Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

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When I was faster i was always behind.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

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We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / As Bad As We Thought

As Bad As We Thought

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These fucking guys:

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state.

In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count.

The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that both he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”

“Other than getting you angry, it’s also very disillusioning,” Raffensperger said of the threats, “particularly when it comes from people on my side of the aisle. Everyone that is working on this needs to elevate their speech. We need to be thoughtful and careful about what we say.” He said he reported the threats to state authorities.

I’m actually kind of surprised by Lyndsey Graham at this point. I didn’t expect him toe be any good during the Trump years, but I didn’t expect him to be the absolute worst, either. I thought that would be Cruz, or Cornyn, or someone else. I was wrong.

Reader Interactions

168Comments

  3. 3.

    Yarrow

    Republicans tell you what they’re going to do. Then they do it. This is hardly a surprise.

    Lindsey Graham has some big secrets and Trump knows what they are. He’s desperate to save himself and to do that he needs Trump to be president. He’s acting in his own self interest.

  4. 4.

    Princess

    Some people are angry/worried/sad/distressed that Biden beat Trump. Graham is terrified.

    Makes you think.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    @TaMara (HFG): I think he’s pissed that various people he thought were on his side have been vocally calling for his resignation etc. because he actually did his job.

  6. 6.

    Ryan

    It’s probably projection.  Graham probably got votes tossed out in SC to win.  It’d be irresponsible not to speculate.

  7. 7.

    laura

    @Kelissa: We are all collectively holding our breath awaiting the big reveal – it’s got to be something that would cause you to just wallow in the filth. I’d love Adam Silverman’s speculation. Mine is that he and his fellow travellers took in a metric fuck ton of russian money laundered through the NRA- starting with the gang that went to Moscow a few 4th of July’s ago. Let’s hope he is forced to resign in utter disgrace / is referred for criminal prosecution and Mr. Harrison is elected to replace him.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    Haven’t they given up in Arizona?  If so, even of they got PA and GA to overthrow democracy, Biden would still win, no?

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kelissa: Graham is a toady.  When he followed McCain, he was relatively decent for a Republican.  When McCain died, Graham transferred his loyalties to Trump with depressingly predictable results.

  10. 10.

    PsiFighter37

    @Yarrow: @Princess: Everyone knows he hires male prostitutes. Is he afraid that someone outside of Twitter that the media pays attention to will utter it more loudly, or drop a compromising picture? It would be irresponsible not to speculate about Lady G.

  15. 15.

    taumaturgo

    They lie, they insult, they push, trash their decency, betray their word which becomes useless, even practice illegality and eat their own out of fear of Trump. What would Democrats do? Are these the folks Biden-Kamala hopes to work with? If, and this is a huge if, they somehow pull this Kumbaya with the recalcitrant, lying GOP – without giving the whole loaf away – the Nobel prize committee should create a new category for Saving an Imperil Democracy and award them the prize to both.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @Kelissa: Rumors is all we hear, of course, so far…

    (Note this is from January 2019)

    A Republican just told me that he doubts @LindseyGrahamSC is kowtowing to Trump (and indirectly Putin) because he’s being blackmailed over his sexual orientation (an open secret) or even financial corruption. Rather, he thinks it probably involves some pretty serious sexual kink.

    — Jon Cooper ?? (@joncoopertweets) January 13, 2019

    Sounds strange to me that it would be this, but people are strange anyway.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Yarrow

    @karen marie:  Lol. From that article:

    “But (Graham) will not compromise his values or positions just because he’s in the presidential race,” Perry said. “He’s taken very unpopular positions on very important issues, and he knows they may not serve well in the primary. But he’s true to his beliefs, and that takes a lot of courage.”

    So his values are that voters shouldn’t pick the president. Good to know.

  19. 19.

    ColoradoGuy

    Why not both? What if Lindsey hired a male prostitute who was also an agent for Russia? Is that so unlikely? The Russians are real pros at this sort of entrapment, and they’d be all too happy to share the lurid photos with Trump.

    As a close associate of John McCain, he would have considerable value as an intelligence asset.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: I’m boring. I think Lindsey Graham is just a contemptible human being with no life outside of political office and what attention (“relevance”) he gets from it. As long as he’s been a target, as many people as he’s pissed off, including most of McCain’s inner circle, I just don’t believe there’s any big secret he could have kept.
    It’s cold comfort, but I’m sure he’s very conscious of the fact that he’s gone from being fawned over by Tim Russert et al, to desperately shouting out his website as Laura Ingram is trying to broom him in favor of someone who makes for crazier TeeVee and a segment that’s more fun for her and her viewers.

  22. 22.

    Yarrow

    @Omnes Omnibus:  There’s zero way that Graham’s toady tendencies are the reason he did such u-turn after that one golf outing with Trump. Prior to that he was standing up to Trump. One golf game and he does a complete u-turn. That doesn’t happen without some very big incentive.

  23. 23.

    Sloane Ranger

    The Georgia Sec of State was interviewed on Wolf Blitzer’s show just now. He said the hand count had found about 800 extra votes for Trump in one county, I didn’t catch which one,  and I’m now panicking that they’re going to find another 800 somewhere else and 1000 elsewhere and, when the count ends, lo and behold, Trump just pips Biden by a handful of votes and Raffensperger maintains a reputation as a man of high integrity and principle!

