RIP Lindsey Graham
I was shocked when I saw that Lindsey Graham had died. He wasn’t all that old, and he hadn’t been ill. But there was the headline, and it couldn’t be denied:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the most prominent and powerful foreign policy hawk in Congress, died suddenly Saturday following reported chest pains and cardiac arrest. He was 71.
For more than two decades, Graham championed the peace through American strength abroad, advocating for military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq — and Iran.
Graham had a lot of enemies, including some on the right, and he had a lot of friends. He even had some enemies turned friends, such as President Trump, who grew close to him. Many tributes poured in, and of course much online hatred as well, in the manner of our present age.
I didn’t always agree with Graham, although I often did. I think his finest hour – certainly his most intense hour – was at the Kavanaugh hearings:
Recently, Graham had been busy flying to Ukraine, working on bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords, and promoting the SAVE Act. I also just learned, from this article, that he hadn’t taken advantage of his position to amass enormous wealth, comparatively speaking:
The late Sen. Lindsey Graham ranked among the bottom half of Congress’ big earners despite more than three decades in office and a top role leading the GOP.
Graham, 71, died Saturday night with a net worth of nearly $1.5 million, leaving the senator, who had a modest upbringing in South Carolina, ranked at 294th in wealth among the 535 voting members of Congress, according to data from the Quiver Quantitative tracker. …
Despite a 31-year career in Congress that catapulted Graham to the center of power in the Senate, the South Carolina native has never strayed too far from his humble roots.
Graham grew up in a blue-collar family in the small town of Central, where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall known as the Sanitary Cafe. A young Graham lived in the room right behind the family business.
The late senator previously credited his working-class upbringing — in which he helped his parents run their restaurant — with pushing him to be the first person in his family to go to college.
But while he was attending the University of South Carolina, both his parents died of illness just 15 months apart from each other, leaving Graham to legally adopt his then-13-year-old sister and get her through her education.
After earning his law degree, Graham joined the Air Force …
I saw Graham in person once, and I was extremely impressed, but not by what you’d imagine. It was at a large outdoor gathering during the 2015-2016 primary season, and he was running for president. He dropped out early in the game, but this was before that. There was a big crowd but not an enormous one, it was a beautiful day, and there were about ten speakers – all of them GOP candidates for the presidency. When it came Graham’s turn he spoke for about fifteen minutes.
I of course knew who he was, but he surprised me by being incredibly humorous. I mean really zany quips, one after the other, all of them sounding like ad libs, all of them incredibly witty. I hadn’t ever seen that side of him, and he was in rare form. Afterwards I somehow found myself speaking to a volunteer for his campaign, and I asked if this was unusual. She said he was constantly cracking them up with his humor.
RIP Lindsey Graham.
Last thing I’d read is that he died of aortic dissection, for which he has most of the risk factors. It’s usually sudden and often moves too quickly to be treated.
Timing of his visit to Kiev has of course provoked conspiracy mongering.
Remember what president Harry Truman said. “An honest public servant can’t become rich in politics.”
Thanks for the tribute.
I would say a net worth of $1.5 million for a single person at his age after a career such as his probably represents zero abuse of his position to gain wealth. Of course I don’t know exactly what Graham owned, but if he purchased a home early in career and invested a decent portion of his salary jusidiciously over the years, $1.5 million sounds conservative, actually.
(It was the borsch…)
Sen. Graham consistently struck me as a man honestly passionate for justice, steadfastly seeking to do justice for others and to avoid (farther than usually evident in career politicans) doing injustice to anyone — and all that right alongside his persistent impish love of humor. Through this passion and on account of it, I think, he came into a position of greater power than many people have imagined him to possess; some of these may be rueing the lack of him sooner than they realize today.
There was a period when I was not a fan of Senator Graham; but in retrospect I think he embodied what we need in a national leader. I believe that he was true to his principles; and he will be missed.
I would not judge the honesty of a politician solely by the value of his assets at death, considering what they have access to. Also considering that they can use their positions to enrich friends and family, or perhaps just for enjoyment of power. And then there’s how they may have spent their money: if they blew all their ill-gotten gains on coke and strippers, they might not leave much in assets but still be far from “honest”.
