The Mainstream Media’s New ‘Favorite Republican’
The mainstream media have been searching for a new favorite Republican ever since John McCain won the presidential nomination in the spring of 2008. Clearly, McCain couldn’t be allowed to continue in that role because of the risk that it might have helped him win the presidency.
Favorite Republican really shouldn’t be a hard spot to fill. The only qualifications required are an eagerness to abandon conservative principles in order to further fashionable liberal issues, and a general ineffectualness at pursuing conservative goals.
Several prominent Republicans come immediately to mind as being well qualified.
It’s taken awhile, but after a long audition, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has won the job. Increasing, as well as increasingly favorable, mainstream media attention culminated on Sunday when Thomas L. Friedman anointed Graham in his New York Times column. Friedman’s fawning interview is headlined: “How the GOP Goes Green.”
As often happens when the subject knows his interviewer is friendly, Graham lets down his guard and says several revealing things.
Most stunning is Senator Graham’s explanation of why he supports energy-rationing policies to address global warming: it’s so college students will like him. Should you think I’m fabricating this or exaggerating, let me quote Friedman’s column:
Look at how he is received in colleges today. “Instead of just being one more short, white Republican over 50,” says Graham, “I am now semi-cool. There is an awareness by young people that I am doing something different.”
If this makes Senator Graham sound like a nitwit, that could be misleading. Friedman also mentions that one major corporation is counting on Graham to bail them out. General Electric, which manufactures wind turbines in Greenville, South Carolina, has been one of the biggest corporate supporters of energy rationing legislation for a simple reason. Besides windmills, they make a bewildering variety of industrial and consumer products (including nuclear reactors) that will be in much higher demand if government artificially raises energy prices.
And there’s also Duke Energy, a large electric utility holding company with a branch in South Carolina. Duke’s Chairman James Rogers is an old Enron hand who has become the leading corporate lobbyist for cap-and-trade legislation. Rogers hopes to make billions in windfall profits if it is enacted.
Wow!
I did not know this Lindsey Graham, and I’ve known him for years. In fact, I was the GOP county chair in Oconee County, Lindsey’s home county, when he first ran for Congress in 1994. Who knew he was a pawn for big energy? Golly!
It is amazing how the far right can manipulate facts the same way the far left does. What is left out of this hit piece is the fact that Duke Power is a huge factor in South Carolina and a major source of jobs. The nuclear industry is huge in South Carolina and a major source of jobs. GE is working in Greenville, SC and with Clemson University to provide – JOBS. South Carolina has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country, but that is not mentioned in the article, is it?
Then, Ebell completely MISQUOTES the college comment. This is the rest of the quote:
“…“I have been to enough college campuses to know if you are 30 or younger this climate issue is not a debate. It’s a value. These young people grew up with recycling and a sensitivity to the environment — and the world will be better off for it. They are not brainwashed. … From a Republican point of view, we should buy into it and embrace it and not belittle them. You can have a genuine debate about the science of climate change, but when you say that those who believe it are buying a hoax and are wacky people you are putting at risk your party’s future with younger people. You can have a legitimate dispute about how to solve immigration, but when you start focusing on the last names of people the demographics will pass you by.”…” http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/01/sen-lindsey-graham-gop-puts-own-future-at-risk-by-denying-climate-change/
Ebell also mis-represents what Lindsey was trying to do with the cap/trade thing, but then again, the far right has been lying about that one since Lindsey dared write an article with John Kerry. The idea behind imposed cap/trade rules was to STOP people like Obama and the EPA from doing what ever they want and put LIMITS on just what an out of control regulatory agency could do. But, if you add that to the article it makes Lindsey look good, and look like a Republican, and Lindsey Graham is evil and must be destroyed, right?
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
Another fake Republican…yeah, just what we need, Marxist media. Graham needs to be dispatched in the SC primary, ala Rubio/Crist and Hayworth/McCain. Say no to RINOs.
Graham has been a far left collectivist for at least 6 years. I knew nothing about him before 03 but since then everything he says or does says big govt collectivist. No wonder the MSM has kind words for him!
#1 SJR
You said ” What is left out of this hit piece is the fact that Duke Power is a huge factor in South Carolina and a major source of jobs. The nuclear industry is huge in South Carolina and a major source of jobs. GE is working in Greenville, SC and with Clemson University to provide – JOBS. South Carolina has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country, but that is not mentioned in the article, is it?”
Isn’t that admitting that Sen Graham is working for special interests groups by making sure the legislation he backs is good for that specail interest. If those companies can not make in the free market then they should be alouded to fail. You are the type of Republican that we need to fight against. Your for small government until you need something, then it’s spend, tax, spend & repeat. I hope the good people of SC get rid of him in 2014.
Hey SJ Reidhead blow your BS out your Lefist backside pal.
Any casual follower of our political scene knows what a liberal sellout Graham is.
This jerk needs to fired by Republicans in his next primary
Looks like this RINO is a good poster-boy for why republicans aren’t better than democrats. The extended quote from the pink flamingo makes graham look worse in my eyes.
Guess the politicians are in the washington media bubble to the point where they don’t realize that the average voter sees global warming as a scam.
Another thing SJR, what the hell do you mean by the far right?
I guess that means anybody that supports those dead white men that wrote that terribly “flawed” [as Barack Hussein likes to say] document known as our Constitution.