    I know I’m being cynical but I won’t be totally happy until the count ends and Biden’s win is formally certified.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    Lindsey Graham is a remora/​pilot fish. Question: who does he attach himself to after Trump is gone?

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kelissa:

    I would really love to know what happened to Lindsey Graham after John McCain died. It was as though a morality switch flicked and he suddenly became an evil, craven fucker. I mean, he was certainly no sweetheart before, but I think he at least made a pass at being reasonable and somewhat civil. That all seemed to disappear virtually overnight, and there must be a reason for it.

    ETA: And I see Yarrow and Omnes discussed this very thing while I was typing.

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    @Sloane Ranger: This is just an “audit” of the count.  There can (and likely will be?) an official recount afterwards.

    There are still days/weeks to go…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Raven Onthill

    @Kelissa: I think it’s a lot worse than Graham being gay. The man is obviously terrified.

    It could, however, be something entirely innocuous which nonetheless could cost him a great deal. Or perhaps his family is being threatened.

  33. 33.

    lgerard

    @Sloane Ranger:

     

    It was Floyd County, a seemingly very republican spot in northern Georgia.

    It seems that the vote count from one scanner was not added to the total from an in person early voting site.  This is something that should have been discovered immediately following the close of voting during the preliminary audit, before totals from the county were reported.

    It is absolute incompetence by the county election official.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: The O’Bros say that Graham was in the Obama White House all the time in the first few weeks after inauguration, looking to be a partner in bipartisanship. Then he figured out that the McConnell-Brat plan of total opposition was the way the Rs were going, and he couldn’t fall in line fast enough (didn’t hurt that his then surrogate…. whatever, John McCain, was twisted with bitterness that That One had stolen The McCain Presidency).

    See also: Judd Gregg

    ETA: I think Rs fell in line behind trump for two reasons: They figured out he was willing to follow their agenda, none of that tax increase crap he was trotting out in the campaign (‘my rich friends are very mad at me, but I told them…”) and they were pleasantly surprised that the broad public wasn’t terribly upset by Russian collusion (yeah, I said it), cheap corruption, firing Comey, etc…

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    I think he’s pissed that various people he thought were on his side have been vocally calling for his resignation etc. because he actually did his job.

    That “etc.” is doing a helluva lot of work there. Raffensperger has been getting death threats for doing his job.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chris Hayes @chrislhayes 5m
    There was a full national freakout because Bill Clinton had a convo on the plane with the AG and now we’ve got the President, and multiple senators putting on a full court press to get a Republican election official to basically throw out the results of a race they lost!

  39. 39.

    MattF

    Just a quick note about the Senator from South Carolina. IMO, I think his pre-Trump persona was his try for normality– but with McCain’s death, Trump’s rise, and the weakness of getting older, Graham has just given up. What we’re seeing now is the real Lindsay Graham.

  40. 40.

    greenergood

    @karen marie: the heart- breaking thing about this photo is that they look really happy together, but everything on Lady G’s agenda means he would have to condemn it all to stay loyal to his hatemongering  constituents

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Graham was in the Obama White House all the time in the first few weeks after inauguration, looking to be a partner in bipartisanship.

    It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Obama has to say about it in his book, which is landing in my Kindle app in 4h31m.

  43. 43.

    Martin

    Remember, everything the National Enquirer peddled in is known to Trump. I am 100% certain that Trump started blackmailing Graham a few years ago.

  44. 44.

    Yarrow

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I would really love to know what happened to Lindsey Graham after John McCain died. It was as though a morality switch flicked and he suddenly became an evil, craven fucker.

    Your timeline is off. Lindsey Graham’s golf game with Trump was on October 9, 2017. McCain died August 25, 2018. Lindsey Graham did a complete u-turn after that one golf game. It was well before McCain died. While McCain was ill and failing I wonder how he felt watching Lindsey sucking up to Trump.

  45. 45.

    Fair Economist

    @Ryan:

    It’s probably projection. Graham probably got votes tossed out in SC to win. It’d be irresponsible not to speculate.

    Quite seriously, would Graham push this if he weren’t at least aware of such things being done?

    There’s also “every accusation is a projection”, which I can’t think of a counterexample for. Doubt this would be the first counterexample.

  51. 51.

    Michael Cain

    Colorado consists of a small number of large-population counties that elect Democratic county recorders (chief election officers) and a large number of small-population counties that elect Republicans. A few years back, one of the few Republicans in a large-population county was running for the Republican nomination for governor. His big campaign issue was how Colorado’s vote by mail system was riddled with errors and fraud. At one point, the other Republican county recorders took out a full page ad in the Denver Post saying that they were tired of him saying that they didn’t know how to do their job, and please shut the hell up.

  53. 53.

    leeleeFL

    I fully expected HuckleBerry fuck face to latch onto tRump’s butt from the minute that orange bastard rode down the escalator!  Lindsay luvs the strong type that beats the shit out of him.  What do I win if I’m right?

  54. 54.

