Thread: Graham Eyes White House Despite Gay Rumors

Graham Eyes White House Despite Gay Rumors

The Senator apparently feels foreign policy fear will overshadow hypocrisy.
February 5, 2015 - by Karen Ocamb

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CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell smirked when she asked South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Face the Nation about his consideration of a presidential run. “You voted for both President Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court, your critics call you ‘Lindsey Grahmnesty’ for your support of immigration reform, you believe in climate change—can you get elected in a Republican primary?” she asked. ”Do you even have a chance?”
With Mitt Romney deciding against a run and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush still trying to explain how a GOP candidate can “lose the primary to win the general,” Graham and his bosom buddy/primary cheerleader Sen. John McCain apparently think the foreign policy hawk will win over the Republican Party when faced with Hillary Clinton. They also seem to think all those pesky gay rumors won’t have an impact.
“I won in South Carolina—a pretty red state,” Graham told O’Donnell. “My view on immigration is shared by 70% of the American people. … I’m very comfortable that I’m in the mainstream of conservatism.”
Graham’s name doesn’t yet appear on any polls posted by Real Clear Politics of likely GOP presidential candidates, but it’s that gay thing that may well trip him up before the Republican primary.
Rumors about “confirmed bachelor” Graham being gay have been around since the early ‘90s. In a 2010 New York Times Magazine interview, for instance, contributor Robert Draper noted that Graham has “blogosphere monikers, like ‘Miss Lindsey,’ that play off of Graham’s never-married status.” He also raised the much-reported “outing” during a South Carolina Tea Party rally that June when a speaker suggested that Graham was being blackmailed into supporting a guest-worker program for fear Democrats would expose him as gay.
“I hope this secret isn’t being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality,” said William Gheen, head of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. “Barney Frank is more honest and brave than you.”
The media went wild. On The Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert advised Graham that to “convince us he’s straight” and to “save your good name,” he should release a heterosexual sex tape (on C-SPAN After Dark).
“U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is gay, and while many people in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” Gheen said in a subsequent statement.
Draper reports that Graham “smirked” when he raised the issue. “Like maybe I’m having a clandestine affair with Ricky Martin,” Graham said. “I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men—I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge—but I ain’t available. I ain’t gay. Sorry.”
But this issue isn’t as amusing as it seems. If Graham is in fact gay, the hypocrisy and lack of integrity undercut any trust in his leadership. For instance, Graham—an Air Force reservist and a military lawyer—led the obstructionist opposition to repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with McCain, claiming repeal would “cost lives.”
He was “very disappointed” when the repeal succeeded. “Apparently, the concerns of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who indicated repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ under these conditions would affect battlefield preparedness potentially leading to increased risk of casualties, were ignored,” Graham said.
To date, the military has reported no lives lost as a result of the repeal of DADT.
In 2006, Graham voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment to enshrine the definition of heterosexual marriage in the U.S. Constitution. During the recent Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, Graham linked marriage equality to polygamy.
“What’s the legal difference between a ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional but a ban on polygamy being constitutional? Could you try to articulate how one could be banned under the constitution and the other not?” Graham asked. Lynch said she was not up on the arguments so she couldn’t respond.
If Graham is positing himself as the most electable of establishment candidates for the Republican Party, it is incumbent for voters to know if he is a truth-teller, as well as someone who can take advice from those he does not deeply admire as much as he does McCain and military commanders. Political consultant and AmericaBlog blogger John Aravosis tried to ‘out’ Graham in May 2013 after Graham—the great deal-making immigration reformer—helped scuttle the gay provision in the immigration reform bill.
“The question facing us is not whether you or I think Lindsey Graham’s sexual orientation is relevant to a public policy debate,” a furious John Aravois wrote. “The question confronting us is whether Lindsey Graham thinks one’s sexual orientation is relevant, and he does. So by the Graham Standard, America deserves to know if Air Force Reserve Colonel Lindsey Graham is gay.”

http://www.frontiersmedia.com/fronti...te-gay-rumors/

“My view on immigration is shared by 70% of the American people. … I’m very comfortable that I’m in the mainstream of conservatism.”

ROTFLMAO!

What in the world was this guy drinking prior to his interview? I'm a strong opponent of same sex marriage, however, Graham's sexual preferences have absolutely nothing to do with my venomous hate for this guy! IF there was a recruiting poster for RINOs, Grahams face would be on it.