“…but when you start focusing on the last names of people the demographics will pass you by.”
Nobody on the center-right gives a damn about race and ethnicity. This is simply a slanderous accusation. Lindsey Graham is humiliating himself by repeating it. Illegal immigrants are often of a darker complexion—but that has nothing whatsoever to do with the core problem. It is humorous to find a lefty defending Senator Graham. With friends like this—he does not need any enemies.
Well, SJ Reidhead, as long as it is good for the busiensses in your local community let’s go ahead and screw over the rest of us. Great idea. This attitude is what makes us all wonder if Republicans can be a viable alternative. But maybe if you keep pandering to the brainwashed kids you can keep sticking it to us anyway.
The MSM’s ‘favorite Republican‘?
‘Nuff said.
*GAG*
1. SJ Reidhead:
The idea behind imposed cap/trade rules was to STOP people like Obama and the EPA from doing what ever they want and put LIMITS on just what an out of control
regulatory agency could do.
Wow! LIAR! I’ll apologize only if you can back that BS up with something substantial? So, well – LIAR!
dear pink flamingo
we have been losing for YEARS because your pals (lindsey and john Mc and company) have been giving the far left just SOME of what they want. That way we don’t get the whole thing….YET. IT WILL HAPPEN. When you give them an inch THEY WILL GET THE MILE. And ANYTHING co-sponsored by kerry is toxic garbage. You only proved the point pal.
#1 SJR
What jobs will cap & trade generate in SC? A couple of carbon traders sitting at a desk maybe – making paper profits for Duke at the expense of energy consumers. Not real jobs producing energy – there will be less of them. And nation wide this legislation will be a massive job killer.
Lindsey is exactly the kind of Rino that will be going extinct shortly. Can you recall a Senator?
I thought the fave had to have “Cheney” somewhere in their name? (Or is that only on FNC?)
McCain is still fairly prevalent on the Sunday morning “news” shows. Don’t count out McCranky.
Who should the favorite annointed Republican?
What about the gifts from KY – McConnell or Bunning? Or another SC fave, deMint? Or maybe go North and pick out that crazy like a (Virginia) Foxx? What about the pretty ones like Bachmann or Ryan from Fargo-land?
Or are you going to finalize the adoption of Lieberman and make him your top dog?
Or will it be Palin?
What planet does Graham live on? There has been no significant warming since 1995. And as the climate science develops, researchers are now discovering that recent warming up to 1995 was a result of multiple factors, not just CO2….
http://www.c3headlines.com/2010/03/latest-scientific-research-co2-contribution-to-global-warming-is-dropping-like-a-rock-less-than-10-o.html
Graham needs to get up-to-speed on what is really going on and quit listening to the special interests, like GE, Duke, Soros and Gore, who want higher carbon prices that will enhance their business/investment prospects.
People of South Carolina – you can do better. Replace Graham first chance you get.
#1- I think ‘pink flamingo’ is an apt moniker for both you and Lindsey.
Lapdog Lindsey, as we call him in this part of the state, is an embarassment to true Conservatives throughout the state. He won reelection due to the RINOs /libs, and the uninformed from the middle of the state down to the coast ( including the” Chawlston” crowd). WE can only hope and pray he will get the axe next election, or one of the skeletons in his closet pops out. I think if that happens, he will declare himself an Independent, or an outright Democrat, as they seem to have no problems with their candidate’s orientation. . .
keeping Senator Graham accountable doesn’t mean overburdening him and his style with envious and cynical media bias
Mr Graham is very much in love with himself. The second most dangerous place in Washington is between Lindsay Graham and a television camera. The most dangerous place being between Schumer and a television camera. He had a primary challenger in 2008, however he managed to fool conservatives again. After Boxer made a fool of him on the senate floor you would think he would understand the other party better. He objected to Holder but voted for him, he stated that if he had made the comment that Sotomayer made he would be toast but voted for her. Just curious Mr Graham, where is that gang of 14 that you were so proud of in 2005? It is funny that now that the gang would benefit the republicans they have disappeared, and by design I would suggest
So poster person #1, SJ Reidhead, is so far left he sees only vaguely peripherally and as “far right” those of us who are its Sovereign Owners and who love America for its Founding Law — and not for the manure it provides the noxious weed that is the power lust that thrives in the vacant lot of Lindsey Graham’s empty mind.
That is, he, like Comrade Graham — and every other self-anointed elitist/statist — is so far removed from the American mainstream as to have no idea of who and what we are.
Lindsey’s a worthless RINO. The only thing that we can trust from Linsdsey is that we cannot trust him.
Wow! Pretty harsh comments for South Carolina’s senior senator. But . . . he probably deserves them.
I’ve never trusted this man. He is so very unctuous in his manner that the grease of insincerity fairly oozes from his pores. I should add that unlike some commenters, I don’t believe Lindsey (quite lovely name) is an homosexual. But, as the Southern dandy, he is so very light in his loafers that it makes even me cringe — and I say that as a card-carrying GWM.
Moreover, he apparently grabs for issues, or positions, merely to distinguish himself from his caucus. Until recently, this habit has primarily taken the form of acting as John McCain’s bidet. The NYT profile, as well as the Guatanamo-KSM quid pro quo & the green foray, seems like part of a concerted PR effort by Graham to stand up, wipe of his nose and step out as the Republican member most likely to sell out his caucus at the next crucial moment.