# Only speak good of the dead. Lindsey Graham is dead. Good **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 12, 2026, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619 "2026-07-12T12:01:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/81 "2026-07-14T20:48:34Z")
NYT reporter gleefully recalls the time she went to interview Graham after a mass shooting, and he called her “icky” and told her to put on a dress if she wanted to talk to him. > **['Uh, what?' Lindsey Graham tribute inadvertently reveals 'bizarre' fetish](https://www.rawstory.com/lindsey-graham-reporter-dress-request/)** > > A reporter's tribute to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) backfired this week after it unwittingly revealed a request from the lawmaker that left her colleagues aghast.Following Graham's death of an aortic dissection at 71, Atlantic reporter Ashley... ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/82 "2026-07-14T21:31:00Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > He was the stereotypical toad who sucked up to the powerful. That’s how he deserves to be remembered. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/83 "2026-07-14T22:02:04Z")
IOW An excreble example of some of the worst humanity has to offer. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/84 "2026-07-14T22:19:43Z")
Speaking good of the dead: here’s an especially nausea-inducing tribute: > [@](#): > > Lindsey was a patriot. He had the courage to stand. And he was a steward for liberty. > > He was a friend, who foresaw the way Big Labs would kill our inventions, and told me to never stop fighting. For good. For the right to low cost healthcare. For the American dream. I promise. We will never stop fighting. - [Elizabeth Holmes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes) ([on Twitter](https://x.com/ElizabethHolmes/status/2077065245458043137)) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/85 "2026-07-14T22:24:26Z")
Conmen gonna con. It’s what they do. Easy enough to assume any utterance from her piehole is a self-serving lie and the truth is the polar opposite. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/86 "2026-07-14T22:37:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Honestly, I suspect that most homophobes nowadays are themselves gay. […] > > The second path to homophobia, though, starts from assuming that everyone must have the same urges that you have, and that everyone else must therefore be working hard to suppress those urges. In this view, those who don’t suppress their urges must be sinful, or at least weak. But this path to homophobia simply doesn’t make sense in anyone who doesn’t themself have homosexual urges. I would point out hat this does not require the person to be gay. They could be bisexual. Or even mostly straight. Just that they’ve had the urges. I would also disagree there are only two paths. There is at least a third: hatred for those who are different. Not merely because of ignorance, but because THEY are not like US. They don’t adhere to what my tribe says people should do. There are plenty of white supremacists who are not unfamiliar with black people, and they definitely aren’t secretly black. But them black people are different. And thus they must be responsible for societies ills. If only everyone were like us, things would be great! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/87 "2026-07-14T23:09:50Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I would also disagree there are only two paths. There is at least a third: hatred for those who are different. Not merely because of ignorance, but because THEY are not like US. They don’t adhere to what my tribe says people should do. There’s an element of “they are different and I don’t like that”, and also an element of “I understand how the world works; men like women and vice versa, there are two genders and everyone is one or the other, and one gender is like this and the other is like that”. Anything that contradicts that simplicity is bad and needs to be rejected. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/88 "2026-07-14T23:10:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Honestly, I suspect that most homophobes nowadays are themselves gay. That would make queer people the only minority that is primarily oppressed by itself, which would be pretty weird. Lots of White people hate Black people without being secretly Black. Lots of Christians hate Jews without being secretly Jewish. Lots of men hate women without being secretly women. I suspect that the same is true of homophobes, and that the vast majority of them are, in fact, heterosexual. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/89 "2026-07-14T23:27:55Z")
There is also a great deal of social control exerted through the normative family unit of man + woman + children. By opting out of that pattern, out gay men remind women that opting out is, in fact, an option, and there’s a lot of resistance to that, as every perfectly straight unmarried and / or childless person over a certain age well knows. Lindsey Graham wasn’t married, but I think that by being closeted and homophobic, he performed “fighting for normalcy” extra loud. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/90 "2026-07-15T00:08:35Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Ukraine lost one of its most vocal supporters in Washington this weekend following the death of US Sen. Lindsey Graham, **which came just hours after he returned from a trip to Kyiv.** > > My bolding. > > Am I the only one who is a bit suspicious about this timing? I think it is one of two things based upon what I know about you as a poster: 1. It is total coincidence, but you are just guessing or don’t know about it. Okay, that’s fine. 2. It is total coincidence, but you are trying to stir shit up deliberately even though you know it to probably be untrue. This fits a bit more in line with how I know you to be as a poster That’s all. There is no middle ground. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/91 "2026-07-15T01:11:38Z")
