Lindsey Graham: I Won’t Let Ron Paul Hijack the GOP
Posted on October 13th, 2009 by Jack Hunter
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This isn’t the best audio but more evidence of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s complete dismissal of Ron Paul’s adherence to rigid constitutional government. Notice in the first video that instead of addressing the woman’s criticism head on, Graham simply asks her who she voted for in the presidential election. When she replied “Chuck Baldwin” Graham then attempts to marginalize her based on her support for the Constitution Party, slamming Paul in the process.
The following took place 10/12/09 at a town hall meeting in Greenville, SC:
UPDATE: CNN has picked up this story.
Filed under: Uncategorized
pure and simple…Grahams a douche.
Senator Graham is the one of the most liberal Republicans in the senate..
Ron Paul predicted this crisis and he has the solution.
Abolish the Federal Reserve, Abolish the Income Tax
People are waking up to whats going on. The internet is definatly help spreading the word, while at the same time letting people talk to others with similiar views.
Paul isn’t hijacking nothing or even trying. He simply had a message, his message was a positive one and they can’t stand it that people are starting to ask questions and think for themselves.
And if you want to know the truth, hes not worried about Paul, what he is worried about are the candidates that will come out with a message similiar to Paul’s, this doesn’t go well with the neocons think process. Im sorry, I am a conservative but will never vote for another candidate even remotely similiar to the ones they keep shoving out their with their war policies and destroying our personal liberties. I’ll vote 3rd party forever if I have to before they put someone out there that I can believe in.
creeps like graham have already hijacked the gop.
charles ranalli
albuquerque
What is the problem in South Carolina. Is it the scamming voting software installed into the voting computers that are used there. If they’re used there ? THIS MAN OR WHATEVER HE IS DOESN’T REPRESENT THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA HE REPRESENTS ENTITIES THAT WANT YOU HOMELESS AND HUNGRY. Instead of talking to this criminal why didn’t you string him up, give him last rights and hang his sorry butt. At the very least he deserves a jail cell not a seat in the US senate. Please tell me there is someone who gives a damn about the people of SC running against this trash. If you wont arrest him at least file a lawsuit for breach of contract in his failure to fulfill any part of the duties he’s required to uphold in swearing an oath to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of South Carolina.
Is it any wonder that the Republican party is in decline with the likes of him in a leadership position?
This really isn’t that hard to get. Real Conservatives and the grassroots want a return to a party that follows what they say they believe in. We want a party that gets behind the Constitution and does more than just pay lip service to it.
Overall we want Congressman Ron Paul and other like him in power. The grassroots has been saying it since 2007…WE WANT RON PAUL!
After Bush, and the NeoCon Three-McCain, Lieberman and Graham-there is nothing left of the Republican party to be highjacked.
What defines the Republican Party from 200-2008? Entitlement expansion? check. Increased Federal Government into areas such as education? check. Gravitation of wealth to the unproductive areas of the economy, i.e., the financial sector? check. Is this what’s he’s worried about highjacking?
Vote him out of office. He’s already playing identity politics by endorsing the “angry white man” narrative of the HuffingtonPost and Keith Olbermann.
Considering it was people like Lindsey Graham, people who claim the name of the GOP but repudiate its substance, who hijacked the GOP from honest Conservatives in the first place, his comment is ridiculous.
No real Conservative would ever countenance the repudiation of the principle of individual liberty that is the PATRIOT Act. No true conservative would endorse the profligate spending and runaway growth of government seen in the Bush Administration.
Senator Graham is a neo-con, not a true Conservative, and Congressman Paul’s views are far, far, closer what the GOP once stood for than his.
The truth is that there is one, and ONLY one Republican around who has brought young people into the GOP and that is RON PAUL, and he has brought them in by the thousands.
If the GOP leaders are really interested in building the party, and not just feathering their own nests, they will wholeheartedly embrace Ron Paul and all he stands for.
If they don’t, the GOP will go the way of the Whigs, and good riddance!
I actually find some solace in this. The name Chuck Baldwin is mentioned, yet Graham mentions Ron Paul? Boy, those GOP fat cats must be paying an awful lot of attention to Dr. Paul. How else do you exmplain him drawing a connection between the two? He was the Consitution Party nominee for president(not Libertarian), but yet he is able to draw the connection because Dr. Paul endorsed Baldwin for president while withdrawing from the GOP race. What should have been irrelevant, forgotten information was front and center in Graham’s mind. Graham, you have admitted that the GOP is scared of Ron Paul without saying so. You Graham and your neo-con buddies are the angry white guys, and you are the true hijackers of the GOP. You have no intelligent card to play, so you bring out the ‘racist’ card when all else fails. What you don’t want people to realize is that Libertarians stick up for the ultimate minority: the individual. The cat is out of the bag. Get on board with the constitution or watch your party be left in the wake of the Libertarian Party.
