The GOP candidate we should be worried about.

[Ragnar]

Lindsey Graham. If I were a GOP strategist, he would easily be my top pick for the presidential ticket in 2008. He is sensible, a proven negotiator and an undeniable conservative on social issues. He would be a force to reckon with among moderates, as his stance on the filibuster debate and his criticisms of the administration on the prison abuse scandals give him distance from the zealots.

He would be hard to beat. McCain would be easy to defeat in comparison - he can't motivate the south or the religious wing of the party.

[redstateblues]

1. He's one of McCain's closest allies- V.P maybe

[Ragnar]

5. I think the reverse order is more favorable.

McCain at the top of the ticket has such huge liabilities. He isn't going to be popular with the base of the republican party, and with such a sharply divided country, the loss of even a couple of moderate southern states would spell doom for the ticket. Evan Bayh or John Edwards either on top or bottom of the Dem ticket would steal some red states from any GOP ticket with McCain on top...even if you put Ralph Reed on the bottom, it would alienate conservative souther christians.

[zara]

2. shrewd post.

sometimes you learn something on DU>

[BrklynLiberal]

3. BUT, would they nominate him?

Would the fundies AND the Neocons back him?

[Ragnar]

7. I'm not sure of the neocons.

The Fundies will love him. He's a pro-life christian southerner with military experience. He's their boy.

[stray cat]

14. Do the fundies really like him?

He shares some beliefs with them but I don't think they are really behind him. I think he is too much of a maverick for them - like McCain.

[salin]

16. Not since he became part of the middle coalition

to block the NUKE powerplay. Nope the fundies will be behind Frist. And Frist has been playing hard to pander to them.

[OKNancy]

4. and Chuck Hagel

would be very formidable ( if he could ever be nominated)
He scares me the most because of his background. ( no tinfoil either.. not because of his former company )

[Stinky The Clown]

6. The country will vote for a black woman before a gay man

Case closed

[goclark]

9. And GWB is ?

[NMDemDist2]

10. Lindsey Graham is gay? or did I miss something? n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

13. That's been the long standing, never denied, rumor

[Inspired]

11. LOL!

I've always thought that of him, too! Not that there is a problem with it...HA!

[Ragnar]

12. If the democrats assert that he's gay for political gain...

If the democrats assert that he's gay for political gain, I don't even care if it is true - I will NEVER vote for a democrat again as long as I live. That would be hypocrisy of the highest order.

That's beyond the fact that asserting any man who is not married and has no kids is gay is just insulting. Not that being gay is bad, but ascribing motives to personal choices like marriage and children is character assassination of the lowest order.

[salin]

15. it won't be the democrats that do it, friend

it will be the neocon anti McCain fringe that likes controllng the presidency that will do it. Look what they did to McCain in SC. They don't want anyone who might, from time to time, act independently or rationally.

Graham stood for compromise on the "nuke" option that bushco wanted to see played out.

Graham has, I believe, made noise that the private accounts carved out of SS is not the way to go to solvency.

Almost as if in his one-time role as House Manager - he got a little too good of a glimpse of politics as pure nasty power play - and has chosen to take a slightly higher road since. That makes him less desirable to the powersthatbe.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Lemme ask you something ......

I am a Democrat. But I am not **The** Democrats. I'm one guy.

I also know there was a great deal of discussion here a while back about the notion of outing high placed gay Republicans who work for the Repub party goals, including the suppression of gay rights. I think it was around the time of Mehlman being annointed party chair.

In any case, as a straight man, I didn't feel I had a sufficiently accurate moral compass on this issue. So I followed the threads on it. I was originally of a mind to NOT out any gay person. It just seemed wrong on its face.

But the general consensus was to out them if they're hypocrites. And being an active party member of the Repubs who are openly antigay is, by definition, hypocritical.

So back to my original statement in ths post ...... What if **I** did the outing? Does that make you want to go off on your high principled horse and not support a Dem candidate?

To the point more precisely ..... define who you mean by 'the democrats', specifically, when you state "If the democrats assert that he's gay for political gain, I don't even care if it is true - I will NEVER vote for a democrat again as long as I live. That would be hypocrisy of the highest order."

[Ragnar]

22. The outing is not the using.

Frankly, it has been implied here that the repubs would use the kind of nasty push-polls to make this allegation as they used against McCain in 2000. And they might well do so. That's fine. i hope if they do it, he has the balls, gay or straight, to call them on it.

If he survived the primaries and such pu-sh polling were done by an organization tied to the democratic party, that is a whole other ball of wax. After all, republicans calling someone gay to keep them from getting votes at least fits with the whole "we hate fags" thing they have going. For a democrat to do it is like saying, "Wait, we know hating fags is wrong, but you guys do hate fags, right?"

I blame the republican party for the swift boat liars story...anything with as much of a tie to the democratic party would do it for me. Let's face it, if Bush had called them liars and asked them to stop, those assholes would have packed up their bullhorns and gone home. They did not have to worry about that happening, as the same people were helping them formulate their message as were helping Bush. To not hold Democrats to at least as high a standard would be hypocrisy on my part.

[salin]

8. hehehehehehe

oh that really would make the reactionary religious rightbots heads explode! Even more than McCain!

[AlCzervik]

18. i suspect the ralph reed wing will soon start a whispering campaign about

Graham, my money says the fundie vote and $$$ will go to Senator George Allen.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. That's my guess, too

They've already decided that Frist is a political nincompoop who can't be trusted to do more than follow orders as to where they want the water carried. They tested him on the Schindler daughter and he blew it worse than they thought he would ... so bad that there's been blowback all the way to idiot son.

Yeah .... Allen is perfect ..... a history of overt racism (in his Calif HS days) .... dumber than snot ...... easily led by his brown nose ..... national name ...... scion of a sports legend ..... a perfect puppet.

[Kazak]

20. Frankly, Lindsey Graham is a huge improvement on the current resident.

Not that he'll ever get my vote.

Edit clarification (for fear of being labled a you-know-what): At least he seems to operate on a set of morals.

[Lefty48197]

21. Sounds like a list of reasons NOT to fear him:

"sensible" "criticisms of the administration..."
It sounds like he wouldn't have a chance during the primaries which are dominated by the Christian evangelists.