THE FAR RIGHT IS HAPPY AT LINDSEY GRAHAM'S MISFORTUNE-- AND WE'RE HAPPY FOR THEM

Here's Tommy & Buddy shakin' hands at the Aiken County Republican Convention before the former was caught selling dope

Extreme right-wing loons on the outer fringes of the Republican Party are jumping up and down in joy over the announcement today that one of their own, a quasi-psychotic dentist from Columbia, Wally "Buddy" Witherspoon, has stepped in to challenge Lindsey Graham (R-SC) now that their former champion, Tom Ravenel has been busted for distributing cocaine.

Although beloved of the most radical right segments of the South Carolina GOP, Witherspoon isn't well-known outside of Republican circles. He is a South Carolina Republican Committeeman and, as such, a member of the Republican National Committee (RNC). In 1999 he had a brief brush with fame when it was uncovered that he was a Klansman, a full-fledged member of the CCC, which the RNC forced him to resign. When it was first uncovered in January, 1999, that he spends his spare time running around in a white sheet with a pillowcase over his head and RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson demanded he sever his ties to the Klan subgroup, he told him to go kiss off. Three months later he announced he was severing his ties to the CCC. 'I am a Christian. I am a conservative. But one thing I am not is a racist," he claimed at the time.

According to The Shot "if [Witherspoon] were elected, he would be the farthest right member of the South Carolina delegation and possibly the entire U.S. Senate." That's especially chilling considering who Progressive Punch ranks as the most extreme right wing member of the Senate now.

The extreme right of the South Carolina Republican Party hates Graham because he mentioned that they were insane while he was defending Big Corporate immigration policies (cheap labor) and because he is heavily rumored to be a closet queen.