First off, here's some good news for Senator Lindsey Graham (R. SC). A little while ago I wrote about how Graham was back in South Carolina trying to pitch immigration reform to his constituents:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Well it looks like Graham may have been successful in getting conservatives on board:
http://www.goupstate.com/...
A conservative group in South Carolina is launching an ad campaign supporting U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's immigration reform proposal.
The South Carolina Conservative Action Alliance says the ad will be broadcast on television and radio stations across the state.
The chairman of the organization's board, former House Speaker David Wilkins, says it appreciates how Graham's proposal secures the borders and uses the E-Verify system to check whether a potential worker is supposed to be in this country when they are hired. - Go Upstate, 4/12/13
So though Graham one over conservatives on one issue, he pissed off right-wingers on another issue:
http://www.fitsnews.com/...
Sixteen “Republicans” broke ranks and voted with Democrats this week to open the door for further erosion of our Second Amendment rights.
And of course one of them was U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) – who has never met a core conservative issue he hasn’t sold out.
“I welcome a debate on the Second Amendment in the United States Senate,” Graham said. “I want to proceed to this bill. I want to debate it. I am not afraid.”
Translation? I’m not going to help kill this anti-Second Amendment bill when I have the chance. - Fits News, 4/11/13
Wow, gun nuts are angry Graham for voting to allow the debate to move forward. That's how scared they are. Even though Graham is trying to push through his own gun control bill:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that he’s planning to put forward an alternative gun bill when the Senate begins its debate this week on the gun package being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
And, Graham predicted, the GOP measure has enough support to pass.
The new bill will include provisions focused on "increasing prosecutions of those who fail background checks,” include more money for armed school protection, fold in Graham’s bill that tightens background checks on people with mental illness and reform health care privacy laws "so we can get better access to troubled folks -- the Virginia Tech situation,” Graham told The Huffington Post.
The senator said his bill will also include a federal gun trafficking amendment authored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). - Huffington Post, 4/10/13
And gun nuts should be excited about Graham's bill because it pisses of Mayor Bloomberg and his Super PAC:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
A US senate bill drafted in consultation with the main pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, would endanger the American public by making it easier for people with serious mental illness to acquire firearms, according to an analysis by a coalition of city mayors and police chiefs.
The draft legislation has been presented by its lead sponsor, the Republican senator for South Carolina Lindsey Graham, as a bi-partisan effort designed to improve public safety by improving record-keeping on mentally ill people to prevent them buying guns. It is one of the main policy proposals emanating from gun supporters, including the NRA, since the Newtown shooting in December in which 26 young children and educators were killed by a deranged shooter.
But an analysis by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an alliance of more than 900 mayors from cities across America headed by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the legislation would have entirely the opposite impact. Were the bill to be enacted it would dramatically reduce the number of people with a history of serious mental illness whose records are kept on a federal database used to monitor gun sales.
Most astonishingly, the bill would undermine a prohibition that has been in place for more than 40 years that blocks anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital from buying or possessing guns. An individual who has been sent to hospital by court order as a result of mental illness would now be able to purchase and own a gun immediately after they have been released from treatment. - The Guardian, 4/9/13
Then again, you try explaining that to gun nuts. I would say I fee sorry for Lindsey Graham in his efforts to both look somewhat sane yet also try to make the Tea Party nuts happy but I don't.