    Yarrow

    @SiubhanDuinne:  If it involves something horrible and definitely illegal, that would be something he’d be desperate to keep hidden.  There are kinks and then there are illegal acts.

  55. 55.

    TriassicSands

     

    @Martin: I am 100% certain that Trump started blackmailing Graham a few years ago.

    It’s always a great idea to be 100% certain of something for which you have no actual, concrete evidence. I thought we were leaving conspiracy theories to the Right.

  56. 56.

    geg6

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I can’t quite agree. I can think of secrets someone like him might have that he would have covered up for years and for which he would turn on a dime on his “values” in order to keep secret.  I think there are many complicated reasons Graham might have become an ass kisser to Trump but few of them would explain such an abrupt about face as we all witnessed him executing.

  57. 57.

    Yarrow

    @Martin:  The lawyers are giving up on them, though.

    ?BREAKING: : All 3 lawyers representing the Trump campaign in their federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania have **filed to withdraw from the case**
    — Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) November 16, 2020

  58. 58.

    Noskilz

    Left to his own devices, he’s simply underscored what garbage he always was. I doubt there’s anything being held over him, he’s just finally been given a chance to grab the limelight and to date there is very little he hasn’t been willing to do to keep it. His fellow republicans aren’t reining him in, his states voters didn’t rein him in, why should he start exercising good judgement and restraint now?

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:

    I honestly don’t even remember “the” golf game, but I’ll certainly take your word on the timeline. I guess in part I’m connecting Lindsey’s flip to summer/autumn 2018 because the Kavanaugh hearings were just a couple of weeks after McCain’s funeral and Lindsey Graham went all raging, out-of-control, feral monster at that time. It was scary, and it was sudden, or at least seemed so to me.

  62. 62.

    Yarrow

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Lindsey Graham spoke out against Trump during the presidential primary (in which he ran!), during the election and after Trump won. He softened his tone just slightly after Trump became president but then came that golf game. People were wondering how it would go, would Graham stand up to Trump. Hahahahahaha.  He came off the golf course praising Trump, saying what a great golfer he was, how badly he beat him and from that moment on he was fully on the Trump team. It was something to behold.

  66. 66.

    raven

    @Annie: Graham has never been married and has no children.[11] He helped to raise his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after the deaths of his mother and father, which occurred within fifteen months of each other,[215] leaving the two without parents when Graham was 22 and she was 13. Experiencing the early deaths of his parents, Graham says, made him mature more quickly, and Nordone, who introduced her brother at his formal announcement of his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race, said she hoped to be with him on the campaign trail frequently to show voters his softer side. “He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one,” she said. “I’ve always looked up to Lindsey.”[216]

  69. 69.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: in between the Inauguration and the golf game was Neil Gorsuch, and god knows what other signals trump sent that he was neither a secret NYC liberal nor a Bannon-style populist

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    @Yarrow:

    It was just a friendly game of golf!!

    Late on Monday afternoon, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), offered, by way of Twitter, a report on his Columbus Day round with President Trump: “President Trump shot a 73 in windy and wet conditions!”

    Some golfers howled, but on Tuesday afternoon, in a 33-minute phone interview with GOLF.com, Graham repeated that Trump had indeed shot 73. Or 74, tops.

    […]

    Graham said the president made one birdie, one or two bogeys, and pars on all the other holes.

    The setting was Trump National Golf Club Washington, a private club with two layouts in Sterling, Va., 30 miles from the White House. Graham wasn’t sure which of the two courses they played but his description of the round indicated that they played the par-72 Championship course, which earlier this year was the site of the Senior PGA Championship. Graham said they played from the blue tees and that it measured “about 6,800 yards.” That would make the course roughly the same length as the one on which Bernhard Langer won the Senior PGA in late May, an event in which over four rounds nearly half of the field’s recorded scores were 74 or higher.

    […]

    Graham said Trump trounced him in their $10 Nassau. They played in a twosome, sharing a cart. The club’s general manager, Kevin Morris, a former club pro, walked with them but did not play, although he did offer tips to Graham. Graham and Trump drove to the course together in a 30-car presidential motorcade, and on the course they played out of one cart, with Trump at the wheel.

    Asked about how they handled conceded putts, Graham said, “He’s better at receiving than giving.”

    In addition to having the ring of truth to it, Graham’s comment about their gimme putts is funny. Still, the senator’s claimed score for Trump is patently unbelievable to many golfers. A score of 84 would seem plausible. Trump is a good golfer. But a 73, from a 71-year-old who plays often for a president but infrequently for a low-handicap golfer? Unlikely, to say the least. As a rough comparison, the Hall of Fame golfer Hale Irwin, who turned 72 in June, has a scoring average of just over 73 in the seven Champions tour events he has played this year, with an average drive of just under 250 yards. Graham said Trump’s average drive was around 250 yards.

    In the aftermath of his tweet, some thought Graham, who has often feuded with the president, might be attempting parody-by-Twitter, mocking the score of 38 once claimed by Kim Jong-Il, father of North Korea’s current Brilliant Comrade, on a full-length par-72 course. But Graham made it clear that he was not working in satire.

    […]

    Graham said it was not until the second half of the round that they talked about their professional lives and the nation’s business.

