For Republicans to claim that Sen Barack Obama is injecting race into presidential politics seems a little rich considering their track record on that (two words: Southern Strategy.) So now the McCain campaign has rooted out the seemingly impartial Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, to repeat the allegation.
Ever since he had to sink $3 million into a primary fight this year, Graham has been scurrying to the right, shadowing McCain like Sen. Joe Lieberman‘s reserve. Graham might seem the right person to make this latest anti-Obama accusation: After all, didn’t he get lauded by the National Council for La Raza for his bi-partisan approach to immigration reform? Well, yes, and then Graham went on to be pulverized by conservative noise machines like Michelle Malkin, lobby groups like Americans for Legal Immigration and groups in his own backyard like Charlotte Conservative News over his “we’re going to tell the bigots to shut up” comment about the anti-immigration conservative base. He’s claiming he’ll push through a Constitutional amendment to strip Guantanamo Bay detainees of their last remaining rights. It’s also no co-incidence he faces a November challenge from Bob Conley, who critics call a DINO (Dem in name only) and conservatives hug as a Ron Paul Democrat, whatever that means.
This article appears in August 1 • 2008.
