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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Rude Speculation Open Thread: What Changed Lindsey Graham’s Mind?

Rude Speculation Open Thread: What Changed Lindsey Graham’s Mind?

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There’s been speculation on Political Twitter all week: Why has Senator Graham suddenly reversed himself regarding the Oval Office Occupant? Is it just that Graham knows he’s losing his Senatorial soulmate and foreign-policy twin? Has he lost heart at the realization that Trump is going to treat McCain’s death as one more self-dealing opportunity?

Or — since we know Graham’s emails were hacked months ago — did the GRU decide it was a propitious time to remind him what they knew?


Counter-argument:

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  3. 3.

    JPL

    The Russians hacked and gave the information to the DON. Now that McCain has died, maybe he’ll rethink his ways. Nah..
    Won’t happen.

  7. 7.

    Gravenstone

    @Baud: He sold his soul in pursuit of power when he didn’t repeatedly smash Karl Rove’s face into a concrete wall for the slanders Rove promulgated against McCain’s adopted daughter.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    The two moments that were so McCain was when he corrected the supporter in the audience about President Obama, and the second was pacing behind Obama during a debate looking for Mr. Puddles.
    May he r.i.p.

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    @Baud: Condolences to his family, and as always I thank him for his service.

    That’s all I’ve got. No more, no less

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    Oh and on topic…after hearing McCain was ending treatment and entereing hospice, my first thought was def sadness for his family, but the other was…thinking to myself if the iminent death of his “good friend” would give Lindsey back him spine, or at least get him to sack up and stop kissing that jackass Trump’s azz…but ….

  13. 13.

    Chet Murthy

    Re John McCain: It’s a pity that in 2017 and 2018, when he knew his day of judgement was coming, that he couldn’t take the few minutes it would have required, to ensure that the five years of honorable sacrifice, courage, and bravery in the face of torture, that he endured for his Republic, weren’t to be in vain. I feel pity for him.

  15. 15.

    Platonailedit

    @Baud: Yup. Can’t forgive him for cynically mainstreaming white supremacy & xenophobia into presidential politics.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    From previous thread.

    John McCain, rest in peace. He could have been a greater political figure, but is a giant compared to Trump.

    Earlier, I watched a video of the point in the 2008 campaign where he refused to indulge the fear and bigotry of a couple of supporters who insisted that Obama was not American.

    McCain’s mother is still with us and is 106 years old.

    ETA. Fuck Trump for the inevitable lame comment on McCain.

    Fuck Lindsey Graham, too

  17. 17.

    Chet Murthy

    @Chet Murthy: “few minutes” b/c “I’m caucusing with the Dems for the good of the country” is …. 15 secs. Followed by a few minutes’ time for consequential votes. Maybe an hour total, tops. B/c when you know what your vote is, you don’t need to participate in *any* debates.

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    @Baud: @Baud:

    Yep…it’s why I’ma take a brief break from twitter cause the fakers are out already…and the reporters so far look like they personally lost their grandfather.

    If you weren’t a complete fan of the man, it’s gonna be pretty eye roll inducing.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:
    John McCain spent his entire adult live in public service. I can disagree with the quality of that service while still recognizing it as something to be emulated.

  22. 22.

    Mainmata

    Obviously, Graham is deeply upset about losing his Senate pal. I didn’t much agree with McCain on policy but he was a much more honorable man than Lindsay Graham has ever been and willing to work across policy lines.

    There is no longer any Republican Senator left who has anything like the stature of McCain. They are all ideological drones.

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack

    In that Hoarse Whisperer thread, there’s a comment that “[. . .] Lindsey is still in closet. Russia knows this. He had to jump onto the Trump Train To Nowhere or risk being outed.”

    Question: Can you really be said to be “in the closet” if some huge percentage of the country is openly talking about your being gay? (Whether or not you are in fact gay.) Or is this discussed only on obscure, almost top 10,000 blogs?

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    John McCain spent his entire adult live in public service.

    Funny. If McCain were a Democrat, this would be a big negative. He never ran a business, etc.

  25. 25.

    randal m sexton

    He was a pow,
    He did save a bit of the ACA,
    He took that mike away from the crazy lady that one time and said obama was a patriot.

    RIP

  27. 27.

    James E Powell

    @Steeplejack:

    Question: Can you really be said to be “in the closet” if some huge percentage of the country is openly talking about your being gay?

    I don’t get it. Cf. Kevin Spacey.

    I don’t think I can tell because I don’t travel in the circles where a person being gay is of any consequence. Does he have career aspirations that he believes would be harmed? What could those be? I can see him getting a cabinet post, but the White House and supreme court are out of reach for him.

  28. 28.

    hells littlest angel

    He seems to get how Trump’s narcissism works.

    Oh, Lindsey just knows how to please a man.

  30. 30.

    Mike in DC

    I don’t know what they have on Sen
    Graham. He might be gay, or he might be trying to stave off primary challenges. Whatever the case, he has damaged a carefully cultivated image as a fair and independent minded politician who tells it like it is, however fictional that image might have been, its gone now.

  31. 31.

    Jay Noble

    Don’t really pay attention to Graham, but a couple of recent pics of him seemed – off. His faced looked puffy or just not quite healthy.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    While he appears to be a Trump sycophant, he has frequently checked Trump’s worst impulses quite cleverly by playing Trump like a fiddle in the media.

    This, I do wonder how much is the GoP just playing Trump. I mean heck the Democrats did that once already. Being a skilled liar is a cornerstone of democracy and, well congress critters are successful politicians in a democracy and Trump really isn’t.

  34. 34.

    Aleta

    GWB used racism to win a primary by attacking McCain and his daughter, suggesting she was illegitimate and secret. Bush will show up at the funeral like the sociopathic hypocritical cynic he is, and the press will lie about his dignified presence and how much better and more popular than Trump, as though that makes him any good.

  35. 35.

    Bill Arnold

    @Steeplejack:

    In that Hoarse Whisperer thread, there’s a comment that “[. . .] Lindsey is still in closet. Russia knows this. He had to jump onto the Trump Train To Nowhere or risk being outed.”

    Could also be something, or multiple somethings, that was/were in David Pecker’s Safe:
    What Other Dirt Is in David Pecker’s Safe?

    Do people trying to shut down the Mueller investigation understand the scale of the leaks that would result as a last resort? I’m talking The Last Wave [0] vs the Republican Party. With potentially very severe collateral damage.
    [0] (Peter Weir’s classic.)

  36. 36.

    Caravelle

    That counterpoint just seems like more point to me. If Lindsey Graham really is trying to sneakily manipulate Trump into not doing horrible things in the way described, it would mean that 1) his apparent support of Trump is insincere, and 2) he doesn’t, for some reason, express that lack of support openly, even though he absolutely could. Both points that are cornerstones of the “he’s being blackmailed” hypothesis.

    Also, it hadn’t occurred to me he might be worried about blackmail for being gay; that would be poignant if true, but given his job surely some financial/criminal shenanigans are as likely, no?

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