I’m not a Lindsey Graham hater, and I understand he’s worried about a teahadist challenge in 2014, but look at the other co-signers….this is pathetic:
“While we respect Sen. Hagel’s honorable military service, in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination,” the senators wrote. “It would be unprecedented for a Secretary of Defense to take office without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position.”
The letter is signed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), David Vitter (R-La.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
It makes me wonder how long Lindsey will continue to support immigration reform. And how long it will be until someone on the far right swishboats him. Or is it possible that even in South Carolina, no one cares about teh gay anymore?
I can see why Lindsey has to steer right. What’s the brother gonna do, he’s South Carolinian. But I don’t think that many Tea Party types are interested in Chuck Hagel’s nomination. If you’re going to make a fool of yourself, you might was well get some political mileage out of it.
Pooh
It’s also unprecedented for the opposition party to so explicitly put small-bore domestic politics in front of national security. A lot of firsts going on here.
JPL
Why didn’t his friends sign it? Did Kelly Ayotte and John McCain decide to let Lindsay go?
Redshirt
That’s an all star list of Senators. We’re in good hands, America!
General Stuck
Teh gay is bad enough, but soshulism will take your essence, and other stuff.
We need mo war/wingnut
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
I think you meant “all shit” not “all star”.
What? Aqua Buddha didn’t sign the letter? How come he didn’t chime in? I mean, he wants to establish his bona-fides as the glorious leader of the Teatards, and he doesn’t sign a letter that the twit Cruz signs?
Freemark
I fucking hated 2010. In Pennsylvania we ejected Santorum and then went right ahead and picked up Toomey. What is it with Blue states electing godawful Republicans for US Senate and state senate and houses. Here in Pa Republicans control everything yet we are a ‘Blue’ state.
dmsilev
What a pointless letter. I mean, do they really think that Obama is just going to say “oh yes, you’re right, I’ll nominate someone else”?
I mean, I get that this is just posturing for the base and possibly for the media, but it’s such stupid posturing.
Spaghetti Lee
A.K.A.: “A non-comprehensive list of senators who are more loyal to Likud than they are to the USA.”
Trentrunner
“Swishboats” LOL.
Now that’s a cruise I’d LOVE to take.
beltane
I almost have to give them credit for dispensing with the pretense that they need a legitimate reason to oppose Hagel. Couldn’t they have at least made a reference to Friends of Hamas or something, I feel slightly cheated here.
Spaghetti Lee
@Freemark:
In Pennsylvania we ejected Santorum
All of you at once? That must have been a frightful mess.
Hunter Gathers
Why would the TeaBaggers swishboat him when he’s already their bitch?
Redshirt
I love this game – Republicans attack without cause, than cite the uproar as proof that Hagel should go. Lack of bipartisan support indeedy!
It’s their freaking playbook – create the problem, then point out the problem as the other guy’s fault, and do everything you can to prevent the problem from being fixed.
Fun!
Shrillhouse
“Swishboating” must be added to the BJ lexicon at once.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I am. His personal absurdities aside, and I mostly pity him there, he’s one of the few GOP trolls who actually knows better, and thinks he can somehow mitigate the damage later. I’d put Alexander, Murkowski, maybe Hatch on that list, and at least half a dozen who have walked away or been forced out in the last few years– Snowe, Lugar, Hutchison, Poppy and Jeb, Powell. Specter hung on far too long. The Ohio Senator– DeWine or Voinavich? I think Voinavich?– who wept on the Senate floor over Bolton. Even a piece of filth like Chambliss doesn’t want to play this game anymore. And if Lindsey is forced out, look for him to have featured solos in the I Blame Both Sides Sunday Morning Choir.
I’m kind of surprised Ayotte thinks replacing Lieberman as the third Stooge is her ticket to stardom. Interesting she didn’t go along here.
Bokonon
So in other words … sure, yeah, the whole “Friends of Hamas” and “endored by Iran” thing just blew up in our collective wingnut faces. But we aren’t backing off an inch! No sir! On account of Republicans can never do that. No way.
Instead, we are going to ask that you withdraw Hagel’s nomination anyway. Because of the bogus “controversy” that we raised ourselves. In the name of bipartisanship no less! And then we will try to exact a political price if you proceed, MISTER President. Wanna have a whole bunch of nice filibusters since you’ve been so rude to us?
PS – Benghazi!!!!!!
