So Steamed

What Really Got Lindsey Graham so Steamed

The South Carolina senator’s jeremiad wasn’t just defending Kavanaugh. He was standing up for something he loves even more: Congress.

By BRUCE HAYNES

“What is Lindsey Graham up to?” As a native of South Carolina whose time immersed in Palmetto State politics and in Washington generally coincides with Senator Graham’s, I get that question a lot. He’s never been afraid to cut against conservative orthodoxy, saying that climate change is real and TARP was necessary. Sometimes he’s just provocative, saying if he were president we would “all drink more.” I’ve gotten more questions than ever after the fiery speech he gave Thursday during Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.

The theories abound. Many suggested he was auditioning for President Donald Trump in case Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns or is fired. Or, given Graham’s background serving in the Air Force and his experience on the Armed Services Committee, others ventured he would like to be Secretary of Defense if Jim Mattis steps aside. But I don’t believe Graham was thinking about his next job as he thundered that this nomination had deteriorated into a historically “unethical” “sham.” While his blistering five-minute denunciation of the Democrats on the panel unquestionably thrilled the president, I believe Graham would be a leading candidate for either position even if he had exhibited restraint and let Rachel Mitchell handle the questions.

Some wondered whether there weren’t a more practical political question motivating Graham. Was this just a ploy to guard his right flank in the event of a 2020 U.S. Senate primary? It’s a fair question. After all, Graham has never been the darling of South Carolina conservatives. He’s been badly beaten up by the base at home for trying to work with Democrats on several issues, most famously for joining the “Gang of Eight” and advancing bipartisan proposals on comprehensive immigration reform. He’s been slurred for it, mocked as “Flimsy Lindsey” and “Lindsey Gomez.” Indeed, Rush Limbaugh recently said “Senator Grahamnesty” sounds like a new man these days. But I don’t think this concern drove his outburst, either.

First, Graham is as authentic as Pee Dee vinegar and pepper barbeque. Publicly and privately, he takes risks, says what he thinks and doesn’t hold back. But second, and perhaps more important, he doesn’t need to do it. Graham faced primary opposition from the right in 2014 and wiped the political floor with the field. He’s a great candidate, a prolific fundraiser and would deliver the same rout again in 2020.

No, I do not think political positioning was at the core of this at all. The reasoning was simpler and more direct. In fact, Graham said it himself and I believe him:

If you know your South Carolina politics, history tells you that when South Carolinians get riled you should probably give them a wide berth. Representative Preston Brooks once beat Senator Charles Sumner nearly to death with a cane on the Senate floor because of a perceived personal insult to him and a family member. Then-Governor Mark Sanford, angry about political “pork” spending, dragged pooping pigs through South Carolina’s statehouse to make his point. Ambassador and former Governor Nikki Haley once told President Trump himself “Bless your heart,” perhaps the deepest of Southern cuts. And I’ll never forget that in 1998, I was the campaign manager of a Senate race in which then-Senator Ernest Hollings called my candidate a “God****ed Skunk.” Former South Carolina Attorney General James Petigru’s description of our state resonates in some ways to this day: “Too small for a republic, and too large for an insane asylum.” We are an interesting folk.

The real question is what truly pushed Lindsey Graham to this point? If you have followed him on his journey through politics, from state House backbencher to member of the “Republican Revolution” to Senate leader and presidential candidate, the reasoning is pretty clear.

I believe that at his core, Lindsey Graham is a conservative institutionalist. He believes that people should hold their views and fervently represent them in our political system, but in the end our process needs to work and we need to move forward together as one country, as Americans. That’s why he is often perceived as independent, because like his good friend, the late Senator John McCain, he will put the interest of the country and the political institution in which he serves first. Look no further than his dissent to some of the tougher charges in President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment. Remember who asked the question: “Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?” Lindsey Graham.

This is why a significant part of his diatribe was his “yes” votes for Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Graham would not have nominated either of them to the court and they don’t share his legal views. But his sense of fairness and commitment to upholding comity and the process compelled him, in his view, to vote for them absent some reasonably developed, significantly disqualifying characteristic. This tracks with his long-standing history of working in bipartisan ways to seek compromise and, while not being untrue to his own views, also move our country forward.

In this case, I suspect he feels not only has he been personally betrayed by his Democratic colleagues, but more significantly, that they are betraying the example he believes he demonstrated—institutional deference to the party in power on judicial nominees. And to make matters worse, he believes they are doing it a particularly shameful and salacious way.

Combine what Graham sees as a breach of institutional norms with a personal betrayal and for him it’s explosive—the political equivalent of mixing sodium with water (or worse, putting mayonnaise on barbeque). It may have other political benefits, but based on my over 20 years listening to and following Lindsey Graham, it is fundamentally a compromise of honor both personally and institutionally that, as he says, really pissed him off. In this case, “bless your heart” was not going to cut it.