Posted on March 9, 2013

Laura Ingraham: Graham, McCain Are The Ones On The Fringe

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LAURA INGRAHAM: Filibuster envy. That is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. It's been fascinating to see the reaction to Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster of the John Brennan nomination. With a principled, persuasive argument against the use of drones on American soil, he drew support from people across the political spectrum, from Jon Stewart to Mitch McConnell, from the ACLU to Ted Cruz, his filibuster made for some strange bedfellows. But of course not everybody was happy. The usual snarksters on NBC's cable outlet bared their fangs, calling Paul's stance 'weird and crazy.' But what's surprising is that two GOP senators, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, launched their own drone strike against Paul.



Now, don't get me wrong. They have the right to disagree with Paul and the majority of GOP senators who stood with him, but given that the filibuster lasted 13 hours, why didn't either of them have the moxy to debate their colleague face to face on the Senate floor? What were they afraid of? Presumably they could have done so either before or after their dinner with the president. Were they jealous that a junior senator dominated the headlines and managed to galvanize left and right? Are they worried that they're becoming increasingly irrelevant as younger, more conservative senators step forward to heal and re-energize a demoralized GOP base? Or do they really favor giving pretty much unlimited power to the president to order targeted killings as long as we say that we are 'at war' with al-Qaeda. If it's the latter, I think Rand Paul would be happy to have that debate face to face any day of the week.



If anyone is on the fringe here, it's McCain and Graham. Both men made a big mistake with their drive-by hits on Rand Paul. It is all but certain that Sen. Graham will face a serious primary challenger in 2014, and I bet his first campaign commercial will go something like this: 'I stood with Rand while Sen. Graham dined with Obama.'