Or it’s not total coincidence, but a known occasional side effect of long plane journeys. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/92 "2026-07-15T08:49:10Z")
Given the timing and the things we _know_ Russia has done, it’s a reasonable thing to speculate about. It’s only a “conspiracy theory” if you insist it **must** be what happened. At present it looks like Graham died of a normal (to the extent these things are “normal”) aortic dissection. That doesn’t mean it was wrong to consider foul play initially. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/93 "2026-07-15T09:30:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > and that the vast majority of them are, in fact, heterosexual. I agree… but… Quite often the most flagrant homophobes turn out to be bi or gay. The less homophobic, well, just dont care, and feel free to be bi, gay, straight, asexual, whatever. Old wattle-face Lindsay was a product of his time, in which homosexuality was in many cases illegal and in others frowned upon. But this is a new century! He had years of his life, since widespread societal acceptance, to just casually say, “yes, I am gay”. Yes, it would have killed his political ambitions. But - very much IMHO - success in a political career is far less important than success in a happy, meaningful life. Sure, the money is good, but as the Beatles sung “money can’t buy you love”. He was a horrible man, with much to be despised; but I cannot help feeling sorry for the Lady within him who was probably a better person all round. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/94 "2026-07-15T13:47:25Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > Yes, it would have killed his political ambitions. But - very much IMHO - success in a political career is far less important than success in a happy, meaningful life. Alas, for some people their political career IS what they feel gives meaning to their life. Look at all those other people older than him in Capitol Hill clinging to their seats unto death. Their _identity_ has become being Senator So-and-so or Former Speaker Whozit. The moral failure of nerve lies in not being willing to risk letting it go lest it _cost_ them the only way they remember any more how to live. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/95 "2026-07-15T14:07:24Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > …very much IMHO - success in a political career is far less important than success in a happy, meaningful life. Power, or at least the semblance of it, is a powerfully addictive drug. ---
**Author:** ![keeganst94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@keeganst94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeganst94)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/96 "2026-07-15T14:08:10Z")
But what made Lindsey Graham happiest in life was funding the US military and killing foreigners, and he can’t do that if he’s not in power. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/97 "2026-07-16T04:34:52Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > > Ukraine lost one of its most vocal supporters in Washington this weekend following the death of US Sen. Lindsey Graham, **which came just hours after he returned from a trip to Kyiv.** > > > > My bolding. > > > > Am I the only one who is a bit suspicious about this timing? > > I think it is one of two things based upon what I know about you as a poster: > > 1. It is total coincidence, but you are just guessing or don’t know about it. Okay, that’s fine. > 2. It is total coincidence, but you are trying to stir shit up deliberately even though you know it to probably be untrue. This fits a bit more in line with how I know you to be as a poster > > That’s all. There is no middle ground. No, it was a legitimate thought that was held by many, which led to a discussion here that came to the conclusion it was unlikely to be the case. If Russians could get at him through the levels of security he would have, they would have already taken down Zelensky. Still, it was indeed prudent to check for the cause, because unlikely doesn’t mean impossible. And your assessment of EP’s posting is bizarre. There are posters who enjoy stirring up shit, but he is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/98 "2026-07-16T18:24:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And your assessment of EP’s posting is bizarre. There are posters who enjoy stirring up shit, but he is not one of them. I had the same reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/99 "2026-07-16T20:05:14Z")
It seems to me that this is a personal distaste masquerading as an objective observation of a poster’s behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619/100 "2026-07-18T15:29:01Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I think it is one of two things based upon what I know about you as a poster: From what I know about you as a poster, I know that you’ve been through some tough times, and assume that you were having a bad day. Hope things are looking up for you now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-speak-good-of-the-dead-lindsey-graham-is-dead-good/1031619.md?page=6)