Lindsey Graham, Man of His Word

South Carolina’s Senatorial Trump toady Lindsey Graham once professed to be a man of principle. In 2016, when President Obama nominated Judge Merritt Garland to the Supreme Court, Mr. Graham pontificated:

“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president … and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.”

In 2018, he further specified:

“If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”

In 2020, now that a Supreme Court vacancy has opened six weeks before the election, however, he says he will support confirming Mr. Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ginsburg. Mr. Graham says this time is different, probably because he’s in a tight re-election race himself.

Surprise! Lindsey Graham is not the only GOP hypocrite in the senate who pledged not to confirm a Supreme Court nominee during an election year. Cory Gardner, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jim Inhofe, Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, Thom Tillis, David Perdue, Tim Scott, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, John Hoeven, and Rob Portman did as well.

Centennial: Southern Civil War Revisionism vs. the Civil Rights Movement

On Thursday the South Carolina State Legislature voted to end display of the Battle Flag of the Army Northern Virginia (“Confederate Battle Flag“) on the State Capitol Grounds, and the flag came down on Friday. Defenders of the flag appeal to “Tradition” and “History,” but this statehouse flag “tradition” only dates from April 11, 1961, and its “history” is really in the Civil War Centennial (1961-1965), when symbols of the Confederacy were adopted and manipulated by white Southerners opposed to the era’s desegregation, the Civil Rights movement, and Federal efforts to guarantee racial equality in elections, education, employment opportunity, and residential choice. Chief among those symbols: the Battle Flag.

Laura McCarty of the Georgia Humanities Council explains this aspect of the Centennial:

“The anniversary coincided with the height of the civil rights movement in Georgia and the South. Some white Georgians used the commemoration to glorify the Confederacy, adopting its leaders, rhetoric, and symbols as a means for expressing resistance to civil rights ideals. While not all centennial efforts were driven by that agenda, the official commemorations upheld an idealized vision of antebellum plantation culture, celebrated Confederate military heroes, and omitted references to slavery as a cause for the war ….”

Southerners now in their fifties and sixties absorbed this symbolic system as children, and passed it on to their children and the children they educated and influenced. That’s the “heritage” the flag represents for them, not 150-year-old military gallantry but the ugly race politics of the 1960s.

Congressman Mark Sanford Sworn In

Disgraced Former Governor Mark Sanford, noted Republican adulterer, was sworn in as the representative of South Carolina’s First Congressional District on Tuesday. Mr. Defense of Marriage Act was accompanied by his paramour, the lovely María Belén Chapur of Argentina. We recognized her from earlier photos.

New Chair of Congressional Adultery Caucus

Disgraced Former Governor Mark Sanford, noted Republican adulterer, has defeated comedian Steven Colbert’s sister and is the new Representative of South Carolina’s First Congressional District. He held that office once before, then became the Palmetto State’s governor and secretly ran off to Argentina with his mistress, telling aides he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Sounds like a good candidate for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

UFO Welcome Center in Bowman, South Carolina

Flying saucers zoomed through the skies of the 1950s and 1960s. Why the lack of recent UFO sightings? Some observers say it’s due to the end of the Cold War, but South Carolina’s Jody Pendarvis blames it on the shocking lack of travel amenities for space aliens. That’s why he built a UFO Welcome Center next to his house trailer.

Mark Sanford Bound for the Capitol via the Appalachian Trail

Disgraced Former Governor Mark Sanford, noted Republican adulterer, has won a primary runoff election and is now the Republican candidate for South Carolina’s First Congressional District. He held that office once before, then became the Palmetto State’s governor and secretly ran off to Argentina with his mistress, telling aides he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Sounds like a good candidate for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

He has to win the general election first. Already a figure of ridicule, he’ll have to defeat comedian Steven Colbert’s sister. Really.

Related:

“The Sierra Club helps Mark Sanford find the Appalachian Trail,” Shea Gunther, Mother Nature Network

“Mark Sanford’s fiancée Maria Belen Chapur attends his victory party,” Washington Post

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The Carolina Cookie Caper

In South Carolina’s Spartanburg County, the Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of about 450 cases of Girl Scout cookies from a warehouse. The 5,000 boxes of Thin Mints and Shortbreads are worth $18,900.

Mark Sanford’s Path to Congress

Disgraced Republican adulterer and ex-Governor Mark Sanford plans to run for Congress, but his path will be steeper than the Appalachian Trail. For one thing, his ex-wife may enter the race, and she has a lot more good will. On the other hand, Mr. Sanford has lots more experience in foreign affairs.

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South Carolina GOP: Adulterer 1, Mormon 0

In today’s South Carolina Republican primary, the state’s pious values voters have spoken. Better a disgraced career politician and thrice-married admitted adulterer than a member of the Latter Day Saints. GOP voters understand adultery just fine, but not Mormon theology (who does?).

Attacking the media helped, too.

Q: “Will Angry White Man Performance Win Gingrich GOP Nomination?”

A: Yup.

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Ron Paul Trial Balloon Shot Down Over I-85

Ron Paul has yet to deploy the mighty airships of the Paulista Air Force, but a Ron Paul hot air balloon flew a sortie over I-85 in South Carolina on Thursday.  It hovered outside Greenville during morning rush hour, and may have been tethered in the frontage road, since the Highway Patrol issued a citation. As Dr. Paul might say, there’s entirely too much law.

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