarian.”

Graham then went on the attack against Rep. Paul, saying that “we're not going to be the Ron Paul party.” Graham then falsely told the audience that “Ron Paul is a fiscal conservative, but he said George Bush was a war criminal.”

Asked on MSNBC's Ed Show about his supporters' boisterous — but unquestionably well-informed — antics at Greenville's Furman University, Rep. Paul noted that he advises his followers to follow the rules of polite society, a practice he personally practices. “I tell them to use the proper decorum.... Even when Bush was president, and I just couldn't stand his foreign policy, I never went after President Bush... and I don't do this with Obama.”

The leftist host of MSNBC's Ed Show, Ed Schultz, was undoubtedly reveling in the fissure among Republicans. “It looks like you are becoming a target of the Republican Party. How do you feel about that?” Rep. Paul stressed that every House Republican has cosponsored his Audit the Fed bill, H.R. 1207: “What about the fact that I have every single Republican on the audit bill in the House of Representatives?” Rep. Paul also has 120 Democratic sponsors for the legislation.

Graham told the Furman University audience that “I'm not going to leave the party; I'm going to grow the party.” But with the notable exception of Rep. Paul's presidential campaign last year, many GOP rallies last year did indeed look like Grand Old Party (with an emphasis on the word “old”) rallies. The neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party represented by Graham represents an aging and shrinking electoral demographic.

Rep. Paul told the Ed Show that “we're the ones who reach the college kids, the young people. How many Republicans really reach the teenagers and the college kids. Those are the people that are gathering at our rallies. And they have to ask why. What are they going to do with the party ... pandering to the old country club Republicans and acting like Democrats and bailout funds and TARP funds? Those kind of things just won't hold up for the Republican Party. That's why the Republican Party has been losing. And we're suggesting that they live up to what they profess to believe in.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: South Carolina; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 111th; angrymob; gop; gopfuture; gopimplosion; lindseygraham; linseedgrahamnesty; mccainminime; paulestinians; rinos; rinowars; ronpaul; rontards
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1 posted on 10/14/2009 9:10:18 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
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To: djsherin; bamahead; BGHater; cripplecreek
What are they going to do with the party ... pandering to the old country club Republicans and acting like Democrats and bailout funds and TARP funds? Those kind of things just won't hold up for the Republican Party. That's why the Republican Party has been losing. And we're suggesting that they live up to what they profess to believe in.

Ron Paul is right. Lindsey Graham is a fool and a traitor.

2 posted on 10/14/2009 9:11:24 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Kick corrupt Democrats *AND* Republicans out of office in 2010!)
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To: rabscuttle385

Live up to professed beliefs? How are you going to win elections that way? (/s)


3 posted on 10/14/2009 9:13:14 PM PDT by Rocky (OBAMA: Succeeding where bin Laden failed.)
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To: rabscuttle385

I’m having one of those Spanish Civil War (fascists versus communists) moments: in a fight like this, the best you can hope for is lots of casualties.


4 posted on 10/14/2009 9:14:59 PM PDT by Dan Middleton
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To: rabscuttle385

I’m not too fond of either one, for different reasons.


5 posted on 10/14/2009 9:16:44 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: rabscuttle385
My new nickname for Lindsay Grahamnesty is "Liberace".

Cheers!

6 posted on 10/14/2009 9:17:36 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: rabscuttle385

An isolationist, peacecreep, anti-Semite kook versus a pansy, lap-dog, pro-amnesty RINO? A pox on both their houses. I wish both of them would leave the party, toot-sweet!!


7 posted on 10/14/2009 9:18:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2 million for Sarah Palin if she runs; What will you do?)
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To: rabscuttle385
This does show how far the party has fallen. We have gone from debates between Goldwater and Rockefeller, Reagan and Ford to “Vice President” Lindsey Graham and Mr. One Percent Ron Paul. On the one hand you have a fool who favors Global Warming Treaties and Amnesty so he can get good reviews in the Washington Post. And a radical libertarian who wouldn't defend the United States if Osama Bin Laden were walking up 3rd Avenue. To Hell with both of them.
8 posted on 10/14/2009 9:18:50 PM PDT by Patrick1 (I'm not calling in sick; I'm calling in gone!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

LOL...That’s one keyboard ya owe me 2DV!!!
Could not have come up with a better analysis in a hundred years!


