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Opinion: Just call him Lindsey now

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Opinion by
Kathleen Parker
Columnist
August 27, 2021 at 5:52 p.m. EDT



Over the past five years, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has displaced erstwhile presidential candidate John F. Kerry as the nation’s most-confounding flip-flopper.
At least that’s one way to look at Lindsey’s curiouser and curiouser behavior. Another adjective might be “weird.” Surely, politics alone can’t explain Lindsey’s chameleonic behavior.

This week, Lindsey wants to impeach President Biden. If the president doesn’t evacuate every American and every Afghan who helped the United States during its 20-year occupation, Lindsey says, Biden should be impeached because the withdrawal was a “dereliction of duty at the highest level.”
Is that you, Lindsey? The same man who staunchly defended Donald Trump through two deserved impeachments now wants to impeach a Democratic president. If bad or misinformed decisions in war times were impeachable offenses, we’d have to add a secretary of impeachment to the Cabinet.






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Oh, you noticed: Yes, I’ve dropped his surname because Lindsey doesn’t need one anymore. He’s changed his positions so often he’s become the Madonna of politics, the Prince of contradiction, the Oprah of apostasy.
Suffice to say, he’s earned his place in the Hall of Famous One-Namers. Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” would be the perfect soundtrack for his induction ceremony. You may sing along if you wish:
I’m a man (a man) without conviction.
I’m a man (a man) who doesn’t know.
How to sell (to sell) a contradiction.
You come and go, you come and go.

It gives me no pleasure to note Lindsey’s fall from gravitas. He represents my state. He once employed my son. I’ve praised him for courageously saying what no one else would.

Then Trump became president of the United States, and the real Lindsey Graham was never seen again. Suddenly, he was Trump’s puppy (my puppy loves golf-cart rides, too). One day, Lindsey’s seated at the kid’s debate table saying Trump is an “idiot” on foreign policy, and to "make America great again” we should "tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”






The next thing you know, Lindsey and Trump are bromancing.
South Carolinians have been nonplussed by this man they no longer recognize. Regularly, I’m asked: What has happened to Lindsey? I shrug. I suggest: Maybe Trump was a father figure to Lindsey. Maybe he simply enjoyed Trump’s attention, not to mention proximity to the ultimate seat of power.

These are fair assumptions — for anyone but Lindsey. His outspoken disdain for Trump during the campaign was so over-the-top that embracing the absolute opposite view would seem impossible.
What would it take to make Lindsey, former partner in crime with the straight-talking Arizona Sen. John McCain, flip backward like a circus poodle? Lindsey answered the question himself in a 2019 interview with New York Times Magazine writer Mark Leibovich: relevance.










The quest for relevance is the holy grail in the nation’s capital. Every four to eight years, this small town gets a transfusion. New arrivals take up residence in the best neighborhoods. Restaurants and bars, like movie sets, fill up with recently arrived actors lobbying for starring roles. Power breakfasts resume at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown with fresh faces diving into truffle eggs and extra-crispy bacon.

Lindsey was reelected in 2020 and doesn’t have to genuflect to the Trump base for another four to five years. But power is hard to let go. Flattery from a president, though I wouldn’t know, is likely addictive. He said as much to Leibovich: “I have never been called this much by a president in my life … He’s asked me to do some things, and I’ve asked him to do some things in return.” About Trump, he added: “I personally like him. We play golf. He’s very nice to me.”
Calling for Biden’s impeachment doubtless pleases the ear of Lindsey’s Palm Beach pal and, as it happens, thrills Trump’s base, a useful skill should Trump ever decide to hang up his brass knuckles. Should that happen, and perhaps even if it doesn’t, Lindsey wants to be seen as a reliable alternative in MAGA-land.






It’s obvious to attentive observers that Lindsey has loved being a highly respected and recognized U.S. senator. But without McCain or Trump hogging headlines, Lindsey’s relevance may have dwindled.

I don’t doubt his passion or his sincerity about what’s happened in Afghanistan — we all feel it. But one of Washington’s creeds is: You don’t get invited to the party to become relevant. You’re invited because you are relevant.
To Sen. Lindsey Graham, wherever you’ve been held hostage these past few years, I and millions of other Americans hope you’ll soon slip the bonds of servitude and return as yourself to a country in need of authentic leadership.

 
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