Is Senator Lindsey Graham out of touch with South Carolina?

Conservative South Carolinians have a love/hate relationship with Senator Lindsey Graham. On the one hand, he opposes Abortion rights, support gun rights, and votes ninety-two percent of the time with Senate Republicans. While he was a Congressman from the South Carolina's third district, he had a strong conservative record in the House supporting the Republican 'contract with America and voting for several articles of impeachment for then President Bill Clinton.

On the other hand, the eight percent of the time he votes with Democrats is where conservatives have serious problems. A few examples: Graham recently aligned himself with Senator John Kerry (D-MA) on climate change legislation and co-authored a New York Times Op-Ed entitled, “Yes We Can (Pass climate change legislation)”. In March 2009, Graham voted with moderate Republicans for Cap and Trade that could cost South Carolinians up to two-thousand dollars a year in additional outlays. He voted with Democrats for Supreme Court Nominee Sonya Sotomayor who made statements about actively legislating from the bench and sat on a committee that pressed for state funding of abortions. He aligned with McCain/Kennedy on the Immigration Reform Bill. Graham is in talks about the possibility of nationalizing banks. Lastly, He was a member of the, “Gang of Fourteen” that intervened when Democrats tried to filibuster a vote on Supreme Court Justice Roberts.

Graham is being lumped with other moderate Republican called RINOs, Meaning, 'Republican in Name Only'. People being called RINOs has been around for years and is usually held by anyone who votes against a party line. Recently a Poll related that seventy-three percent of those surveyed say the Republican party is out of step with conservative values. A new Gallup poll shows, that since the election, those who identify themselves as 'conservative' has increased while those who call themselves 'moderate' or 'liberal' has decreased. These polls may account for the reason Senator Graham has not been invited to any of the South Carolina Tea Parties.

It is clear that Senator Grahams voting record has changed since 2002 when he won election to the Senate following being in the House of Representatives since 1994. What happened?

It is the Republican Examiners contention that, during the 2000 presidential campaign, Graham was supporting Senator John McCain for President. The South Carolina primary was hard fought and some underhanded tactics were employed by those who supported then Governor George W. Bush. A so called, a  'whisper campaign' occurred that related to listeners that McCain had a African-American child out of wed-lock. While the Bush campaign denied this, McCain's camp pointed to Republican establishment operatives as the culprit. Bush went on to win in South Carolina. It is reported that the campaign infuriated Graham and upon entering the Senate, Graham voted almost in 'lock step with McCain and continues to do so. The Whisper campaign was totally without merit as the McCain's had adopted a child from Mother Theressa's orphanage in Bangladesh in 1993. While there is little evidence that race issues had any impact on the election, some say that the racist fringe may have contributed to McCain's loss.

During a Town Hall meeting in Greenville, S.C., Graham went on the defensive toward conservatives and Ron Paul supporters. He said that he had no intention of being the party of “angry white guys”. When asked why he just doesn't leave the Republican party like Arlen Specter, he said, “I'm not going to leave the Republican Party... I'm going to grow it.”