The Big Man

Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is single-handedly trying to stop the U.S. Senate from putting its head further up its collective ass.

Read what Dana Milbank called “Graham’s penetrating indictment of the tribal logic that has overtaken his colleagues,” while explaining his yes vote for Supreme Court Elena Kagan.

“I think there’s a good reason for a conservative to vote yes, and that’s provided in the Constitution itself. The Senate should have a special and strong reason for the denial of confirmation [such as] to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from family connection, from personal attachment and from a view to popularity.”

“Seventy-three of the 126 Supreme Court nominations, were done without roll-call votes. Something’s changing when it comes to the advice-and-consent clause. . . . The question I have for the body: Are we living in an age of legislative activism where the words haven’t changed in the last 200 years, but certainly the voting patterns are?”

“No one spent more time trying to beat President Obama than I did, except maybe Senator McCain.” “[But] President Obama won. The Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me as a senator to not replace my judgment for his, not to think of the 100 reasons I would pick somebody differently or pick a fight with Ms. Kagan.”

“Objectively speaking, things are changing, and they’re unnerving to me. [It is] our obligation to honor elections. It would not have been someone I would have chosen, but the person who did choose, President Obama, I think chose wisely.”

Senator Graham at 5′ 7″ is the biggest man in the Senate, not because he voted for Ms. Kagan but why.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email]

Sunday Stuff – July 11

For the GOP, a risky wave to ride or turn back- by Michael Gerson

The response of many responsible Republicans to these ideological trends is to stay quiet, make no sudden moves and hope they go away. But these are not merely excesses; they are arguments. Significant portions of the Republican coalition believe that it is a desirable strategy to talk of armed revolution, embrace libertarian purity and alienate Hispanic voters. With a major Republican victory in November, those who hold these views may well be elevated in profile and influence. And this could create durable, destructive perceptions of the Republican Party that would take decades to change. A party that is intimidated and silent in the face of its extremes is eventually defined by them

Lindsey Graham, This Year’s Maverick- by Robert Draper

“This country is being challenged in a tremendous way. Broken borders, 12 million people here illegally. Everybody’s upset about that — they ought to be. But somebody’s got to fix it. . . . America’s at her best when she’s thinking about the future and not the moment. So my advice to you graduates is when you get out of school and get a job and a family, try to be part of the solution, not the problem. . . . And the only way we’re going to solve these problems is working together.”

Washington Post columnist denounces recess appointments, is married to recess appointee- by John Cook

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus thinks recess appointments are awful, and that Barack Obama’s use of the loophole to install Donald Berwick to run Medicare and Medicaid was an “outrageous” attempt to “snub the Senate.”
What sort of character relies on recess appointments, anyway? Well, as the liberal blog Balloon Juice points out, Ruth Marcus’s husband did.

.

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email]

Spread the Good CZ Word

Your Name*:

Your E-Mail*:

Recipients (Separated by commas):

Follow Us

Follow CentristZealot on Twitter Follow CentristZealot on Facebook

Don't miss a single post