The conflicting personas of Lindsey Graham were on display over the weekend.
On Saturday morning, seeing that the House Intelligence Committee had completely exonerated the Obama administration on Benghazi, I looked for reaction from our senior senator. I found none either on his Twitter feed nor in my email inbox, so I wrote to Graham aide Kevin Bishop, seeking a response. I still haven’t heard from Kevin (it was, after all, the weekend), but I see CNN got a response out of the senator. He said the panel’s report was “full of crap.” And then he did a poor job of supporting that statement. (His rambling about this official said this, and that official said that, sounds like Trekkies arguing about whether Gene Roddenberry was wrong not to do a followup episode to “The Trouble with Tribbles.” It’s just so esoteric, and seemingly moot.)
You can hear his comments above.
Meanwhile, on immigration, while doing the standard GOP thing of blaming the president, he also gave both barrels to the obstructionists in his own party:
“Shame on us as Republicans,” he added. “Shame on us as Republicans for having a body that cannot generate a solution to an issue that is national security, it’s cultural and it’s economic.”
Dismissing talk of impeachment and pointing to bills passed in the Senate that have stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Graham continued, “I’m close to the people in the House, but I’m disappointed in my party. Are we still the party of self-deportation? Is it the position of the Republican Party that the 11 million must be driven out?”
It’s hard being Lindsey Graham. Everybody lets you down…
I wish he could just coherently explain to us what he wants with regard to Benghazi. It seems that he’s still obsessing over what Susan Rice said. Well, I long ago just learned to disregard most of what Susan Rice says, and Sens. Graham and John McCain did a lot to help me reach that conclusion, so, mission accomplished.
But he just. Keeps. Going. ON about it…
There was one excuse for pursuing investigation on Benghazi — to learn from the event so as to prevent future embassy/consulate security disasters. We should try to identify mistakes made, so as to make sure nothing like this happens again.
What Susan Rice said just seems to have become irrelevant SO long ago. I mean, what she said was already wrong and inoperative before she said it. It made no difference to anything that happened in the real world, except to tell us we shouldn’t put her in sensitive positions of responsibility. Which the president seems to have some compulsion to do, which is problematic.
But it doesn’t make the committee’s report “full of crap.”
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Trey Gowdy’s commission is a different one than the Intelligence Commission. It is pretty confusing; but I think Boehner chose to give Gowdy all the rope he would need to hang himself with his own little duplicate special commission, should he choose to do so. So far, it looks like he has declined to make a spectacle of his opportunity.
Anytime a party releases a potentially politically-charged report like this on the Friday before a major holiday; they clearly want no one to notice. Graham had something much more than a tin ear on this.
Oh, you’re absolutely right! Sorry that I conflated the two. I guess it’s because, to me, one House committee investigating Benghazi seems quite sufficient. Silly me…
Here, by the way, is the reaction to the House Intelligence Committee report from the Benghazi Accountability Coalition (tagline, “America deserves the truth”).
An excerpt:
And so we have yet another “birther” moment, where facts and faith collide.
I’ve never been more proud of a vote than I am today about my vote against Lindsey Graham. This man is an embarrassment to himself, his nation and his state. What does Graham THINK he knows about Benghazi that no one else seems able to find?
But he got to sputter “Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi! Bengazi!” on national TV.
I wonder how much all these hearings have cost taxpayers?