Senator Graham (R-SC) has definitely lead one of the most potholed of tenures in the US Senate, transitioning from a respected voice on foreign affairs with a proven ability to work across the aisle, to, well, a Master of Hypocrisy. Let The New York Times sum it up:
When Senator Lindsey Graham joined a Republican blockade of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016, he went out of his way to frame his position that a confirmation to the court should never be allowed in an election year as principled, apolitical and utterly permanent.
“I want you to use my words against me,” Mr. Graham said then, swearing that he would hold the same stance even if it meant denying a future Republican president the chance to confirm his chosen nominee.
But less than 24 hours after that hypothetical became a reality with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, Mr. Graham, now the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, made a complete and brazen reversal. He promised that he would push forward immediately to confirm President Trump’s pick — seemingly unbothered by the obvious conflict between his position four years ago and his stance now.
“I am certain if the shoe were on the other foot,” Mr. Graham wrote Monday to Democrats on the judiciary panel, “you would do the same.”
Here, barring an unknown existential threat to Graham or his family, we are seeing a fallacious moral equivalency being drawn: Graham would like to believe, and have all observers believe, that the Democrats are no better than himself; that they, too, would be unable to resist temptation.
However, without any evidence on offer, it’s a doubtful proposition. While a SCOTUS seat is no doubt tempting, too often it’s been a Siren, not a pot of gold, as seen in recent conservative disappointments in judgments by Roberts and Gorsuch. But the real duty of Senators is not to obtain, for their Party, possession of such a seat; it is to investigate and analyze the nominee, and either confirm or reject the nominated person, based on perceived neutrality, experience, temperament, and other factors that Senators perceive as important.
It’s a big old pothole in Graham’s public morality, especially when combined with his recent Earl Landgrebe nomination.
But wait, there’s another one! (So much for his suspension!)
Senator Graham is hoping, through this misdirection, that his audience will forget that this isn’t a contest to see how equal everyone’s morality might be.
It’s a measurement: Is Senator Graham’s morality, his ethics if you prefer, up to the gig, to the bar implicit in his distinguished position? Senator Graham said he wouldn’t vote for any nominee in the final year of a Presidential term, and now he’s reversed himself. His Justice Kavanaugh-related excuse for the about face has been found to be riddled with holes, as Steve Benen notes:
I went back and found the exact date of the senator’s “hold the tape” comments: it was at a forum held on Oct. 3, 2018. That wouldn’t be especially notable, except Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was on Sept. 27, 2018. The Republican-led panel advanced Kavanaugh’s nomination a day later, on Sept. 28, 2018.
And so with that observation, Graham finds a third pothole in his ethics. It’s amazing he’s ever able to earn anyone’s respect.
In fact, that leads me on to suggest that perhaps Senator Graham needs a little social shaming. I suggest those Democratic Senators who received his letter form a little singing group, and come up with a memorable ditty that they can sing to him during the hearings. Maybe something along these lines:
Oh, there goes the ragged Senator Graham,
And his ethics, flayed by power's Mayhem,
Drag behind him like fried Ramen.
He spins and he poses,
And spits thornless roses,
All while smiling like a caiman.
Or maybe they can come up with something of their own, because, frankly, that was awful.
And then everyone should point and laugh at Graham whenever he’s encountered. There should always be a cost when someone is caught playing the victim, when they are the abuser.