Trollhattan
Considering Lindsey Graham is probably a Lindsey Graham-hater, I’d jump on that bandwagon if I were you. It’s a big wagon, and he’s an ass from toes to topknot.
He may be behind the turtle in the despicable lineup, but he’s certainly in the queue. (And yes, the Texahoma contingent are rather orders of magnitude worse, but what else do you expect?)
Zifnab
Well, that’s your mistake right there. Tea Party types are interested in what they’re told to be interested about. The topic is irrelevant, so long as you can pump enough “OUTRAGE” into it.
Bernie
“swishboat” I love it. We need an urban dictionary entry for this one.
David Hunt
Gee. If they’re mean enough about Hagel, maybe he’ll nominate someone who’s more appealing to Republicans. Although, short of Donald Rumsfeld, I’m not sure who that is…
Bernie
“swishboat” I love it. We need an urban dictionary entry for this one.
Pooh
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Murkowski occasionally does the right thing at least, but I’ve been sort of surprised she hasn’t been in more of an “F U” mode considering she got teabagged and won anyway. Comfortably. Her sins have generally been more of omission (leading my wife to often say things like, “Oh, Lisa, I know you know better than that”.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Pooh: I know she voted for cloture in the most recent Hagel vote. And I gather she hates Palin as much as anyone.
FlipYrWhig
We oppose this nomination because our opposition to this nomination has made opposing this nomination necessary.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
Oh, they have a cause for their attacks. Hagel was nominated by “that one”. There is no higher reason to oppose Hagel than that.
Strandedvandal
Good lord, Risch again with the teahadist flailing. I remember when this clown used to be semi-reasonable. What a frigging embarrassment to Idaho.
Steeplejack
Jon Stewart flayed both Lindsey Graham and John McCain on this subject last night. “Hagel with a Smear.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Pooh:
During the Cold War this would have been within spitting distance of treasonable, which is why it didn’t happen except on a small scale and re: marginal issues. We all know that Joe McCarthy’s downfall didn’t happen subsequent to things going wrong in the Federal Power Commission-McCarthy hearings, they went wrong in the Army-McCarthy hearings. Back in those days there were some things you just didn’t fuck around with, or the adults in the room kept you out of the relevent committees.
Punchy
I love how Tim Scott, in the Senate for all of a minute and only there to the overwhelming greed of DeMint, throws his Hand Johncock on there as if he has any fucking clue where the bathrooms are located in that building or why the ink on his business card isn’t yet dry.
schrodinger's cat
My prediction: This summer, the immigration reform bill is going to make the summer of death panels look tame.
Litlebritdifrnt
Lyndsey’s conservative SC Newspaper savaged him for this bullshit this morning. I’ll see if I can find a linky dink
Okay found the link
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/02/20/3340148/editorial-grahams-benghazi-alarms.html
Villago Delenda Est
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Also note the John Tower nomination…which was not ideologically based, so much as Tower pissed off on a personal level a lot of his fellow Senators, and that’s what did him in.
Face
That’s not possible. Faggotry is still a social felony in the Palm-metro state.
Kathy in St. Louis
” I can see why Lindsey has to steer right. What’s the brother gonna do, he’s South Carolinian. But I don’t think that many Tea Party types are interested in Chuck Hagel’s nomination”
A brother could keep some semblance of priciple and win or lose on his record, rather than the absolutely foul pandering this wuss has been doing for months. It and he are both disgusting. I mean, it’s not as if he has made enough powerful connections over the years that he is unemployable outside the Senate. And his pension should keep him from having to panhandle on street corners.
Dear Lord, Lindsey,have some dignity.
eemom
My equal opportunity hatred encompasses the bearer of any name followed by an R — but that simpering hypocrite is among the elite of the particularly deserving.
maus
So right-wingers like Lindsay believe that teahadists will literally commit terrorist action against their own country if they don’t get their way, and that’s a good thing?
Pooh
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Exactly. I know Pierce formulates the House GOP as “feral children”, but this episode isn’t painting their senate brethren as much more developed.
Roy G.
aka the Dishonorable Senator Squidcloud, R-Butthurt.
Pooh
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: EVERYONE up here hates Palin as much as anyone these days.
Villago Delenda Est
@maus:
They’re not terrorists, damn it! They’re freedom fighters! They can’t be terrorists! They’re not Muslim!
Keith G
Why do we have to honor Graham’s military service? Wasn’t there a certain Austrian painter who also served honorably military?
During the seventies and early eighties, I met more than super closeted gay guy who desperately felt they could claw back some sense into their life if they only conformed to a rigid authoritarian mind set.
