No one could have predicted that Lindsey Graham would play Lucy to John Kerry’s Charlie Brown.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) abandoned his effort to push a climate and energy bill Saturday, saying he would continue only if Democratic leaders promise to relinquish plans to bring up immigration legislation first.
Graham’s departure likely dooms any chance of passing a climate bill this year. He is the sole Republican working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a compromise proposal that they had planned to unveil Monday.
I have no idea whether or not Sen. Graham will make good on his threat, but it doesn’t pay to trust John McCain’s best buddy when you’re trying to get some bipartisanship. Either climate change is important or its not. Withholding support for a climate bill because of the order in which it is prioritized doesn’t even make a modicum of sense.
And wasn’t Huckleberry supposed to be one of the few Republicans willing to work on some kind of sane immigration reform as well?
So they said. But I spoke with some immigration reform advocates last week who had seen some of the proposed language in the immigration bill in the works, and hated it. So “sane” may be a very fluid term.
But since I’m an optimist, one possible positive scenario of how this could all play out:
It could happen.
On #3 above: Harry Reid is banking on the Immigration reform debate getting the newly politically active Latinos in Nevada excited and going door-to-door for him, registering voters and getting them to the polls, like they did for Obama in 2008. They were very effective.
At least as described/speculated on the leftie side, the climate bill sounds like it might mostly be a waste of perfectly good paper. Unlike healthcare, it’s not the kind of thing that can be a base on which to build incremental improvements. It’s also something that can wait a year. So I like your scenario and hope you’re right about it being a possibility. Makes sense to me. I wish I had a little more faith in Dem susceptibility to sense, though. Here’s hoping.
puts the whole thing into context: LINK
Very cute: the anti-immigration folks threaten to out Graham to get him to do their dirty work, at the same time claiming that that’s why he’s on board with climate change legislation. And look, he folds.
Exactly.
Which is why equality for gays is so important. It’s been used as leash for gay politicians for years. One can argue that the ascent of the CIA in post-WWII America came in large part because of J. Edgar’s neutralization by those photos held on by James Jesus Angleton.
I suspect that the number of gays in the Republican hierarchy (hello, Mitch) is precisely because they can be controlled and manipulated, witness Lindsey’s latest backflip. And speaking of which, imagine the leash that would have been around John Edwards’ neck. So no one should discount the old saw about politics being “bribes, bedrooms, blackmail and bullets.” One way or another, anyone can be controlled.
I think Graham understands that the Immigration fight is not one the Republicans can hope to win, that’s probably why he’s pulling this crap.
Personally I think Graham’s promise is toothless, not necessarily because he won’t keep it but because getting both things done is really impossible now (and really will be next year as well). Actually I think this plays into the Democrats’ hands and Graham comes away looking worse (he’s probably already pissed off the Republican base in South Carolina by even trying to work with the Democrats, and now he’ll piss off moderates by flipping).
He’d rather hold climate change legislation hostage to his legislative whims.
The trap we all continually fall into is assuming that once we have logic on the table that the Lindsey Graham’s of our world will pull up a chair. It’s never been about empiracle evidence in their world.
Wouldn’t you rather win an election than have a livable planet? Wouldn’t you rather sit in the ruins of a once-great country and call the shots rather than run the risk of someone else performing that task?
The Party of No, yeah, that’s true, but even more the party of Me.
I wanna know who actually took him seriously?
I certainly didn’t.
during the Clinton impeachment and he hasn’t changed.
Again and again I say: CALL OUT THE POLITICS.
Reality has a left leaning bias, and the best way to gain the upper hand in a political fight always seems to be to reveal the politics of the situation and let the substance move front and center. Call Sen. Graham out for spiking an issue that he claims is so important as a political retaliation to the fact that it’s not the next thing on the docket. The attack ads write themselves: A bunch of clips of Sen. Graham saying how important Climate Change leg. is, and his touting of bipartisan agreements…then wallop him with the fact that he’s throwing everything away in a temper tantrum that his bill didn’t get picked first in a game of kickball.
It’s really not that hard. You want a statement?
“We’re both shocked and saddened by Sen. Graham’s abandoning of this important issue. After working for months in a bipartisan way, he’s turned his back on climate change legislation in a partisan temper tantrum, because it may not be the next thing the Senate works on. The idea that one would stop working on a subject they supposedly care about simply because it’s not next on the agenda is akin to taking your ball and going home because you weren’t picked first in a game of kickball. In fact, it sounds more like just another flimsy excuse to tow the Republican line of saying “no” to everything. We truly hope that Sen. Graham is willing to put his ego or politics aside, whichever the case may be here, and continue to work on this important legislation. As we have done, we will continue to welcome input from both sides of the isle to solve the problems the American people are facing.”
“No one could have predicted that Lindsey Graham would play Lucy to John Kerry’s Charlie Brown.”
If the tables were turned, the GOP would scream and mock that so-and-so was before it before he was against it, and mock them for being a WATB, and say that if they were really supportive a small change in the legislative calander wouldn’t matter. And it would be broadcast thru every propoganda source possible, including conservative blogs.
Our side, however, instead prefers to mock our own for being weak and stupid, comparing them over and over to Charlie Brown, and then wonders why ‘the base’ isn’t all reved up to vote in November.