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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Lindsey Graham on maturity

As noted by Talking Points Memo, "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) managed to get under Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) skin with a speech Friday night bashing CitiGroup's deep ties to Washington and a provision in a government spending bill rolling back part of Dodd-Frank."

Here were the remarks TPM saw fit to quote from the Politico piece that was TPM's source.

"You have every right to vote no and argue to bring the bill down. If there’s something you don’t like, welcome to democracy."
and
"If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place. Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem.”
He was a condescending twit in the first case and a stick-figure caricature of an elder statesman in the second. Graham has no monopoly on petulant, unSenatorial behavior, but his shrill and would-be lofty criticisms of what he doesn't understand — the FBI, Russia's invasion of Crimea and Crimea again, to name but three that seriously irked me — are no longer funny. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. It's Graham who is the problem, not Warren.

Ted Cruz is clearly the Senate's reigning asshat (see here and here for just two reasons why), but second place is no longer a lock for James "climate change isn't real no matter what real scientists say" Inhofe. It seems like every time Graham opens his mouth, something stupid comes out.

Let me put it in simple terms for you, Senator Graham: you and your GOP colleagues pushed your far-right agenda too hard for even normally milquetoast Democrats to suffer. What you wrongly (and tellingly) interpreted as childishness was actually principled outrage. It's the same sentiment fueling protests across the country against police brutality of minorities. You had better pray that the masses don't make the connection between the different abuses you and your far-right cronies are perpetrating on them, or the GOP will be swamped in subsequent elections. Your regressive agenda hangs by the slimmest of threads, rhetorically speaking: it depends entirely on keeping the masses ignorant of its true impact. Your worst nightmare is a smart and persistent pol like Elizabeth Warren, who just might wake the public up.

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