It doesn’t matter that nothing can get done in Congress because the word compromise remains an extinct part of the Republican vocabulary. Now Senators like Lindsey Graham (R-SC), are turning against everything they were elected to do just to get themselves re-elected.
In an interview on Fox News, Graham told the host, “I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the [Benghazi] survivors are being made available to the Congress.” Could Graham possibly believe that reopening these old wounds will make Congress work more efficiently?
ThinkProgress reported that,“Graham is aligning himself with many of the more conservative members of the House Republican caucus and against Speaker of the House John Boehner.” While aligning himself against the Speaker, Graham is asking Boehner for a special committee on Benghazi.
What Graham is trying to do with the Benghazi ruse is prove he is just as far-right as the Tea Party running against him in next year’s midterm election. Heavy Tea Party favorite Republican Nancy Mace, confirmed to TheBlaze on Thursday that she “plans to challenge Graham for his Senate seat in the 2014.”
Mace is the first woman to graduate from the Charleston military school, The Citadel and the daughter of a retired general. The people of South Carolina are viewing her as the person who can dislodge Graham and end his 12 years in the Senate.
When Graham debates Mace, he will essentially be staring himself in the face. They both believe that gays shouldn’t be married, that President Obama was born in Africa, and immigrants should not be given a path to citizenship. Most importantly, to both of them, is that they want to obstruct everything President Obama wants to get through Congress.
Former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson optimistically told the Washington Examiner that Sen. Lindsey will probably face a “spirited” and “competitive” primary challenge — but he’s confident the South Carolina lawmaker will prevail in 2014.
There are some right-wing crazies out there that are not as confident that the Senator cannot overcome a primary challenge. Glenn Beck has had some harsh criticism of Graham saying that the Senator was a “nightmare” and an “embarrassment” to South Carolina. In the same vein, FreedomWorks President, Matt Kibbe, said in May that Graham “could be replaced with someone worthy of that seat.”
Is this going to be a trend that Republican traditionalists will face primary elimination next year? Since the 2010 elections, the GOP has been facing a challenge from within by the Tea Party, which forced us into a government shutdown and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The in-fighting among Republicans has only succeeded in making Congressional cooperation impossible.
Richard Andrew is a guest blogger for Ring of Fire.