Sen. Graham is making a mistake to dismiss Dr. Paul and his supporters. As Michael noted, RP is the only GOP politician who has reached out and brought in new faces to the party. Ron Paul also happens to be the only Republican in Washington (that I know of) who has maintained perfect adherence to Constitutional principles in his voting record.
This is a more telling comment than I’m sure Graham intended it to be. Graham was responding to the answer of his question about who a woman in the audience voted for for president. Her answer was Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party candidate for president, whom Ron Paul endorsed for president upon leaving the race for the GOP nomination. If we were to believe the marginalization and dismissal that was given to Dr. Paul during the campaign by the GOP, this connection between the two should have been unknown. The fact that Graham made the connection between Baldwin and Dr. Paul by turning her response regarding Chuck Baldwin into a tirade about Dr. Paul clearly shows the connection is not only known but also of concern to the GOP establishment. I would respond to Graham by saying it is neo-cons such as himself and George W. Bush who are the true hijackers of the GOP, because the GOP used to stand for libertarian ideals but have long since abandoned the constitution, the limitations of government power contained in it and the guarantee of rights forming the cornerstone of it. In searching for a new message, the GOP has a choice to make: uphold the oaths you take upon entering office to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, or watch your party crumble in the wake of the rise of the Libertarian Party.
Did he say “leave the party”? Tell me I did not just hear Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tell conservatives to “leave the party”? I don’t know what the big deal over Ron Paul is. I know he’s a Republican Congressman from Texas. From what I gather he’s an honest church going Christian doctor, devoted husband and father of well behaved, well educated, children. Pleased to have him in our camp. Has Ron Paul ever told people to “leave the party”?
Unless the independents and conservative republican ban together in ‘10 we are all but finished. There is no difference between the two parties in Washington at this time.
As to Graham, anyone who would team up with McCain in the Judiciary Committee and follow McCain around like a little puppy dog during the Presidential Campaigne as well as his support for this healthcare plan is no Conservative!
It is essential that we get together one (1) million doners giving $100. each to support a primary bid against Graham, maybe ‘14, Snowe and Collins. Once they have the dreaded primary challenge maybe they will get the idea that we no longer want them.
I now have come to the realization that I would rather have the true opposition in place of someone who tells me one thing in the campaign and then in their almighty wisdom do the opposite when with their boys and girls in Washington.
I hope we are heading for another revolution!
Speaking of Dr. Paul, I have a brief post concerning a passage in “End the Fed”–http://ponsseclorum.blogspot.com/2009/10/ron-paul-and-byzantium.html. It is not meant to be critical but to add more nuance to libertarian foreign policy.
Wow! I’ve never been to this site before. It’s fun to watch the Republican Party implode before your very eyes!
Lindsey Graham is spelled just like it sounds … A R L E N S P E C T E R ….. any questions?
Agree with Brandon. The Libertarian Party is drawing in “angry white” republican men in droves. Not to mention the angry asians, and latino’s. Keep attacking little old ladies Lindsey! lol Big ol’ bad ass named Lindsey! lol
Hijackers really hate to be hijacked, don’t they?
When HR 1207 is passed, and the great big giant flat rock is turned over, the Ron Paul philosophy will be like the river cleaning out the Agean stables. Hijack? More like the pilot will just take over from the hijackers.
All this rhetoric is fine, but the important thing is to get HR 1207 out of committee. For a look at that, check out http://www.nolanchart.com/article6931.html
[...] THIS FIRST — PAUL STRIKES BACK — “Texas Republican Rep. Ron PAUL took to the cable networks today to jab back at South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey GRAHAM, who over the weekend said he would not sit back and watch the Texan ‘hijack’ the GOP with his brand of Republicanism,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “He cited Graham’s support of TARP funds and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ‘all the big government things’ as examples of why his supporters feel lukewarm about the GOP. … The spat was sparked during a contentious Oct. 12 town hall meeting in Greenville, S.C., when Graham engaged in verbal combat with constituents who questioned his GOP credentials and urged him to be a little more like Paul. (Click here to watch the video.)” [...]
the paulistans and the Fairtaxans need to unite, marry and conceive the 2nd American Revolution. Paul forsaw this mess but the FairTax Bill HR25 IS the Answer. FairTax.org
Abolish IRS
Abolish 16th Amendment plus
Abolish the Fed.
Get rid of all the corrupt and illegal taxes that slave us to our gov.
[...] with constituents who questioned his GOP credentials and urged him to be a little more like Paul. (Click here to watch the [...]
Someone should wear a Ron Paul mask, go to Graham’s house on halloween and scream BOOO! Give ol’ Lindsay a good scare.
Graham is the epitome of the Republican establishmen. You can’t find a better example.
Graham is a disgrace and a major part of what is destroying our country. The sooner this guy loses his seat the better! We need him gone. He is a shining example of what is wrong with our government and the Republican party.
