California Conservative

Just when you thought Lindsey Graham couldn’t say something more clueless, he says something utterly clueless in an interview with Politico:

In an interview with POLITICO Thursday, the South Carolina Republican defended his decision to back Sotomayor by laying out a broad critique of conservative activists who push “ideological purity” and refuse to cooperate with a Democratic Congress and White House.

“If we chase this attitude…that you have to say ‘no’ to every Democratic proposal, you can’t help the president ever, you can’t ever reach across the aisle, then I don’t want to be part of the movement because it’s a dead-end movement,” Graham said.

“I have no desire to be up here in an irrelevant status. I’m smart enough to know that this country doesn’t have a problem with conservatives. It has a problem with blind ideology. And those who are ideological-driven to a fault are never going to be able to take this party back into relevancy.”

That’s the type of blather why I consider Sen. Graham the most intellectually lazy Republican in the Senate. The strawman argument that there are significant numbers of conservatives who insist that Republicans reflexively say no to “every Democratic proposal” shows how little Sen. Graham understands about the underpinnings of conservatism.

Conservative activists aren’t telling Graham to say no on the Sotomayor nomination just because it’s a Democratic proposal. Conservative activists are telling Graham to vote aginst Sotomayor because she hasn’t shown the proper respect for the Constitution, which means she’ll vote her ideology more than she’ll vote for liberty.

Why wouldn’t Graham vote against a judge whose votes will have more to do with her ideological underpinnings than with the Constitution? Let’s remember that Sen. Graham took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Shouldn’t that oath be a code of honor, not just words that Sen. Graham mumbles so he can keep his membership in the elitist club of senators? Shouldn’t they be words that you passionately fight for?

Sen. Graham bemoans the fact that “you can’t ever reach across the aisle.” I’d love hearing Sen. Graham explain what the halfway point between protecting and defending the Constitution vs. ignoring the Constitution.

That’s we’re better off without unprincipled politicians like Sen. Graham, Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter. I can deal with principled men that I disagree with because there’s a rational starting point for a conversation. How do you build trust with someone that you don’t know what they believe in from minute to minute? Why would you even try to build a trust with someone who’s priorities are like shifting sand?

I disagreed with a number of things former Sen. Norm Coleman voted for. I enthusiastically supported him, though, because I knew he was a principled man who thought things through.

Sen. Graham said that “This country doesn’t have a problem with conservatives. It has a problem with blind ideology.” What he fails to understand is that unprincipled moderation is an ideology, too. In September, 2007, I wrote something called “Without a Vision, the People Perish.” Here’s what I wrote then:

Part of why we got whipped in 2006 is because every other GOP commercial only talked about how America wouldn’t like Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco values agenda. The GOP’s message didn’t inspire people to vote for GOP candidates. That’s also why funds trickled into the RNC, the NRSC and the NRCC in 2006. People were fed up with Republicans who didn’t act like Republicans. This year, the funds are trickling in again. The cure is in Republicans acting like Republicans. It’s also about them not worrying about tailoring their message to appeal to moderates.

That last premise was proved right in 2008 when squishy John McCain picked Sarah Palin. People understood that she wouldn’t tolerate corruption regardless of who the corrupt person was. They thrilled to the fact that she defeated corrupt members of her own party, then dealt with corrupt politicians on the opposite side of the aisle.

Most importantly, she had a vision for getting America going again.

Sen. Graham has been on my radar screen since the impeachment of President Clinton. In all that time, I’ve never detected a hint of a vision that Sen. Graham espouses.

Chris Chocola has it right:

Club for Growth president Chris Chocola says Graham “has it backwards.”

“It’s not about purity,” he said. “It’s about sticking to the fundamentals in order to build a sustainable majority. If you play a sport and you’re not performing well, you don’t say, “I have to try 10 new things.” You ask, “What are the fundamentals I’ve forgotten about?” The same thing is true in politics. If you’ve had a few bad cycles, what are the fundamentals you’re ignoring?”

That makes perfect sense. Joe Mauer had a rough patch prior to the All Star Game and the first couple games after. Thursday, Mauer was back to his old self, getting a couple hits, including his patented line sincle up the middle. Friday night, he hit home runs in his first two at-bats. His batting average is climbing because he’s stopped trying to pull the ball too often. He’s returned to Joe Mauer’s fundamentals.

When Reagan won in 1984, he didn’t get derailed from his principles. When Newt rode the revolution to the Speaker’s chair in 1994, Republicans promised that they’d pass an appealing agenda. In both those elections, we didn’t have a strategy for reaching out to moderates. We stood for time-tested principles, which moderates found appealing. It’s time we returned to that.
It’s time someone taught Sen. Graham a little bit about time-tested principles.

Technorati Tags: Moderates, Lindsey Graham, Sonia Sotomayor, RINO, SCOTUS, Constitution, Liberty, Conservatism, Principles

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 4:58 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Conservatism, Judiciary, Liberals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.