South Carolina’s senior U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, 71, died Saturday night after a “brief and sudden illness”. Preliminary reports say it was an aortic tear. For now, the nation must manage the shock from losing a political figure that’s been in the zeitgeist for decades.
Of course, the haters are already dancing on his grave, and shame on them. The Air Force veteran, who retired from the Reserves as colonel, deserves our respect and prayers.
These last 24 hours, the political junkie in me couldn’t help but reflect on his life and career. Today, I choose my Lindsey Graham memories to be both his leadership and his sense of humor.
Both sides of the fence
Serving his sixth term in the Senate, there are elements of Graham’s record that make the Left and Right suffer a full range of positive and negative emotions.
On the Right, he was loved for a lot of things: strong on defense, a fiscal conservative and a staunch ally of President Trump. As the chair of the Judiciary Committee from 2019-2021, he presided over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. Of course, depending on the day and the court case, the Left and Right would take turns applauding and attacking Graham for those appointments.
In other areas, I appreciate, as we all should, that he was a staunch supporter of Israel. And, I will always join many in applauding his unwavering support for a strong America. His unrelenting advocacy for peace through the world’s strongest military is paramount in my mind. I’ll never agree with those who want to weaken our Department of War and criticize our soldiers for doing their jobs.
His leadership on the committees he served was legendary. Appropriations, Armed Services and Budget Committees to name a few. He wasn’t known for authoring major legislation, per se, but he was responsible for coalition building and securing votes.
While Democrats hated much of what the Republican stood for, when it came to Ukraine, they certainly loved his hawkish stance in support of that nation’s defense against the Russian invasion. There was never a more vocal and strong-willed advocate for putting down Putin’s aggression.
As reported by NBC News, “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and of the values that make our world safer,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement, noting that Graham had visited Ukraine 10 times during the war.
Democrats also certainly loved that he criticized January 6 rioters, though he’s been attacked for befriending the President. My response to that is pretty simple, but I’ll quote Eli Lake from The Free Press, when he says you “catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
That’s smart politics, and a good example of Graham’s modus operandi.
In many ways, he was a throwback to old school politics. Publicly, he’d fight the opposition party, and then dine with them to work on issues they agreed on.
Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons told the Wall Street Journal, “I fought with him like a brother. But we also came together and worked really hard on things we both cared deeply about.”
In the early 1990s, when I started out in Washington, D.C. right after college, I worked two jobs. By day, I worked in politics and journalism. By night, I bartended at a barbecue joint on Capitol Hill across the street from the Rayburn House Office Building and the Republican National Committee. The Democratic National Committee was a couple blocks away.
Every night, Democrat and Republican representatives and staffers regularly grabbed a beer together. This is how it should be.
A smile through the madness
I know smarter columnists and talking heads will write deeper insights into the meaning of Lindsey Graham, and they all may be accurate, poignant and worth considering. Unfortunately, most of it will be promptly forgotten by the electorate.
So, I’m going to focus on how he made me smile.
The late Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, is quoted as saying Graham’s second career could have been as a stand-up comedian.
Again from the Wall Street Journal, while running for president, the Senator bachelor once said that he has a lot of friends, and if he won, there would be several first ladies, primarily his sister.
When it comes to his humor and career, for me it comes down to his defense and shepherding of Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial nomination. The brutal, outlandish claims leveled against Kavanaugh defied all common sense and decency. Oddly, out of all that Supreme Court madness came what I consider one of the funniest images and political meme’s in modern political history. It’s the picture at the top of this article.
In 2018, during the Kavanaugh nomination hearings, as Graham walked to his car at the end of a long day, a lady unleashed a verbal attack on the senator. At that very moment Benny Johnson, then of the Daily Caller, snapped the photo.
To me, it showed Graham’s utter toughness by taking it all in with humor. That he smiled while adjusting his tie during the shot was either perfect accidental comedic timing or a purposeful homage to Rodney Dangerfield. Hilarious either way.
Dangerfield’s comic routine, some might recall, was famous for his seemingly uncomfortable tie adjustment as he simultaneously claimed he didn’t get “no respect” and then executed a brutally funny take down.
In Graham’s routine, the juxtaposition of him smiling while a seriously angry lady dominates the background makes it all so comic.
Like him or not, you have to respect Graham for a long and successful career. Even if you disagree with him, you have to respect his unyielding positions on Ukraine, America’s defense, fiscal conservatism and pragmatic support for the President.
Here’s a truism you should never forget: every now and then, you have to smile and laugh at politics, or it will drive you crazy.
That’s why I choose to remember and love a moment of political humor all while respecting Graham’s lifetime of leadership.
Thanks for the laughs and leadership Lindsey. Rest in peace.