From The New York Times:
CHARLESTON, S.C. — When Senator Lindsey Graham joined forces last month with Senator John Kerry on a compromise to the climate change legislation known as cap and trade, it was the last straw for the Charleston County Republican Party.
The county party, which has traditionally been considered moderate, voted by a wide margin to censure Mr. Graham in harsh terms.
Their grievance list was long: it cited the senator for calling opponents of immigration law change “bigots,” holding the Republican Party “hostage” by participating in bipartisan maneuvers, voting for the Wall Street bailout and tarnishing the ideals of freedom.
(left to right: Joe “Kyle” Wilson, Lindseypoo “Kenny” Graham, Jim “Cartman” DeMint, Sparky Marky Mark “Stan” Sanford)
The party had no such criticism for the other senator from South Carolina, Jim DeMint.
In fact, Mr. DeMint, a Republican in his first term, is the leader of a movement to pull the party in the opposite direction from Mr. Graham’s conciliatory approach. The political action committee he founded, called the Senate Conservatives Fund, backs only candidates who are rock-solid conservatives, and adherents to his views have led the efforts to censure Mr. Graham.
The two senators say they are friends whose differences are exaggerated by the news media, and Mr. DeMint has not personally criticized Mr. Graham or called for his censure.
But their contrasting strategies have brought home to South Carolina the struggle over the future of the Republican Party and have put them on opposite sides of important Senate primaries in states like Florida, where Mr. DeMint supports a vocal conservative, Marco Rubio, and Mr. Graham supports Gov. Charlie Crist.
In California, Mr. DeMint supports Chuck DeVore, in defiance of the national party leadership and Mr. Graham, who said he would campaign for Carly Fiorina.
Here in South Carolina, Mr. Graham’s vote to confirm Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, among other positions, has cost him the support of many conservatives, as have his comments that voters want politicians to reach across the aisle and that Republicans need to do a better job of attracting younger voters and minorities.
…snip…
The voting records of Mr. Graham and Mr. DeMint are actually not that far apart — according to the American Conservative Union, which gives Mr. Graham a lifetime rating of 90 out of 100, he voted with Mr. DeMint on bellwether issues 80 percent of the time in 2008. Mr. DeMint is the only senator the group designates as a “Defender of Liberty,” its highest accolade.
Instead, the two men diverge on their vision of the party’s future. Mr. DeMint, who declined an interview for this article after several requests, has said he would prefer having fewer, but ideologically pure, Republicans in the Senate rather than more Republicans who were ideologically suspect.
Mr. Graham takes the more pragmatic view, countering in an interview that neither he nor Mr. DeMint would be electable in states like Maine or California, but that a single centrist Republican senator from a moderate state could give the party enough votes to block President Obama’s major initiatives.
…snip…
Mr. DeMint, a favorite of the tea party movement, a diffuse grass-roots group that taps into antigovernment sentiments, attracted widespread attention when he referred to health care legislation as Mr. Obama’s Waterloo, while Mr. Graham was one of 12 senators to join a yet-unsuccessful effort at a bipartisan health care compromise.
…snip…
Political analysts in the state say it is difficult to tell how much the anger of the right will hurt Mr. Graham, who does not face re-election until 2014.
::snorting with laughter::
Okay, I’m gonna read now.
just wait until the voters in south carolina find out that joe “kyle” wilson is jewish! 😯
Wait, what?
😆 kyle is the jewish one, isn’t he? i actually mixed them up. i was thinking stan was the jewish one. i didn’t realize it until i was already done, or i would have switched sparky marky mark and joe you lie wilson. i thought it would be funny, because the c street gang would have conniptions if they learned they had a jew hanging around the house.
I’m sure they’d let Joe Lieberman or Eric Cantor stay there.
that won’t be a problem. mcliebercain and cantor will be among the droves of jews returning to israel. just ask princess sarah.
Senator Graham is nothing close to centrist. If that lie turns meme, I friggin’ quit.
he’s only a centrist when compared to demint, who’s an extremist.
Sen. Graham had the nerve to criticize bigots and acknowledge that scientists might know more about science than lawyers and radio hosts do. You can see why that doesn’t go over well with the Far Right … although calling him a moderate is more than a little silly.
Still, the GOP is trying to push out anyone to the left of Rush Limbaugh.
the rethuglican tent is going to be so small, even the elephant won’t fit. they’ll have to change their logo to a weasel or maybe a cockroach.
or a batshit bat. It could hang off the poll.
they already have that. they just have to find batshit bachmann a cute outfit.
That will be hard to do, since her husband buys her clothes for her.
does he really? sounds like an awfully gay thing to do for a guy who claims to cure the gay.
Yes, really. Bill Prendergast has written about it on the Big Orange. As for it being a suspect act, I had just thought it was controlling, but you might be on to something.
i love bill prendergast’s diaries.
the ones who protest the most are the ones hiding the most.
You realize, now you have to make a weasel logo?
how about a lemming (scroll down)? 😉
I’ve been suggesting golden calf for religious reasons, but that is still rather large.
Maybe a snake?
Wait … since they’re trying to be just what’s left after they kick everyone else out of the party, maybe an elephant plop?
how about an empty suit? it should be stained and wrinkled, of course.
I hope they all explode and it’s caught on TV.
doesn’t mitch mcconnell remind you of mr. garrison?
Wouldn’t Obama having a “Waterloo” be a good thing? Sure, it’s no Dancing Queen but it’s still pretty darned good.
i think he’d prefer ‘take a chance on me.’
hard to believe there is a state with more lunatics than mcconnell and bunning or hutchison and cornyn
there must be something in the water. south carolina was supposed to be the state where all the fundies were supposed to move so they could take over everything. i guess they’re on their way.