I am not accusing Lindsey Graham of anything, he may well have been an unusually clean exemplar, just saying. For those who don’t read links, a description of one example of the kind of thing I’m talking about:
One Republican and one Democrat are named and shamed in the linked article, but there’s plenty more.
$1.5 million is tiny, tiny, tiny. It means acquisition of wealth was not a driver for him. Did I mention this is paltry, petite in fact.
@Ray:Remember what president Harry Truman said.
Lol, he would know, wouldn’t he?
A net worth of less than $1.5 million?? Who would have thought such a powerful senator could be living so close to the poverty line? No wonder he never had a wife—he couldn’t afford one.
Graham was always a mixed bag. At heart, he was an Establishment Republican, and he embodied several of their virtues (yes, they have some) and their vices. Business interests were dear to his heart. I suspect John McCain was also a bad influence.
Limbaugh used to refer to him as ‘Lindsey Grahamnesty’, and for good reason. He was a major supporter of all the amnesty bills that they tried to ram through in the 00s and 10s. He would probably have been happier in a world where Jeb Bush became President instead of Trump.
He also had a bad habit of constantly threatening hearings and investigations of various Dem malfeasances that usually failed to materialize.
But he stood up for Kavanaugh, and he worked with Trump rather than sulk in a snit after 2016. If he wasn’t the best he was far from the worst.
The Sad Trombone toots.
[quote]Ninety-two percent of lawmakers have leadership PACs[/quote]
I assume “lawmakers” is synonomous with congress critters. If so, 92% of them is around 400.
[quote]Those PACs together spent more than $2 million at hotels and resorts, $220,000 at sporting events and concerts, $190,000 at ski resorts and $150,000 at steakhouses.[/quote]
I’m usually that last person to minimize the corruption, graft, and frivolous spending of politicians, but I dare say that $2.5ish million of decedent spending split amoung 400 actors doesn’t seem that bad. Sure, it ain’t great either, but there’s far worse waste fraud and abuse in other areas.
Nice post neo.
I’m in the frame of mind these days where I don’t presume to know people well, without considerable familiarity.
To amplify Niketas’ point… I recall former Ed. Sec. Bill Bennett. He was quite the talking head in the media for some time after his stint in the Executive branch. He’d pontificate on education, religion and ethics. Then, at one point it was revealed that he had a couple million in gambling debts from trips to Vegas. When asked, he said something like, “No big deal. I can cover that easily.” Hmmm.
Only owned one house, I believe.
A mark in his favor (unlike an oh-so-popular man-o’-da’-pipple type from northeastern climes, who seems to collect ‘em…OTOH, what’s wrong with collecting real estate and living the American dream? Oh…wait…)
Lindsey Graham…ok…
But Sam Neill as well!!!!
That’s the tragedy.
I learned about Rush Limbaugh from the carpenters renovating my house some twentyfive years ago, became a steadfast listener. Rush was seldom wrong, but he was wrong about Graham. For those of you from other cultures, Graham was a true Southern Gentleman, not self-serving, not greedy, served in uniform, pretty doggone ethical, true to his convictions. Duty first was his watchword, exemplified by not going to a hospital until after his interview this Sunday morn.
Graham had a thoracic aortic dissection, for which surgery, the only option, is often anatomically very difficult; the arteries to the brain and to the arms come off the aortic arch, thus a high mortality rate, since the dissection, which is blood, pulsating like a hammer between layers of the aortic wall, can occlude them.
We all go to the other side eventually.
CICERO:
I found Graham extremely likeable. As I said, now and then I disagreed with him although I usually agreed with him. But I always liked him.
https://x.com/i/status/2076760589724979219
— Cicero
Um, no. As far as his immigration policies went, Rush was dead on about Graham. John McCain was a huge pro-amnesty man, and Graham followed his lead.
I didn’t always agree with Graham but he certainly knew how to play the game. His relationship with Trump is a great example of how to work with someone with whom you have major disagreements.