Posted on 12/22/2010 2:25:08 PM PST by SharpRightTurn
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at fellow Republicans Tuesday for a "capitulation ... of dramatic proportions" to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress.
Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for allowing ratification of the New START Treaty and other legislation in the period before new lawmakers are sworn in in January.
"When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch," Graham said on Fox News radio. "This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn't have passed in the new Congress."
Republican senators have broken with the party's leaders on several key votes in order to advance some of President Obama's top policies during the lame-duck. GOP members defected to pass a repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" and have done likewise to secure likely ratification for the START Treaty. Some Republicans might allow a health bill for 9/11 first responders to move forward, while three Republicans voted to end debate on the DREAM Act, an ultimately unsuccessful immigration bill.
The hard-charging lame-duck Congress has led Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House to claim a successful post-election legislative session. That came after nearly two years of griping from Democratic leaders about Republican "obstructionism" on a variety of bills, including many of the unfinished items being addressed now.
"I can understand the Democrats being afraid of the new Republicans; I can't understand Republicans being afraid of the new Republicans," Graham lamented on WTMA radio. "They're not opportunities to take everything you couldn't do for two years and jam it. It's literally what they're doing, across the board. And after a while, I stop blaming them, and I blame us."
Graham blamed outgoing Republican senators in particular.
"They have used the power of the Senate against the minority, and we have, quite frankly, a handful of us have been letting them do it. And a lot of the people who are doing this got beat. And that's what makes me so upset," he said. "It makes me disappointed that, with a new group of Republicans coming in, we could get a better deal on almost everything."
For once, I agree with Goober
I had to look twice, and I’m still flabbergasted.
He’s only mad because the amnesty wasn’t part of the capitulation.
“Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves”
He’s out next primary. He’s a democrat, and this is just him taking an opportunity to attack republicans generally.
Not that I approve of the other pubbie Senators rolling over lately, but LG is hardly in a position to get after other pubbies here, given his history.
The republicans that voted with the deomcrats are also socialists and therefore knew that none of their agenda would have passed next month.
Pot...kettle...
This is Lindsay trying to look like he’s moving to the right.
That’s rich, coming from the Neville Chamberlain of the GOP.
Uber RINO Lindsey Ping
"Republican by day, Democrat by night."
Want on or off this ping list?
Just FReepmail me.
h/t to martin_fierro for the graphic
I hope this isn’t setting the stage for the next two years.
Lindsay is our puppet master, throwing bones and red meat to the little people, the conservatives who elect him. He is good for conservative theatre 1/10 times, in re-election cycles, but has proved time after time that you don’t want him in your foxhole.
It’s bad when “Ashley” is right.
Have we ever had such a pathetic group of republican senators before?
They are not going to “blame” themselves. It is what they wanted, revenge on the Tea Party and the people that rejected the Old line country club and big government Republicans,
I'd have used the word "sodomization," but I lack that spirit of senatorial collegiality.
At least he said out loud what we all ought to be thinking.
Mr. niteowl77
A day late and a dollar short. I am no fan of Grahamnesty but this is the type of public humiliation by Republican senators that is needed to reign in the feckless senate RINOs. Cut the cash and perks off now to all back stabbing RINOs. Then hang them out to dry.
Lindsey has “Broken Clock Syndrome”.
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