    “We talked about serious things on the back nine,” he said. “North Korea. Iran. Immigration. But the first nine was all about golf. Donald Trump on the golf course is a very charming, gracious man. Very funny. Very competitive, but gracious. When you host somebody, you want them to have a good time. We would play a hole, he would talk about the hole, how they took trees down. He had a lot of pride in the course. It’s something, to play a golf course with the president of the United States on a course he owns. He’s got that big, giant flag there—it’s pretty stunning.”

    Trump’s own Twitter account offered nothing on the outing. But Graham sent out two tweets on the round, a brief game story followed by a column:

    The first: “Really enjoyed a round of golf with President @realDonaldTrump today. President Trump shot a 73 in windy and wet conditions!”

    The second: “How bad did he beat me? I did better in the presidential race than today on the golf course! Great fun. Great host.”

    That was on Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, golfers and commentators across the political spectrum were weighing in on the claimed score. Richard Haass, the president of the Council of Foreign Relations and a serious golfer who attended the Presidents Cup last month as a spectator, addressed Graham in a tweet: “Lindsey: how many mulligans? how large was the circle of friendship on putts? what tees? strains credulity to believe this was a real 73.”

    David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, asked what many were asking in a three-word tweet: “Did he cheat?”

    Graham is sticking by his claim of 73 for the president—or 74. At the end of the round, he owed the president $30, but had only $5 with him, which the president accepted.

    The senator was asked if Trump asked for Graham to announce the score to the world. He did not, Graham said.

    “I did it,” Graham said. “I did it on my own.”

    Such principled bravery!!1

    “Hey Lindsey, see those trees over there? Oh, no, you don’t, because I didn’t like the way they messed up my sight lines. So I had them chopped down. And thrown into a log chipper. And burned. Have you ever seen a really big log chipper in action? I mean, really big? One that a person could fall into and get chopped into so many pieces that there would be nothing left of them…??”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:

    Didn’t Trump doxx Graham during the 2016 primaries? Publish his private phone number or something? Or am I thinking of someone else? I’m pretty sure I could never forgive someone who deliberately violated my privacy and security like that.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    What gets me is they were telling us they were just coddling Trump and no one REALLY wanted to overturn the election and While they were telling us this Graham was slithering around GA trying to throw out ballots.

  77. 77.

    trnc

    I’m actually kind of surprised by Lyndsey Graham at this point. I didn’t expect him toe be any good during the Trump years, but I didn’t expect him to be the absolute worst, either. I thought that would be Cruz, or Cornyn, or someone else. I was wrong.

    No, you weren’t. All of them, and others you didn’t even mention, are that bad. Lindsey just seems worse because he managed a thin veneer of respectability years ago, while Cruz and Cornyn never did. Regardless, when you scrape the bottom of the latrine, there’s no use trying to assign order to the contents.

  78. 78.

    featheredsprite

    I think Arizona and Nevada were enough to put Biden over the top. So neither Georgia nor Pennsylvania are critical. Relax.

  79. 79.

    Hildebrand

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think this is exactly right.  I don’t think anyone really cares what he does with whomever he does it, I especially don’t think that he is all that bothered by it.  I think he is just a perennial second banana, a flunky, a Wormtongue; a lamprey that attaches itself to something bigger so that it can feed and never take any risks by itself.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @opiejeanne:

    Funny that they didn’t “find” any votes for Biden, only for Trump. Where did they find them?

    That was a net difference for Trump; it was from about 2600 votes.  The explanation was that there was a scanner that failed during the count.  They switched to another one to finish the count but forgot to take out the memory card that stored the first batch, so it wasn’t included in their tabulation.  They figured it out because they’re doing a full hand recount and in that one county the numbers were way off.  Everywhere else the hand count has been very close to the machine count, including several counties where it was spot on.

  81. 81.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Yarrow:

    Apparently, Rudy Giuliani is taking over the campaign’s legal efforts, and that’s partly why these lawsuits are being withdrawn. Supposedly, Giuliani has evidence of widespread electoral fraud or something and can’t reveal anything yet.

    And if anybody believes that, I have a bridge stretching over San Francisco Bay I’d like to sell you

  82. 82.

    Yarrow

    Also a reminder that Lindsay Graham said his email was hacked by Russia:

    “I do believe the Russians hacked into the (Democratic National Committee). I do believe they hacked into (John) Podesta’s email account. They hacked into my campaign account,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”

  86. 86.

    Yarrow

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  If Giuliani’s legal efforts on behalf of the Trump campaign are only half as successful as his event at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping was, I’m sure they’ll be winning cases in no time.

  87. 87.

    ballerat

    @Martin: A thought occurred to me a while ago, that Nat’l Enq and even Fox may be less like news organizations and more like intelligence services engaged in blackmail.

    The Enquirer isn’t a legit news outlet to begin with. Fox has a kompromat model — they mix in the legit and truthful news reporting (ex. Fox’s election desk) with the hybrid disinformation/propaganda/truth and outright lies. The legit side gives credence and respectability to the lies.

