What nerve given the behavior of these same Republicans, including Graham, during the Tea Party insurgence during 2010. Graham was one of the movement’s chief critics. Suddenly, Graham has woken up to the fact that the GOP lacks a spine? Where was he and where were they when Murkowski was running as an Independent in Alaska? Where were they on Crist in Florida before he went Independent and Grayson in Kentucky? After years of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell how weak the GOP Senate has been, suddenly Graham sees the light? Sell it somewhere else, Lindsey. If the GOP Senate is spineless, you certainly haven’t been much of a vertebrae over the years.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at fellow Republicans Tuesday for a “capitulation … of dramatic proportions” to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress.

Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for allowing ratification of the New START Treaty and other legislation in the period before new lawmakers are sworn in in January.

“When it’s all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch,” Graham said on Fox News radio. “This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn’t have passed in the new Congress.”

Michael O’Brien at TheHill.com reports that Senator Lindsey Graham NOW … in a very timely fashion … just as conservatism in a sense returns to DC … and after millions and millions of voters have spoken … has seen the light.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he no longer favors closing the terrorist detention center maintained by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Graham, who’d previously sought to work with the Obama administration to close the prison, said there’s “no way” to close the facility at this point.

That’s a shift for Graham, who had previously hoped to close the prison, which he regarded as a public relations disaster for the United States.

Greg begins:

Due to the unconscionable arrogance and failures of the Democrats upon controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, control given to them by the incredible failures of the GOP when it held a similar position, it appears the GOP may once again regain control of the House and the Senate in November. All the polling data and the mounting anger of the American people at being ignored by their government may well sweep you back into power in the legislature.

But understand this:

This is not a remarriage between you and the conservative and moderate base of this nation. It is only a trial courtship. You betrayed our trust completely over the years leading up to your ouster in 2006 from control of Congress, and we have not forgotten. But you have forgotten. To prove you’ve forgotten, we need only point to the still too large number of RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only) that are still being offered to us as the answer to our problems as a nation.

Thank you Alaska.

From the article:

Whether TEA Party candidates are placing that title on the ballot or running as Independents to “show them” they are by design electing the Democrat. I cannot believe the shortsightedness of the TEA Party, as they act as if 2 years from now they will not then have a BETTER shot at that seat and will send the RINO home. I cannot believe how small minded the TEA Party has become in what is going to be a decade long fight at least to send ALL THE BUMS HOME. To “accept” the winner of the Republican primary is NOT to sell your convictions down the river, oh no, it is to accept that person will vote with the Conservative caucus in the House and Senate at least 50% of the time (the Democrat will vote with the Alinskys 100% of the time. In 2012 that person can be primaried with a TEA Party candidate (Conservative) and held to account for those other 50% of the votes that he/she stood with the Socialists on.

It is easy for us to see how Tom Tancredo is really screwing things up in Colorado. It’s harder to swallow a 2 year delay in ousting one of those political elites in our own backyard. I think this is an area where the tea party may make some mistakes in its infancy. The things the tea party/liberty group movement is getting right are astounding for the brief amount of time we’ve been actively engaged in impacting elections and legislation. I’m hopeful a few missteps in the splitting the vote issue which definitely will occur will be not too harmful, and lessons learned quickly.

It is definitely an area for prayer that individuals and organizations who have been embattled with disappointments and betrayals can die to self and focus on big picture victory. And that those individuals whose race would lead to vote splitting would do what is best for our country and wait for the next primary instead.

I struggle with this conviction myself. Let’s hear your comments.

and then … Holy Long Reaching Newspaper Batman! … Glenn McCall over in York County responded to my letter.

Exactly what happened in the closed door meeting in Columbia on June 26 … only those in the room know. I think one of the points to be made is that there WAS a closed door meeting … this was dealt with out of sight of the voters who were there, and the media. The end result lacked the dignity owned to South Carolina voters who, while they may not reside in Knotts’ district, are subject to the legislation he votes on, and are shamed by him representing our state. And it’s just too reminiscent of all the closed door meetings that Reid/Pelosi held to make deals and retain power in DC.

Several times during the June 26 meeting both Floyd and McCall called for “UNITY! UNITY!” Chairwoman Floyd even commenting during the public part of the meeting that I was in attendance for that there was “an elephant in the room” but that we should “get the November elections over, and get these good Republican candidates into office and we can deal with these issues after the elections.” Really. So more of the same Vote Republican for the sake of Unity! while ignoring the caliber of those candidates, their voting records, and their adherence to the GOP platform. Just an “R” behind their name ought to satisfy us.

Are you satisfied with that recommendation from the SCGOP leadership?

> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get Voter ID passed.

> A Republican majority in the SC Congress did not manage to get State Government Reform passed (having major political positions all from one party, or by appointment)

> A Republican majority allowed passage of a cigarette tax, which violated some members’ “No New Tax Pledge”

> A Republican majority voted for receiving Stimulus funds

It seems to me we may have a RINO problem here in SC. What good does uniting behind the SCGOP or even candidates here in Spartanburg with an “R” if these candidates are unable to deliver to constituents these basic conservative principles of representative governing, the transparency we are demanding, and a decrease, not increase, in our taxes and state government spending? Are we satisfied in acceding to the SCGOP leadership’s plea for unity, in electing/re-electing candidates with an “R” rating and trusting their promise to “deal with the elephant in the room” after the elections? I say we’ll have lost our leverage to hold the SCGOP leadership and the RINOs accountable, to move them to the right, to pressure them to listen to our voices by November.

In the months leading up to the November elections we have the opportunity to decide whether an “R” rating is good enough, or whether there are any options in the upcoming elections to draw SCGOP leadership’s attention to our discontent in how the GOP majority in Congress failed us this past session, and how shielding one powerful GOP Senator who has shamed our state has really pissed us off.