Rick Sanchez on CNN just reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been censured by the Republican Party of Greenville County, South Carolina. Yes, the same Lindsey Graham who recently brought up the whole "repeal of the 14th Amendment" thing. By a vote of 61-2, Graham was censured for multiple reasons, but one of the main reasons was his stand on immigration.
Admittedly, Graham has at times, on a few issues, stood up to his party in favor of intelligence. In addition to immigration, reasons given for the censure include his vote for the bailout and his support for Kagan. But he doesn't do this too often: His office has issued a statement that he has a 90% conservative rating, has voted with the Party leadership 92% of the time. As Jessica Yellin said, "He's being slapped for that 8% of working with the other side."
The best part of the story was Rick's commentary. In addition to the question in the diary title, he also threw these out:
What happened to the middle in the Republican party?
Ronald Reagan would be censured if you look at his record and what people are saying today in the Republican party.
I won't say the next thing I wanted to say, 'cause I'll get in trouble as I always do.
UPDATE: More details below the fold
Graham has previously been censured by the Lexington County Party in January and by the Charleston County Party last November for working with Dems on climate control, and he may be faced with censure at the state level.
Amusing commentary from the website Death By 1000 Papercuts:
Observation: If Lindsey Graham hungered more for the approval of his constituents back in South Carolina than he does for the bread crumbs that drop from the table of the Washington Post‘s Style section, he likely wouldn’t find himself the center of a revolt in his own party less than two years after being re-elected.
Which might make Lindsey Graham the only politician in Washington, D.C., who’s fallen farther and faster than Barack Obama.
There are 46 counties in South Carolina. Three of them are on record that Graham’s actions are anathema. How many more censure motions before South Carolina is treated to the Charlie Cristification of Lindsey Graham?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Graham is not up for re-election till 2014. I wonder if he'll be impeached before then.