    How much are these dirt-sniffing scandal mongering “news” operations actually GRU blackmail operations? I suspect it’s not zero. I suspect the discovered or stolen compromising information flows in both directions as well.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    while I am aware the schemes to overturn the election failed, I think there should be an investigation into a US Senator who pressures a state official to throw out ballots.

  90. 90.

    TriassicSands

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think the loyalty transfer took place before McCain died. Hildebrand’s description of Graham is plausible and all that is needed to explain his behavior.

  91. 91.

    Calouste

    @dmsilev: It always seems to come as a surprise to these fascist-leaning conservatives when they realize that under fascism they don’t have any independence or agency, they just have to do as the Leader tells them. Which is of course really one of the core concepts of fascism. But they thought, as usual, that it only applies to other people.

  92. 92.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: Gorsuch didn’t have to be rescued from his disastrous performance the way Kavanaugh did.  Lindsey cranked up his indignation to 15 and changed the subject and dragged Brett across the line.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Yarrow

    @ballerat:  Definitely truth in all that. Remember how various big name news guys lost their jobs  – Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer. It’s not like that compromising information was unknown. It was useful to steer interviews or get certain topics included or not included in news shows.

  95. 95.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Obama has to say about it in his book

    Lindsey Graham is the guy in the spy thriller or heist movie “who double-crosses everyone to save his own skin.” —Obama 

  96. 96.

    Chyron HR

    @taumaturgo:

    What would Democrats do? Are these the folks Biden-Kamala hopes to work with?

    Obviously your god Bernie is going to tell Mitch to look out his window, remember?

  98. 98.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Ted Cruz told Republicans iirc at the convention to vote their conscience, that was interpreted as a call to vote against trimp; Marco Rubio called him a grifter and mocked his small hands; Paul Ryan called him a textbook racist and said something dramatic after the Access Hollywood tape– withdrew his endorsement? said he was gonna write in Reagan?; Scott Walker called dropped out of the primary and called on his fellow ‘real Republicans’ to do the same, to consolidate behind one anti-trump candidate. Then the sumbitch won. Even then, Jason Chaffetz iirc left Congress after trump won because he was convinced trump was going to go down in flames. Then he didn’t. For a long time

    ETA: they all became very pro-trump after that, is my point. Except Sweet Paulie Blue-Eyes. he’s been very quiet since he joined Uncle Rupert’s board, hasn’t he?

  99. 99.

    West of the Rockies

    I’m not sure if this has been mentioned here, but I just learned blogger Ed Brayton, Dispatches  from the Culture  Wars, passed away a few months ago.  He was a progressive writer and thinker.  I used to log onto his site regularly and valued  his work.

  100. 100.

    cain

    @Ryan:

    It’s probably projection.  Graham probably got votes tossed out in SC to win.  It’d be irresponsible not to speculate.

    I bet that is true in every Republican state. We should compare the numbers – send the FBI to see if election fraud happened and then send the SoS of that state, and Lindsey Graham to jail.

    ETA OMG – it happened again, the 100th comment!!!! ?????

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @ballerat:

    How much are these dirt-sniffing scandal mongering “news” operations actually GRU blackmail operations?

    To the extent they are blackmail organizations, I doubt it’s for the GRU.  There are many other organizations operating in the USA who have been willing to do that kind of thing for a long time.

  102. 102.

    cain

    @Another Scott: Sounds strange to me that it would be this, but people are strange anyway.

    I can believe it – he’s always been pushing this wholesome southern gentleman schtick – but he probably has a kink or maybe even into something nefarious regarding sex that somehow Russian and Trump have found out about and now fucking him over.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @MattF:

    What we’re seeing now is the real Lindsay Graham.

    Possibly. But if that’s true the basic about face he’s done since McClain passed means that he doesn’t seem to do nuance, at all.

    Someone mentioned the golf game with shitforbrains and IFIRQ, that’s when he did his about face. Within a very, very short time. And shitforbrains is not about to pass up a chance to screw anyone who might help him, if they don’t, and I’d bet he’s not shy about telling them that. So while I can’t disagree with you about him needing to be someone’s bitch, something made him McCain’s bitch and something made him switch in hurricane speed to be shitforbrains’s bitch.

  104. 104.

    RaflW

    What Graham is suggesting is not even one complete step away from uncontested, continuous one-party rule. The fucking Chair of Senate Judiciary’s effort is indistinguishable from a Putin type government with sham elections staged for meaningless mass consumption.

    He is a bad, bad man. He was never worth much, but somehow his friendship with McCain seemed to keep him from going full on crazed winger. Incredibly depressing that he is likely there for six god dammed more years.

    And to be clear, I don’t personally buy any kompromat story. That suggests he knows what is right and isn’t doing it because of leverage. I disagree. I think he knows what is right and actively, willingly choses this path. He has, like many people do, given in to evil.

  107. 107.

    Geoduck

    For what little it’s worth, Graham has now been quoted as saying Raffensperger  totally mischaracterized the conversation, and that he was just asking innocent questions about the certification process. So he at least is seeing the need for still displaying some public restraint.

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I think it would be nice if the margin was twice as much – the landslide would be bigger!

