To reasonable people. You know, people who would think that a member of a loyal opposition would want to help the secretary of state with a difficult matter bearing on a huge international crisis.
Here’s the release from Lee Bright:
Offers Aid to Ultra Liberal Who Embarrassed Himself Last Week
If there were any doubt that Lindsey Graham sees himself as the Senate Republican who helps liberals defeat conservatives in Congress, it was all removed yesterday as an open mic caught Graham in an awkwardly candid moment – offering political help to Secretary of State John Kerry. This is the same John Kerry who displayed an infantile view of the world last week with his “19th century” comments regarding Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine.
In a moment eerily reminiscent of Obama’s unfortunate open mic moment with Dmitry Medvedev – then President and now Prime Minister of Russia – Graham whispered to Kerry to “let me know what I can do to help you with Boehner,” indicating that the S.C. Senator would strong arm the Republican House Speaker.
“I don’t know what it is about Lindsey Graham, but he’s never seen a chance to work with liberals to sabotage his own party that he didn’t take,” said Lee Bright, the Tea Party candidate challenging Graham in the June Senate Primary. “And in this case, he was channeling his inner Obama, trying to work with a Secretary of State who just a week ago made a fool of himself on the international stage. When he knows the microphone is on, Graham pretends to be this big conservative. We see the real Lindsey exposed in this instance. Then again, I think a lot of South Carolina voters already know the real Lindsey Graham.”
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How about that weird touch, implying that the reason likely GOP primary voters wouldn’t want anyone to help Kerry is because of some faux pas he committed last week. You would think that all he would need would be to say “John Kerry,” because the SecState is, after all, John Kerry. Given his rep among Republicans, of course, the “ultra-liberal” tag is redundant, but this is coming from a segment of the GOP where redundant constructions are all the rage (how about that weird one I keep seeing, “left liberal”?).
Is the release written this way because Bright thinks his likely supporters aren’t very, you know, Bright? Why else would he have to over-explain who John Kerry is, right down to the non-sequitur about something he said last week? Does he think they can’t remember as far back as 2004?
As for what Graham said…
That is exactly the kind of behavior we should expect of our elected representatives of both parties. It was reminiscent of the collegiality that was once so common in the Senate, and which made the deliberative process possibly under difficult circumstances. It was a moment in which an honest lawmaker said, “Look, all partisan B.S. aside, you’re dealing with a difficult foreign policy situation, and I’m an American, and I’m here to help.”
Good for Lindsey. It’s good that we have at least one Senator in Washington who still understands that the idiocy is supposed to stop at the water’s edge.
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Would it not be nice if the idiocy just stopped?
Yes. A thousand times yes.
Bright has and gives no clue as to what issue Graham is offering help on. The slam at Graham is typical of the “any smear available” strategy rampant in our politics these days. Guilt by association has been used from way before the McCarthy era until now. As far as Graham’s understanding that idiocy stops at the water’s edge, I would suggest that his militaristic and belligerent public pronouncements on most foreign policy issues suggest otherwise. He is usually among the first to loudly and publicly criticize US foreign policy unless it involves threats, bombs, providing weapons to combatants, or heavy sanctions backed by military contingencies.
Actually, both Graham and McCain had indicated their willingness to help the president on national security, from the very start of the Obama administration. Here’s a picture from those days.
They just haven’t shown much support since they started their Benghazi thing….
Both, but especially Graham, criticized the Iraq wind-down, the Afghanistan wind-down, the original Libyan policy of only air support and no non-military targets (until Khadafi croaked and he commented on the need to get in on the money to be made from Libyan oil). He wanted bombing in Iran at least a couple of times, wanted the Syrian opposition armed to the teeth, went wild on the Benghazi mistake, and now wants to bully Russia. With that kind of help, I don’t think I would need enemies.
“collegiality” = the English translation for “quid pro quo”
Well, some of us are more communitarian than a road warrior army of one….
You have no idea what I do or how I do it.
The difference between me and a politician is that the only thing I can use to barter with my colleagues is my own skills… not other people’s money.
Seems like Secretary Kerry needs all the help he can get. I also offer my help.
But nobody ever listens to me.
It’s these behind-the-scenes moments that give me hope that the hyper-partisanship we’re experiencing now will eventually pass, or at least revert to showmanship and that thoughtful policy-driven decisions will win out. I want my senator to be offering help to other government officials. They’re political opponents, not enemies. Graham can say some annoying things, but in his heart he’s a pragmatist.
Lee Bright’s facebook followers that comment on his page sound terribly angry, and quite a few quite uneducated about matters related to foreign policy.
I’m not expert, but some of the conspiracy theory stuff posted by his followers on his facebook page make the JFK conspiracy stuff look tame.
It’s no surprise he’s at single digits in the Winthrop poll.