I agree with this completely. His opposition to Trump, pre-election was fierce and his turnaround and total support, including maybe putting himself in legal jeopardy, is much worse than any of them. He could just say a few words of support, like McConnell, without calling Georgia to try and overturn an election.
I think it’s clear someone has something on him.
The only other total outlier in my book is Ted Cruz – Trump has said the most awful things about him and his family, and he just laps it up. But, Ted Cruz is a truly awful person. Until Trump, I wouldn’t have said that about Graham.
There’s “Going along to get along”, and then there’s “Whole hearted support”. Sure, in 2016, when it became obvious that Trump was to be the nominee, and then president, it made sense for GOP members of Congress to bend the knee, just to keep themselves out of the line of fire.
But this absolute toady act? That’s not essential. Going out of their way to defend the indefensible? That’s more than just going along.
Since, as has been pointed out, Graham has been believed by many to have been gay for some time. I don’t know if he is being blackmailed, but if he is logic dictates that it has to be for something more damning that mere gayness.
I’m reminded of how a gaggle of them popped up behind a podium and denounced the FBI search before they had any facts whatsoever. It was probably the same gang that coined the phrase “legitimate political discourse”. Retired old school Rs sure aren’t speaking up either, and they have nothing to lose.
The life of a Congressman or Senator is 99.9% getting re-election money. They do very little actual legislating. The people their donors like write the legislation and they obediently sign their names to it. I doubt there is a single person in the US Congress today who has ever personally written a law. Maybe Bernie Sanders, but it didn’t get passed.
Their time is spent on the phone trying to get money for their re-election campaign. Their viability as a candidate is measured by how much they raise, and the amount that constitutes viability goes up algorithmically from one cycle to the next. Lindsey has made a career of sucking up to people for money, and Trump’s SuperPac is loaded.
Many people think he is the one who hit on Cawthorn. There are rumors that he is an enthusiastic bottom, which would be fine if he didn’t support anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. I bring that up only to confirm that he has no integrity and never did.
What is completely bizarre to me is why more of them don’t retire. Many would get almost the same pay they do now, and would be feted as heroes at home. Further, they could clean up on speaker’s fees by doing just a few speeches per year.
Why are they still slithering around DC well into their 80’s?!?
Power and influence. They’re all wealthy, so it doesn’t matter that they could make more money on the talk circuit. Elder congresscritters can do most anything they want so long as they don’t piss off their voter base, and they answer to basically nobody.
Their life and or safety. Then their career afterwards, usually full of overpriced speeches.
Old news here but still:
Since leaving office at the end of July 2009, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has brought in at least 100 times her old salary – a haul now estimated at more than $12 million – through television and book deals and a heavy schedule of speaking appearances worth five and six figures.
If you are a serving Republican, they do a Liz Cheney on you.
So if you do have scruples- and few do- they threaten you, cut off the flow of money, and vote you out.
What kind of idiots pay real money to hear that dried husk’s bloviations, or buy her books? How fucking hungry for entertainment do you have to be? This is indeed a disturbing timeline.
I think some of us are more perplexed by Graham because he had a fairly good reputation before (unlike, say, Cruz). Watching him only from afar, I would have expected more of a Romney situation where he votes with his party all the time, but at least expresses some discomfort over the the obnoxiousness of the Former President.
Lindsay Graham is the one I always wished was on the liberal side of things. I just thought he was amusing and had a fun laugh. Then he started to go rabid.
I think the reason that the rumors that LG I’d being blackmailed go to the trajectory of his support for Trump. He was a vocal critic of Trump long after most Republicans had acquiesced, he had ONE private meeting with Trump, a golf game, IIRC - and he emerged from that meeting with his tongue firmly implanted in Trump’s ass.
I don’t know what happened in that meeting. Maybe Trump did let him know he had a picture of him wearing nothing but a dog leash and a poodle tail buttplug. I think it’s more likely that Trump just let him know that if he didn’t jump on the Trump train that Trump would destroy him personally and politically but if he did he could hang out at Mar-a-Largo and get unlimited free beer and chicken fingers. A carrot and stick approach, as it were.
I’ll admit though, sometimes his public statements and actions, like some of the election fraud stuff, have the feel of coercion -like someone called him and said “You need to go on Fox and say this particular outrageous thing, or else. Maybe it’s not so much that he’s being blackmailed but that he knows there are aspects of his life that make him vulnerable.
Isn’t this the same thing? Simply by building a solid reputation of being reckless, cruel and amoral, Trump could have blackmailed Graham by saying “I have evidence of you doing you-know-what, and the way I’ll let know what ‘you know what’ is will be by going public with it, unless you agree to do my bidding for the rest of your life.” Isn’t that blackmail?