What’s the Real Reason Lindsey Graham Is Having a Temper Tantrum?

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is so upset that Dems might take up immigration reform this year, he’s prepared to kill his own tri-partisan climate/energy bill. Some of his concerns are reasonable — Graham was told the climate bill would be considered before immigration, and now he’d been led to believe otherwise.

But before anyone feels too sympathetic for Graham, let’s not lose sight of one key detail: Democrats are, to a certain extent, doing what Graham asked them to do.

The South Carolina Republican began working on a bipartisan immigration reform proposal with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last October. On March 11, they met with President Obama at the White House to go over their plan, and get the presidential green light to continue. Soon after, the two senators co-wrote an op-ed insisting that the status quo on immigration policy is “badly broken,” and the nation’s “security and economic well-being depend” on the kind of reform Graham and Schumer are proposing.

It was around that time that Graham publicly stated his hopes that Obama would get more involved in pushing immigration reform, in order to give it a chance to pass this year.

Graham … said Obama’s lack of direction on immigration reform is hampering Graham’s efforts to recruit additional Republicans to the cause.

“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO on Tuesday.

The president apparently agreed. The West Wing started taking immigration reform far more seriously, and the president even started reaching out to other Republican senators about generating some broader support for immigration reform this year. Obama, in other words, took Graham’s advice.

And now Graham is furious about it. Worse, he’s prepared to kill both the climate bill and the immigration bill because he’s outraged over the latter being prioritized over the former.

In terms of the calendar, I’m generally inclined to agree with Graham’s larger point — given that the climate bill has already passed the House, and so much of the legwork has already been done it for the next round, it makes sense to me for the Senate to finish Wall Street reform, then tackle energy, then immigration. I’m even inclined to agree with Graham that Dems are using political considerations, not policy goals, to prioritize between the competing policies.

But by threatening to kill both of the efforts he’s already invested so much time in, Graham is overreacting on an almost comical scale. Graham can’t call on the president to step up on immigration, and then throw a fit when the president does as he asks.

It’s enough to make me wonder if, perhaps, Lindsey Graham wasn’t really serious about either initiative, and last night’s tantrum is the result of a senator who’s negotiated in bad faith.

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Well, this was David Brooks on the subject this morning on MTP. I think he's right - immigration is happening now because Harry Reid has a tough Senate fight in Nevada. Otherwise, there's no reason why it couldn't be handled after the election, and energy focused on first. Lindsay Graham is not wrong to be upset about his efforts at bipartisanship being used cynically by Democrats focused on political considerations.

MR. DAVID BROOKS: First of all, I think this bill in Arizona is an invitation to abuse. You're going to have the government making decisions on the basis of race. And at what level are they making these decisions? At the cop level, in the worst possible circumstances, when people are angry? It's an invitation to sort of racial profiling and abuse. So I think it's terrible. But the worst effect is happening back here [in Washington] because now we have the Democrats promising to have a comprehensive immigration bill before any of the preparatory work has been done, pushing aside a lot of other stuff, like cap and trade and energy. And why are they doing it? For purely political reasons because a lot of Democrats, including Harry Reid who is trying to get re-elected in Nevada, need to really fire up Latino voters to get them to come out to the polls.

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It’s enough to make me wonder if, perhaps, Lindsey Graham wasn’t really serious about either initiative, and last night’s tantrum is the result of a senator who’s negotiated in bad faith.

I don't agree with the proposed measures as I believe they are not needed and definitely no wanted by a large majority of the American electorate.

Regardless, Sen. Graham is dealing solely in priorities here. Bringing bad faith into the argument is specious and designed to misdirect. The only reason Dingy Harry is bringing forward the immigration amnesty, let's not call it reform, because that's just an insult, is to get the Latino vote out in November and save his sorry butt, along with as many other Democrats as he can. And Sen. Graham does not want a Bill he co-authored to be used against the Republicans in November.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I'm obviously pretty supportive of the Dems. in congress this year, but this? 100% political. I support Graham on this 100%.