The people are not buying what he is selling. He is so out of touch! We want what Ron Paul represents, not what the Country Club Republicans represent. They will keep failing until they give us what we want!
Everyone that is coming to this page can see the importance in the internet to spreading the “real” word. Please be aware of this bill being pushed through now.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s773/show
Folks, I am a registered Dem. who voted McCain in last election because my party has been taken over by the Leftist Soros crowd. I am trying to decide whether to register R or I this fall. Should I help the R’s come back to their conservatism by being able to vote in primaries? Should I hold out & choose between who is offered based on what the represent? Lindsey Graham is NOT what I would vote for if GOP. I already have donated $800 to various campaigns for people to unseat Specter in PA, FOR Rubio in FL, and refused a request from RNCC to donate to Scarafava or whatever her name is in NY, NOT conservative. I sent AARP a letter WD from membership due to their support of HC reforms that are too invasive! RNC & McCain got a similar letters saying I will not donate to “country club, get along” RHINOs! Follow the lead. I have never before been active but the writing is on the wall now & it is ugly! We either get back to our constitution or we go the way of Europe with sharia law being incorporated into ours, huge welfare programs but no money for military support (just community groups!) and concern for the UN’s decisions & rules. NOT AMERICA! We won’t stand for it! I wish I’d retired from school principalship earlier to get an idea of how bad things were!
Graham and others of the GOP leadership just don’t get it: If America really wants a leftward tilt, they’ll vote for the Democrats. There’s no need for two unpatriotic, globalist, left-leaning parties.
Once the GOP begins again to take care of America and Americans first, something neither party now does, they’ll again start winning elections.
Well I’m sure Sen. Graham isn’t happy Dr. Paul’s son is a fundraising leviathan in KY. Who cares if he’s happy though- he voted for the most liberal supreme court justice in history.
Why make a fetish out of our 18th century constitution? According to The Frozen Republic, by Daniel Lazare, The United States Constitution was based on the 16th century, unwritten British constitution, which consisted of two houses of Parliament and a monarch, plus innumerable local sovereign officials. The result was paralysis and stagnation. Only bribery kept the system from grinding to a halt. Hence, the expresssion, grease.
Have never been either Republican nor Democrat. Don’t trust either party. One is for the upper-class. One is for the lower-class. We need a Conservative Middle-class Party. We’re the ones supporting this country.
Question to ask ourselves: Why are the rich and powerful in congress supporting this move toward socialism? It won’t help the middle-class majority who are willing to work for a living. It only helps the lower-class and those already in power, and rich enough to stay there.
Those in power become more powerful while the rest of us fall into servitude.
I can’t believe Graham would attack Ron Paul’s segment of the Republican party while saying he’s going to grow the Republican party. The status quo of the Republican party has lost credibility not doing what it said it would, has earned it’s losing minority representation. What’s wrong with a balanced budget? What’s wrong with freedom and personal liberty?
Neither Graham nor Paul would like to see the Democratic party continue on it’s path, it’s ever expanding role of government involvement and regulation, and unprecedented growth of the national deficit. Ron Paul is popular right now, things he has consistently been fighting for and supporting are today getting much grass roots support. Look up videos of him decades ago and he was consistently fighting for the same principles. I don’t understand why Graham would want to start a fight with Ron Paul. A growing number of young people are concerned with the huge national deficit that we will have to face in our lifetimes, and of the expanding role of government into our own personal liberties, excessive regulation and redistribution of wealth. Graham: Ron Paul is the most consistent representative and has been standing and fighting for our liberties, our freedom, and the constitution consistently his whole life
In response to a claim that the Republicans are for the upper class, the Dems for the lower class (and socialism), and so we need a Conservative middle-class party, I must say this:
BOTH PARTIES ARE FOR THE UPPER CLASS!
Each one consists of different webs of upper class cliques…
GOP: Bush family, some WASP old money (<ex-backbone of GOP), Big Oil, Rupert Murdoch, few remaining industrial capitalists, some financial capitalists, ultra-Zionist & neocon cliques, ex- and current military high brass, Rockefellers (traditionally)
DEM: financial capitalists, media capitalists, insurance companies, Jewish new money (incl. Soros), Kennedys, privileged and affirmative actioned Black Elite, Brzezinski-aligned military/intell clique
Where does the “lower class” fit into this? Labour unions didn’t even make up 2% of the Democrats’ funding last election cycle.
The middle and working classes must fight together for a conservative populism!
[...] with constituents who questioned his GOP credentials and urged him to be a little more like Paul. (Click here to watch the [...]
“just because you have a gun doesn’t make you a conservative!”
LOVE that remark!
Overall this guy want’s it both ways. On one hand he is saying republicans cannot afford to only want people who think alike..
However, he doesn’t want ron paul in the republican party because he doesn’t think like himself..
HYPOCRITE!