Despite the sheepskins on his wall, it appears that Graham is a shallow, vacuous, and needy queer.
I wonder when the news will break that he pays younger men for golden showers.
Chris
I don’t really know the gentleman, but I find it hard not to be a hater of anyone who, after the long descent into lunacy over the course of the last fifty years by the GOP, still sticks with them and takes part in leading them.
Forum Transmitted Disease
15 out of 100, and every signer a certified TeaTard.
Welcome aboard, SecDef Hagel.
Villago Delenda Est
@Keith G:
This is why comparisons between said Austrian painter and our former dear leader were off the mark, as the Austrian painter was a wounded-in-combat war veteran, a holder of the Iron Cross.
Our former dear leader, not so much.
Mandalay
@Keith G:
You have made many fine posts, but that isn’t one of them. There is so much ugly factual stuff out there about Graham that there is no need to go down that path.
Chris
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
McCarthyism was a case in point of the big “establishment” players (led by Taft) tapping a vein of successful right-wing populism only to see it get out of control and need to be put down like a rabid dog (funny how none of those “McCarthy was RIGHT!” apologists nowadays remember who it was who destroyed him – “liberals,” of course).
Karl Rove and the rest have done the same thing with the teabaggers and are hoping it can end the same way, but the crazy’s a lot stronger now than it was then.
beltane
@Forum Transmitted Disease: It’s hard not to notice that this letter was signed by only the most rancid peanuts of the peanut gallery. Is this the best they can do?
Redshirt
Act cool everyone, Purity Police have arrived.
ricky
Can’t Hagel promise to stay away from malted beverage?
Worked for John Tower.
Patricia Kayden
An appeal to bipartisanship by a group of people whose leader said that his main job since 2008 was to prevent President Obama from being re-elected.
Yes, that works.
vogon pundit
@Freemark: You’ve got Toomey in PA and we’ve got Ron Johnson.. 2010 was a disaster.
Josie
@Villago Delenda Est: John Tower was reported to be an alcoholic and was not trusted by many senators to hold power or responsibility.
Julia Grey
Or is it possible that even in South Carolina, no one cares about teh gay anymore?
Oh, they care. But they wouldn’t care about any info that came out about Lindsey, any more than they cared about Nikki Haley’s dalliances. They would just choose not to believe it.
Xenos
@Redshirt: Reminds me of divorce court: instigate a lot of fights, then claim it was a high-conflict relationship so there is no way to allow joint custody. Usually works in court, as there is no way for the court to know the real cases from the fake, and judges are terrified of making a dreadful mistake. Here, all the fights were right in front of use – we know they were BS.
Forum Transmitted Disease
My prediction: This summer, the immigration reform bill is going to make the summer of death panels look tame.
@schrodinger’s cat: Mexican Invasion 2013.
EdTheRed
He said go out and get me my old movie stills
Go out and get me another roll of pills
There I go again shaking, but I ain’t got the chills
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
[furtively tosses contents of a glass of scotch onto the pavement]
Redshirt
I hope the immigration “discussion” is heated. I hope the wingtards fill the rooms ranting spittle flecked xenophobia. I hope they try and one-up each other in their vitriol. Show us all how welcoming and tolerant the Republican Party truly is. I’m sure the Latinos will just love it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Oh, that meme(the Mexican Invasion) is well established in AZ right now, from all I’ve read.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
They’ve done that to Senator Walnuts, already, in a town hall meeting. Walnuts tried to calm the nutcases down with “we’re a Judeao-Christian nation” but the bloodlust of the xenophobes is too strong.
They will perform up to your expectations, and perhaps exceed them. They’re that fucking stupid.
Hoodie
The Tea Party types don’t care about any issue in any policy sense; they’re just looking for psychic gratification, e.g, any fight where they sense an opportunity to kick some liberal Obama ass and look all butch. War and guns compensate for Huckleberry Closet Case’s macho deficit.
Villago Delenda Est
@Josie:
That was their “reason” for opposing Tower, but Tower pissed a lot of them off over his career (for example, he openly and vocally supported Ford over Reagan in ’76) and there was a great deal of personal rancor that was conveniently camouflaged by accusations of alcoholism and womanizing. As if they themselves were not guilty of the same thing (Pete Dominici, I’m looking at you, asshole).
Keith G
@Mandalay: Tell me, was it the “paying for” part that was too far?