    I want him to feel every vote that he lost. I want it to hound him every day for the rest of his miserable life, hopefully in prison for tax cheating, illegal use of government funds, and of course making it highly likely that a lot of humans die of the virus that he could have slowed down, if he wasn’t such a shit.

  111. 111.

    PsiFighter37

    I am curious what impact this will have on the Georgia SoS going forward. How much more does he need to be shat on before he decides to making voting as accessible as possible?

    Nonetheless, I think there is so much mixed messaging coming out of the GOP now that they are inflicting serious self-wounds on themselves ahead of the runoff. They inherently have the advantage in these contests, and yet they are doing everything to suppress their own damn vote by claiming the voting machines being used are Venezuelan!!! How fucking stupid do you have to be to do that!!! That said, I am sure Stacey Abrams is keeping her head down and eye on the prize – win both seats, and keep registering as many new voters as possible. Early voting starts in a month.

  114. 114.

    BC in Illinois

    On a tangential note.

    Rep. Jim Jordan (R – “I see nothing!”) tweeted this:

    Today your freedom:

    • To go to church
    • To go to work
    • To go to school
    • To have friends in your home
    • To leave your home
    • To dance at your daughter’s wedding
    • To celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving

    Is being taken away government [sic].

    It seems to me that it has not been simply arbitrary decisions by various governmental agencies that have “taken away” these freedoms. A deadly disease may have had some part in these decisions.

    Years back, my freedom to cross the River Des Peres Bridge at Gravois was taken away from me.

    Freedom of travel, taken from me. By the government.

    The Flood of ’93 also had something to do with it.

  115. 115.

    Dan B

    There seems to be election interference implied by the Georgia SOS, a felony.  Graham pushed back fast so he probably got the legal jeopardy.

  117. 117.

    Wapiti

    @Geoduck: Yeah, sure, Lindsey.

    There is no reason whatsoever for a US Senator to call a state-level election official in another state with questions about an on-going count.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results.

    This is the crazy thing. Everyone knows these claims are baseless. Everyone. Trump is done and nothing short of a coup will give him an electoral victory.

    The only thing that will come out of this is further damage to democratic institutions, even if conservatives pretend that they didn’t do any of this after Biden has been inaugurated.

  119. 119.

    Roger Moore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    IIRC, there is some speculation Trump’s new lawyers are just a front for the same big firms that were representing him before.  Those big firms were scared away from representing him by the threat of bad publicity, but some people reading the new filings think they’re produced by the same people.  I don’t know enough to know if this is reasonable or a crazy conspiracy theory.

  121. 121.

    kindness

    For Lyndsey to be so forward about asking him to throw an election, things must be pretty desperate in Lyndsey’s head.  What kind of kompromat do they have on Lyndsey?  Must be really bad.

    I don’t ever want to hear Republicans say they are the party of integrity ever again.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    Given how late everything happened, it’s possible that the old firms handed over their work product to the new guy and just took their names off of them.

    It would be pretty weird for a firm to withdraw from a case and then try to participate in the same case through a proxy.

  124. 124.

    raven

    @kindness:

     

    “Graham denied he pressured Raffensperger to find ways to toss out legal votes, saying that he was trying to figure out how votes were verified and that he thought Georgia “has some protections that maybe other states don’t have.”

    “What I’m trying to find out was how do you verify signatures for mail-in ballots in these states,” Graham told reporters on Monday. “I thought it was a good conversation. I’m surprised to hear him characterize it that way.”

  125. 125.

    Gin & Tonic

    While Trump has been failing to recognize the obvious, Moldova just had two rounds of Presidential elections: one on Nov 1, then a run-off  yesterday. The Euro-oriented reformer, a woman, beat the Putin-approved previous strongman 57-42. The results were made official today – the day after the fucking election, for those of you keeping score at home – and everyone is moving toward an immediate transfer of power.

    Moldova, for those who aren’t as aware of Eastern European history, does not have 240-plus years of free and democratic elections to draw on for its example.

    The United States is a sick goddamn nation.

  126. 126.

    Benw

    The criming has been so open and brazen the last few years it’s not like the incoming Biden DOJ needs a complicated strategy. Just put your heads down and start compiling evidence and filing charges. Let the opposition and media howl; if you’ve got a good case, go for it. Fight them all the way up, make the courts either put them in jail or make up more and more ridiculous lies to excuse crimes. Put every last one of these corrupt asshats and partisan judges on defense for years. And if they whine ask them: “why do you hate the troops?”

  127. 127.

    Jinchi

    @raven: Georgia “has some protections that maybe other states don’t have.”

    So he thought they were better than average at purging urban voters?

  128. 128.

    Another Scott

    Obligatory “every thread is eventually an open thread”… ProPublica:

    Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit

    Rapid antigen testing is a mess. The federal government pushed it out without a plan, and then spent weeks denying problems with false positives.

    by Lisa Song Nov. 16, 5 a.m. EST

    […]

    With the benefit of hindsight, experts said the Trump administration should have released antigen tests primarily to communities with outbreaks instead of expecting them to work just as well in large groups of asymptomatic people. Understanding they can produce false results, the government could have ensured that clinics had enough for repeat testing to reduce false negatives and access to more precise PCR tests to weed out false positives. Government agencies, which were aware of the tests’ limitations, could have built up trust by being more transparent about them and how to interpret results, scientists said.

