More South Carolina Republicans censure Lindsey Graham

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Poor Lindsey Graham -- I say facetiously. Other than best pal John McCain, and maybe a few other senators, no one seems to like him, including in his solidly red home state of South Carolina, where he has been censured yet again by his own party:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who often finds himself out of step with the most conservative elements of his party, was censured by yet another GOP county party committee Monday night.

In recent months, Graham has been censured by GOP party committees in Lexington and Charleston counties. On Monday, the Greenville GOP Executive Committee passed a censure resolution by a vote of 61-2.

"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Greenville County Republican Party hereby issues this formal rebuke of Senator Graham for his cooperation and support of President Obama and the Democratic Party's liberal agenda for the United States," the resolution reads.

The resolution says Graham will no longer be invited to participate in meetings or other events sponsored by the Greenville County Republican Party, and alleges Graham has "abandoned the Republican platform."

As evidence, the resolution cites Graham's votes in favor of TARP, his stance on immigration and his vote in favor of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Graham has said he will also vote for Elena Kagan, President Obama's second nominee to the high court.

Yes, but Graham also pulled back on immigration, as well as on the comprehensive energy/climate bill he was co-sponsoring with Kerry and Lieberman, and it takes a great leap of stupidity (common among Republicans everywhere these days) to accuse him of supporting any sort of "liberal agenda."

Not that I'm defending him, mind you (even if I'm a bit sympathetic, given the vicious heat he's taken from the right with respect to his sexuality). He can be a bit mavericky now and then, but he usually tows the GOP line and is for the most part reliably conservative -- where was he on health-care reform, for example?

If there's anything wrong with him from a right-wing Republican perspective, it's not that he's a Democrat in Republican clothing (as, perhaps, one could say of Charlie Crist), it's that he seems to lack a principled core, an unwavering commitment to the increasingly extremist positions of the new right-wing "mainstream" of the party, the mainstream of Dear Leader Rush, the teabaggers, Fox News, and radicals on Capitol Hill. In that, perhaps he deserves to be censured, and perhaps censure is a sign that he's doing something right, or at least that he's not as bad as the rest of his party is. One just wishes that he actually had the courage and conviction to stand up to, and against, his increasingly extremist party on a more regular basis instead of succumbing to egotism and political opportunism.