I have met many a buttoned down, strapped in man who find their release in exotic ways. Though I suppose that Senator Graham may not be even that interesting.
Doug Galt
@EdTheRed:
Glad someone got it!
Redshirt
@Villago Delenda Est: True that, and I look forward to so much more.
Rebranding will never be as much fun!
catclub
@Josie: Tower lost because about 4 or 5 republicans voted against him, and all but one or two democrats voted against him (senate was democratic at the time). It could be viewed then as partisan.
It was still a fairly close vote, so plenty of GOP senators either thought he was ok or did not care.
liberal
@Keith G:
Because we have to honor everyone for their military service—it’s our national secular religion.
liberal
@Redshirt:
Yeah, that was my reaction upon seeing a related Talkingpointsmemo headline a few minutes ago.
Bokonon
Speaking of closet cases … Joe McCarthy was apparently one himself.
Consider his somewhat unaffectionate nickname – “Tail Gunner Joe.” And McCarthy’s choice of close associates. Ahem. It was all right out there in the open (if you chose to look for it).
Comrade Dread
It’s less about Hagel than it is about sticking it to the black, Muslim, black, liberal, black, tyrant, black, lying liar who lies, black, communist, black president.
liberal
@Villago Delenda Est:
Is full-throttle obstructionism the only motive? I would assume insufficient fealty to Israel is a motive also.
Josie
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s interesting. Was he really that hard to get along with, or did they just not like his politics?
Villago Delenda Est
@Bokonon:
“Tail-Gunner Joe” was, supposedly, a reference to his service in the Marine Corps during WWII, during which he flew on twelve missions as a gunner/observer, which got him the nickname.
Although said nickname does have the same double-entendre flavor of “Teabagger”.
@Josie:
A combination of both, it seems. He rubbed enough of his colleagues in the Senate the wrong way, so that the usual perfunctory confirmation vote didn’t go his way.
Villago Delenda Est
@liberal:
I think insufficient fealty to the Likud is good camouflage for outright obstruction. Hence all the “Friends of Hamas” bullshit.
kc
You should be.
The only people I EVER hear talk or joke about Graham’s sexual orientation are Democrats. Which is not good.
Though I confess I get a kick out of Jon Stewart’s Lindsay-Graham-as-Blanche-Dubois impersonation.
Redshirt
@Villago Delenda Est: Yeah. Ultimately I don’t think the Wingnuts give a damn about Israel. It’s just another bullet point on the Team’s talking points.
They care about obstruction when out of power, and money/more power when in power. That’s it
burnspbesq
In a perfect world, Obama would go on prime-time teevee and pee on this letter.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
“Let me whip this out…”
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYlDbv7MqE8
drkrick
The idea that these 15 Senators should be able to impose a veto of the nomination just follows the 1860 precedent – without the approval of a majority of the Southern representatives, a national majority is meaningless.
shortstop
This is like punching someone in the schnoz and then saying you can’t stand to be around nosebleeds.
Keith G
@burnspbesq:
Holding my
tongueindex fingers.Jay C
@burnspbesq:
Even in this imperfect Universe, he should pretty much do this anyway – figuratively, of course: a Presidential address politely dismissing the Republican Senators’
bullshitobjections and demanding a floor vote on Hagel’s nomination ASAP would probably do it…reboho
After Mr. Hagel is sworn in, his first action should be to get the list of signees
and if the #BoehnerMcConnellquester is allowed to stand, military/DOD contracts and workers in these states should be the first to feel the pinch. They want to play games with the economy, make their constituents understand that elections have consequences.
Death Panel Truck
Hmmm…nobody got the Clash reference.
“Nembutal…numbs it all
But I prefer…Alcohol!”
Death Panel Truck
All right, so I was beaten to it by EdTheRed. I can’t be expected to read all 83 comments before I embarrass myself! ;)
Matt
Ideal response from the President’s office: “Unfortunately, your letter lacks the kind of bipartisan support that we’d like to see before responding to it. So eat a bag of dicks, teahadis.”
jamick6000
barf, Lindsey Graham is the worst. This Hagel shit is especially galling because Graham has lied many times about being a veteran: http://www.salon.com/2010/05/20/lindsey_graham_war_liar/
Pope Bandar bin Turtle
@Spaghetti Lee: Afterwards, they erected a statue of Santorum.
Redshirt
How would you build a statue of Santorum?
A fountain, I can see. But not a statue.
Doug Galt
@Death Panel Truck:
Ha!