Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African American woman to be elected to the Senate, used to tell the story of getting into the elevator with Jesse Helms and he started singing “I wish I was in the land of cotton…” turned to Senator Orris Hatch who was standing next to him and said, “I’m going to make her cry. I’m going to sing ‘Dixie’ until she cries.” He was a lovely fellow.
That picture above, and all it represents, has always reminded me of that story and what it says about the Republican party.
Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post writes about the latest Lindsey Graham scandal:
The Post reports on an interview with Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who said he spoke on Friday to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.):In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia.“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Raffensperger said.
Graham denied to The Post that he encouraged Raffensperger to discard ballots, saying he was only investigating signature-matching rules. That raises the question why he would need to know this information and decide directly to contact Raffensperger, who is under death threats and has been subject to baseless accusations of misconduct by fellow Republicans.
But there’s more:
Raffensperger told The Wall Street Journal that there were witnesses on the call who could contradict Graham. And:
Mr. Raffensperger said that when he was contacted by Mr. Graham Friday, he thought the senator was calling about the state’s two senate races. After an initial conversation, Mr. Graham called back again and brought up the idea of invalidating absentee ballots from counties with higher rates of signature errors, Mr. Raffensperger said, adding that he had staffers with him on that call.
Mr. Raffensperger and his staffers agreed not to act on any of Mr. Graham’s suggestions, he said. “We have laws in place,” he said.
Graham told CNN that he is involved in this because “the future of the country depends upon it.” He also said that he called the Secretary of State of Nevada and Arizona which would be odd if he were just inquiring about the rules for the Georgia run-off. It is clear that he is seriously trying find ways to overturn the presidential election results.
Rubin suggests that there must be an investigation, possibly criminal, about what Graham is up to here. I will be very surprised if that happens. But it should.
Graham has been radicalized by Trumpism on a level that’s almost insane. He can’t possibly truly believe that they can pull this off. Or at least the formerly canny politician Lindsey Graham couldn’t possibly believe that. And a formerly canny politician trying curry favor with a defeated Trump after having just won six more years makes no sense.
I think he has decided that he will now be “that guy” in the Senate, a Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmond, for the modern era. He has learned from Trump that being the biggest asshole on TV will keep you in the spotlight.