Lindsey Graham Walks on Climate and Amnesty

Sen. Lindsey Graham has certainly been in the news this week. Republicans have been more than a little frustrated that the South Carolina senator has announced he is working with Democrats on Cap and Trade (Climate) and Immigration Reform (Amnesty for Illegal Aliens). The question has been: why would he do that, knowing that a majority of Republicans want neither?

Lindsey Graham                        John Kerry

Graham has been working behind the scenes on a Cap and Tax bill and Amnesty with Senators John Kerry and Chuck Schumer. A video made the rounds last week from ALIPAC president, William Gheen, saying that he believed Senator Graham was "compromised." His reasoning was unfortunate, but he intimates that Graham could be blackmailed (my word, not Gheens), and if that is the case, Graham needs to rethink a few things, and reassure the voters.

 Graham has walked on the bill and taken his "bipartisan" support with him. This is a real dilemma, but it just may get Graham out of a tough spot, in light of Gheen's statement. Democrats will not hold-up Immigration, so this can get Graham out of both Climate Change and Immigration, and make the South Carolina Republican Party happy (they have censured him twice in recent months) and make his fellow Republicans in the Senate ecstatic.

Graham's departure likely dooms any chance of passing a climate bill this year. He is the sole Republican working with Sens. John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) on a compromise they had planned to unveil Monday.

Here is a portion of a letter Graham sent to the Cap and Tax Committee:

"I want to bring to your attention what appears to be a decision by the Obama Administration and Senate Democratic leadership to move immigration instead of energy. Unless their plan substantially changes this weekend, I will be unable to move forward on energy independence legislation at this time. I will not allow our hard work to be rolled out in a manner that has no chance of success." 

A curious response, but smart, because voters are increasingly unhappy with the perpetual loose-canon- ball-Senator Graham. If he scuttles back to his Party, which is desperately trying to reign-in the regime's "regulate the world" doctrine, he will do his country a huge service and probably be re-elected in 2012.

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Joe Lieberman Susan Collins Subpoenas Eric Holder, Robert Gates

Senators Joe Leiberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued subpoenas to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. This is a "whoa!" moment, friends. Lieberman and Collins and others on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are fed up with their requests for information on the Fort Hood massacres being shoved somewhere among all the opulence of the Department of Justice, where if Holder has his way, it will never see the light of day.

Department of Justice

Lieberman and Collins want Major Nidal Hassan's personnel records, and specifically those categorized as "For Official Use Only." Not an extraordinary request unless those in possession of the personnel files want to keep Islamic terrorism underwraps. Afterall, the Muslim soldier gunned down 14, including one unborn child, while shouting allahu akhbar.

Pentagon officials are reviewing the subpoena before determining their next step, spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters Monday.

The Defense Department, he said, believes that it has responded to requests from Congress, "in keeping with the need to protect the integrity of the criminal prosecution and longstanding privacy practice.

The White House has not referred the killings an act of terror. In late February 2010, however, five-plus months after the shootings, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano finally went on the record and called it what it was: "violent Islamic terrorism....", but that was about the end of it. Now we have a ban on using the words Islamic terrorists, Islamic terrorism, and Obama

When the Pentagon report on the massacre came out, it failed to mention 'Islamic Terrorism' as the motivation for the killings:

[Lieberman] I was startled and really upset that in the whole report that Secretary [Togo] West and Adm. [Vern] Clark did on this Ft. Hood massacre, they never used ther tems radical Islamist extremism or violent Islamic terrorism."

The Homeland Security Committee wants to know who Hasan's superiors were, and what they knew about Hasan's radical beliefs. Rep. John Carter (R-TX) represents Texas' 31st Congressional District which includes Fort Hood. Carter said the Pentagon report was "sanitized."

People are afraid to speak out and label someone because they'll be accused of being a racist or accused of profiling or being prejudiced against a certain religion or race of people," Carter told Politico. "But in a time of national crisis, which I believe we are in, all identifiers must be be discussed.

How sad is it that the first subpoenas of the Obama administration are delivered to the U.S. Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense?