Lindsey Graham, Under Attack From Teabaggers, Goes After Ron Paul

Do you remember a few months ago when a mob of crazed secessionists and teabaggers in Greenville, South Carolina tore into conservative Republican Gresham Barrett and booed him mercilessly? Barrett has an uber-right wing voting record-- career-long slightly to the right of Joe "You're a liar" Wilson, also of South Carolina, although this year both can brag of big fat zeros on the ProgressivePunch chart. Look at that chart below and get an idea of the company he keeps, vote-wise. But that isn't good enough for the KKK adherents and neo-Nazis who are laying claim to the South Carolina Republican Party.


Monday night it was Senator Lindsey Graham's turn to face the backward Greenville mob. CNN reports on the angry confrontation-- and the anger wasn't all one-sided either. Graham may be a closet queen-- he is-- but he's no sissy when it comes to facing down a roomful of degenerate redneck constituents angry about whatever nonsense they heard from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs and Ann Coulter. They report that the room was "packed with libertarians and Tea Party activists who accused the Republican senator of ditching conservative principles by working with Democrats on issues like climate change and voting to send Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court." Graham didn't pander, not even close-- telling the purity mongers that if the Republican Party doesn't reach out to the mainstream it will soon become extinct.

"I'm not going to leave the Republican Party," Graham said when one questioned asked him why he hasn't yet joined the Democrats. "I'm going to grow it. We're not going to be the party of angry white guys."

His comments were met with a salvo of boos and shouts of "Ron Paul!"

"I love this party," he responded. "I'm not going to be let it be hijacked by Ron Paul."

Graham emphasized his conservative bona fides-- particularly his record of opposing abortion rights and support of gun rights-- but said GOP needs to build a broader coalition. Otherwise, he warned, those trying to purify the party will turn Congress over "to the most liberal people in the world because somebody disagrees with you."

"I'm going to find people in Maine, Delaware, Illinois and other places that can win," he said. "And I'm going to help them, and we're going to move this party and this country forward. If you don't like it, you can leave."

Many of the teabaggers seemed to reference Graham's barely-concealed status as a closet case in the epithets they hurled at him. "Angry attendees called Graham a 'traitor, of 'going to bed with John Kerry,' and making a 'pact with the devil.'The extreme reaction mirrors the sentiment perpetuating through the conservative blogosphere, where Graham's legislative endeavors have led him to be labeled a 'Democrat in drag,' a 'wussypants,' and a 'half-a-sissy,' among other things." You almost feel sorry for the poor guy, having to deal with the Neanderthal religionist fanatics that the GOP has courted and is now stuck with:

A woman who had been carrying a sign that condemned “unconstitutional, anti-Christ, socialist, federal, deficit-spending programs” told Graham that “God does not compromise” and that he had violated his oath of office by supporting federal ideas including health care reform that overstep states’ rights.

She was supported by more stomping, clapping and cheering. Graham asked her how she’d voted for president, and she identified Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party as her choice.

Graham then said he wasn’t there to please her, and that her party had lost the election “marketplace” of ideas.