9 posted on 10/14/2009 9:26:28 PM PDT by FlashBack ('0'bama: "Katrina on a Global Level")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Patrick1

Well put, both of you.


10 posted on 10/14/2009 9:31:17 PM PDT by Terpfen (FR is being Alinskied. Remember, you only take flak when you're over the target.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Grahamnesty needs to RESIGN and take Mr McGooser McLame with him!


11 posted on 10/14/2009 9:32:42 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bail out)
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To: grey_whiskers

We don’t want the Lindsay Graham Party either, when we are in the middle of a socialized health care battle this idiot jumps in with the previous Presidential candidate on the global warming hoax to help them push more destruction of our economy.

Graham spends his time attacking Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Ron Paul. He should be going after Obama, Kerry, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. The people in South Carolina need to get rid of this fool.


12 posted on 10/14/2009 9:52:28 PM PDT by Steelers6
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To: Patrick1

There is no evidence to support the claim that Paul “wouldn’t defend the United States if Osama Bin Laden were walking up 3rd Avenue”.


13 posted on 10/14/2009 9:53:17 PM PDT by Buchal ("Two wings of the same bird of prey . . .")
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To: rabscuttle385

Graham told the Furman University audience that “I’m not going to leave the party; I’m going to grow the party.”

What a naive nutjob Graham is. Yeah, he’s really going to grow the party by taking the mushy middle. No, more likely he’s going to piss off those of us on the right who are eager to vote for conservatives. If I thought a conservative third party had a snowball’s chance, I’d jump this RINO-run Republican ship in a heartbeat! Even if I remain Republican, I will only vote for conservatives who share most of my views. The RINOs can rot for all I care!


14 posted on 10/14/2009 9:54:41 PM PDT by CitizenUSA
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To: Buchal

Other than what he says?


15 posted on 10/14/2009 10:00:22 PM PDT by Patrick1 (I'm not calling in sick; I'm calling in gone!)
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To: rabscuttle385; djsherin; bamahead; murphE; Extremely Extreme Extremist; Captain Kirk; Gondring; ...

Ping


16 posted on 10/14/2009 10:00:47 PM PDT by djsherin (Government is essentially the negation of liberty.)
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To: grey_whiskers

separated at birth


17 posted on 10/14/2009 10:04:55 PM PDT by murphE ("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." - GK Chesterton)
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To: VRWC For Truth

He sort of reminds you of what people sometimes call a cat that begins with p....


18 posted on 10/14/2009 10:40:58 PM PDT by pankot
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
An isolationist, peacecreep, anti-Semite kook versus a pansy, lap-dog, pro-amnesty RINO?

I am very curious about the charge that Ron Paul is an anti-semite. What do you base this on? I don't recall reading of any anti-semitic comments from him.

19 posted on 10/14/2009 10:42:34 PM PDT by cothrige (Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, ni si me catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret auctoritas.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Ron Paul is perhaps one of the best positioned “Republicans” to be able to lead the pubbies out of this total absence of leadership. This is assuming that he himself is not the frontrunner- his foreign policy won’t work with many conservatives- but his domestic/ fiscal policies are looking better and better. I was not a Ron Paul supporter in the pubbie primaries until all of the conservatives had lost, and it was down to Mccain, Huckabee, and Paul, and I then voted for RP. Of course, I later voted against the Kenyan. Paul has a great following- If he could somehow rally his support to a true conservative ( Palin?) he could REALLY do some good.


20 posted on 10/14/2009 10:49:39 PM PDT by matthew fuller (BHO-Aks not what you can do for your country; Aks only what you can do for ME ME ME!)
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