    When health care workers in Nevada and Vermont reported false positives, HHS defended the tests and threatened Nevada with unspecified sanctions until state officials agreed to continue using them in nursing homes. It took several more weeks for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue an alert on Nov. 3 that confirmed what Nevada had experienced: Antigen tests were prone to giving false positives, the FDA warned.

    “Part of the problem is this administration has continuously played catch-up,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School. It was criticized for not ensuring enough PCR tests at the beginning, and when antigen tests became available, it shoved them at the states without a coordinated plan, he said.

    […]

    The scientific community remains divided on the potential of antigen tests.

    Epidemic control is the main argument for antigen testing. A string of studies show that antigen tests reliably detect high viral loads. Because people are most infectious when they have high viral loads, the tests will flag those most likely to infect others. Modeling also shows how frequent, repeated antigen testing may be better at preventing outbreaks than highly sensitive PCR tests, if those tests are used infrequently and require long wait times for results. So far, there are no large scale, peer-reviewed studies showing how the antigen approach has curbed outbreaks on the ground.

    People need to realize that without rapid testing, we’re living in a world where many people are unknowingly becoming superspreaders, Karan said. About 40% of infections are spread by asymptomatic people with high viral loads, so antigen tests, however imperfect, shouldn’t be dismissed, he said.

    Even those who are more skeptical said they can be helpful with a targeted approach directed at lower-risk situations like schools, or outbreaks in rural communities where PCR is impractical, rather than nursing homes where a single mistake could set off a chain of deaths.

    It is “completely irresponsible” to take a less-accurate test and say it applies to all situations, said Melissa Miller, director of the clinical microbiology lab at the University of North Carolina.

    There’s no precedent for the government to bet this much on a product before it’s been thoroughly vetted, said Matthew Pettengill, scientific director of clinical microbiology at Thomas Jefferson University. “They put the cart before the horse, and we still can’t see the horse.”

    […]

    Running a pandemic response is more difficult than running a reality TV show or being a real estate “developer”. Who knew??!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  129. 129.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud: 

    It would be pretty weird for a firm to withdraw from a case and then try to participate in the same case through a proxy.

    It would be unusual, but it’s an unusual case. Their reason for withdrawing here is the fear of bad publicity. I could totally imagine them withdrawing because of that but providing covert help if they thought they could get away with it, especially if they genuinely favor Trump over Biden. That said, I think the idea that the briefs were already written when they withdrew, they turned them over to the new guys, and the new guys just slapped their names on them to be a more plausible explanation.

  130. 130.

    CaseyL

    @featheredsprite: Sharron Angle (former unsuccessful whack-a-doo candidate for Nevada Senate, IIRC) has refiled a suit to have the Nevada results thrown out, charging voter fraud.

    She filed an identical suit before the election, which was thrown out as the election hadn’t happened yet, and there could be no injury.  So now that the election has happened, and Trump has lost, she’s trying again.

    Her charge seems to be that about one hundred voters lived in Nevada, moved to California, but didn’t cancel their registration in Nevada. That “proves” they “could have” voted twice.  There’s also a lot of folderol about inactive voters to whom ballots were sent, some of whom have since died or relocated.  She says, again, that is proof that “someone else” could have used the ballots to vote twice, three times, maybe even a dozen! – By harvesting the ballots, which we know is a big bee in the GOP’s bonnet… probably because they do it.

    Marc Elias is on the case.

  131. 131.

    TS (the original)

    @lgerard:

    And it was my understanding that there were 2500 votes involved. If it then ended with 800 for trump then he got  1650 votes to Biden’s 850 – so not all the votes found were for trump.

  132. 132.

    Ivan X

    @Gin & Tonic:  I visited Moldova a coupla years ago. It was kind of a sleepy place. Nice people. Good wine. I liked it. What’s the victor’s stance on Transnistria/Pridnestrovia? Anything gonna change there?

  133. 133.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sebastian: I do remember hearing (here) about somebody who said Rove had approved election rigging if the vote was within 1-3% and then died shortly thereafter.

    But I was never sure if it was a joke or not.

  135. 135.

    Barbara

    @Roger Moore: It is actually against rules of professional conduct in some states for a firm to give silent assistance without any of its lawyers formally appearing.

  136. 136.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ivan X: I don’t expect much to change, but Maia Sandu has publicly called on Russia to leave there. Dodon, of course, supported Russia’s presence and is reported to have benefited in prior elections from busloads of voters from Transdnistria.

  138. 138.

    sdhays

    Has anyone noticed that the one state which has had very recent, systemic election fraud which actually ended up invalidating an election is conspicuously absent from all of the talk about voter fraud?

    Odd, that.

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    Read this and sent chills down my spine ???

    My great niece had 14 friends together for an outdoor, social distancing dinner. All went well, masks removed to eat and drink. A group photo, not all participated. EVERY person in the photo came down with COViD.— M O Nichols ? (@DawgMother) November 16, 2020

  142. 142.

    Suzanne

    @Yarrow: I don’t know if that’s true. I think Lindsey Graham is just a good old-fashioned sycophant. Not enough huevos to ever be the top banana, but absolutely basking in that reflected sunlight.

