Is Graham-Kerry the next McCain-Feingold?

October 13, 12:19 PMPhoenix Conservative ExaminerScott Martin

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Lindsey Graham is at it again, playing the same game he learned from his good friend John McCain. When will Republicans in Congress realize that they always get a raw deal when they attempt to reach "bi-partisan" agreements with Democrats? One would think Senator Graham would have already learned the nearly disastrous lesson of his support for amnesty in 2006, but a

from Sunday on the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill shows that he has not.

The worst thing Graham does is agree that man made global warming exists and is a problem.

First, we agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security. That is why we are advocating aggressive reductions in our emissions of the carbon gases that cause climate change.

We see a typical first step towards GOP disaster, the acceptance and desire to solve a non-existent problem. With John McCain it was campaign finance, or how to solve the problem of free people freely donating their money for political purposes. With Graham it's the global warming scam.

Once having accepted the false premise that a problem exists, Graham follows McCain's path of working together with the other side to see what he can salvage in a compromise. Working from a decided position of weakness, no compromise is going to come close to the freedom that will be given up. But Graham is undeterred. This is the second worst thing he does: believing he can achieve worthwhile compromise.

Second, while we invest in renewable energy sources like wind and solar, we must also take advantage of nuclear power, our single largest contributor of emissions-free power. Nuclear power needs to be a core component of electricity generation if we are to meet our emission reduction targets. We need to jettison cumbersome regulations that have stalled the construction of nuclear plants in favor of a streamlined permit system that maintains vigorous safeguards while allowing utilities to secure financing for more plants...

Third, climate change legislation is an opportunity to get serious about breaking our dependence on foreign oil. For too long, we have ignored potential energy sources off our coasts and underground.

Republicans never actually get the concessions they bargain for when dealing across the aisle. Reagan never got the spending cuts promised him by Congress, never got the changes that were supposed to prevent future illegal immigration when he agreed to amnesty. McCain never got the undying media love and future presidency that was the only potential positive outcome of McCain-Feingold.

Cap and Trade was damn near dead before Graham decided to side with John Kerry.

The surprise endorsement of climate-change legislation by a leading Senate Republican has jump-started the languishing proposal but also has raised the prospect that it will include two major items that environmentalists dislike: more nuclear power and more offshore oil drilling.

And so it always begins, with the media making it appear as if the Democrats will have to make major concessions to achieve compromise. It never ends up that way. Graham is unlikely get more nuclear plants out of this, and he certainly won't get additional offshore drilling that would help South Carolina, his home state. Not as long as this Congress is writing the bill. Those jobs will never materialize. And the entire country will be worse off from the productivity tax.

We expect this from people like John Kerry. It a disaster when we also expect it from people who are supposedly on our side, like Graham.