    It’s gross, juvenile, pathetic, craven behavior. I don’t know if there’s a secret. I don’t think there needs to be to explain his actions.

  144. 144.

    lgerard

    @TS (the original):

    1643 – 865

    This is just inexcusable, there are audit trails to prevent this type of thing and obviously they were blown off.  I would ask where both local party officials were, since they should have observed this process.

    When you realize that there were less then 40,000 votes total cast other then these you can see why this is such a screwup

  145. 145.

    lgerard

    @lgerard:

    It seems they had a bit of an excuse though

    According to officials, the election in Floyd County was actually being run by a volunteer after the director contracted COVID-19 and another election official broke a hip, having to be hospitalized.

  146. 146.

    Sebastian

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Not a joke, Adam occasionally mentions it. It was the GOP IT guy who turned whistleblower and was about to testify in court or be deposed and conveniently died in a private plane crash a day or few before his court date.

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    @CaseyL:

    She says, again, that is proof that “someone else” could have used the ballots to vote twice, three times, maybe even a dozen! – By harvesting the ballots, which we know is a big bee in the GOP’s bonnet…

    This crap is tiresome. A hypothetical is not evidence of a crime.

  148. 148.

    RaflW

    @Roger Moore: “some people reading the new filings think they’re produced by the same people”
    Anyone know if it is a violation of ethics, or of the requirements of court pleadings, to present filings as your work product when it should be attributed to co-counsel?
    If there were a paper trail found that tied things back to the counsel that was released by the court, could the lawyer who supplied the documents secretly get in deep doo doo? I’d hope so.

  150. 150.

    Barbara

    @RaflW: Withdrawing counsel would have been duty bound to turn over in progress work product, so the next few filings likely include their work. That’s not a problem.

  151. 151.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Sounds like Graham’s amazing win beat his own internals  in SC is just simply old fashion vote fixing and an audit is needed there.

  153. 153.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Wait, I just got it, these lazy ass fuckers are so out of it they want the rest of us to cheat for them.

  154. 154.

    Another Scott

    re title – yes, they are.

    A federal judge won't delay tomorrow's hearing on President Trump's lawsuit to overturn the election he lost i n Pennsylvania because most of his lawyers quit. His remaining lawyer – who's also a radio host – will have to go it alone and is "expected to be prepared." pic.twitter.com/MAXCWjhDyV

    — Brad Heath (@bradheath) November 17, 2020

    As others note, the judge should sell Zoom tickets.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  155. 155.

    Miss Bianca

    @Another Scott: 

    So, it’s not that he’s gay, it’s that he’s gay and he’s kinky that’s the problem? You know, I try to keep up, but sometimes I still get confused.

  157. 157.

    Another Scott

    @Miss Bianca: I can’t figure out Graham, myself.  He seems like an enigma.  He seems to have some sense of duty to the country, having spent 33 years in the Air Force (apparently, unsurprisingly, under very favorable treatment). But then he’s willing to do and say anything to support people who are monsters and are actively trying to destroy the Constitution and the American government.

    But people are complicated.

    If it wasn’t clear, I don’t really know or care about his sex life (or lack of one, if that’s the case). Consenting adults, of course. Maybe there’s nothing there – he isn’t compromised and doesn’t have dark secrets. Maybe he’s just craven and has no center and will do anything to maintain political power and the support of his party, even if that means shredding the Constitution. I’m not sure that that’s any better…

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    Graham is 65 and has probably/maybe 12-18 yrs left in political life at best and I wonder if he’s starting to see the end and what will he do? His AF career was 6 yrs active, 6 Air NG and 20 in the reserve. So not a career in the AF and his political career was started in 93 in the SC state house. What has he really done if he wants to stay busy but what he’s doing now, head republican squirrel in the senate. He seems not to be a tactical genius but a yes boy. How far is that going to get him? I mean sure he’s a senator but that’s not brought him much in the way of plums, as he’s a go along, get along sort.

  164. 164.

    Doug

    Attorney General Doug Jones could get to the bottom of the threats and the attempted vote tampering, and then mete out some justice. He knows a thing or two about the Deep South.

  165. 165.

    206inKY

    Raffensperger reminds me of the former WA Secretary of State Sam Reed, the only Republican who I have ever voted for in my life. This was before I moved to Kentucky. Reed was a public servant of utmost integrity who helped shepherd in Washington’s universal mail voting system that is one of the best in the nation. The push to massively expand voter access was all the more powerful coming from a Republican. I thought Reed was one of a kind, but we may have similarly struck gold with Raffensperger with this runoff election coming up.

  166. 166.

    louc

    @206inKY: Unfortunately that kind of secretary of state is becoming rarer, but it used to be common. Usually elections people are super idealistic about upholding votes. Then came Kathleen Harris, Kris Kobach and Brian Kemp.

  167. 167.

    louc

    @CaseyL: The Trump people dropped it because they landed in major controversy. It turns out many of the people whose ballots they were disputing are military types. Those ballots also include students because, let’s face it, Nevada’s university system is pretty weak so students need to go to schools outside the state.

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