Jesus warned us, not once but often, that a man who parts with the integrity of his own soul--even though he gain the whole world--is a tragic fool.
27
I think in the past, Lindsey could have slinked off into the dark but now, with Twitter capturing his humiliation - this will always be there reminding us ...profiles in weakness.
14
The situation can be summed up in a "Peanuts" analogy. The orange one is Lucy, America is Charley Brown.
12
I've not agreed with the Republican philosophy, and that was before Trump. Veering left, I prefer paying higher taxes to raise all boats, fair pay and wealth distribution for all, and free health care, like the Norwegian system.
Trump admires these Norsepeople from afar, but it's simply their skin color. He would hate paying high taxes, and being constantly censured for hate speech.
Hatred is the key word here. Republicans have historically followed civil protocols in their negotiations and campaigns. Under Trump, something dark and evil risen in Congressional Republicans. They kiss up to a dangerous fool, on a daily basis.
Their normal, narrow, money-driven goals have gained fresh avarice under Trump. They have voted against the poor and middle class with higher taxes, fewer human services and environmental destruction, but not to shrink big government -- their normal rationale.
No. Their tax plan has increased the deficit, and their platform of "smaller government" has vanished. Under Trump, as a group -- Republicans in Congress abrogated their oaths to uphold the law and the Constitution, supported by voters who believe in Trump's brand of hate, rich Republican donors whose tax breaks come at the expense of all Americans, and the Cabinet.
Maybe their brand of irresponsibility is a carry-over from prep-school entitlement and bad attitudes. They need an ethical, law-abiding leader.
Congress, meanwhile, governed by no one, is reliving "Lord of the Flies".
24
Men are allowed about five minutes of anger and indignation. Then they have to get back to work.
3
The only thing useful Donal Trump presidency brought us, we learned that we have solid %30 of population Either Trump level of humanity and morale or worse.
That was for me an eye-opener.
For that, I personally would like to Thank president DJT.
15
Mr. Bruni has a misapprehension of Sen. Grahams position. Graham has a military background, as well as a legal one, which means he is a realist and a pragmatist. 45 “is the president we have” and he is working with the president we have to get the work of the people done. An airman might like to fight a different battle, a lawyer might like to try a different case, but neither is real.
You get dirty in a fight and you get mired in a case: Sen. Graham is doing his job and I have nothing but admiration for him. If other politicians are more worried about how they look and not about what they are doing, soon enough they will be seen for what they truly are.
A final thought on Sen. Graham, in keeping with his realism and pragmatism, he is no ideologue. He works in his own party and across the isle-in comity-to get the work of the people done. He has a real grit, poise and a humorous common touch.
Atta boy Sen Graham, fight the good fight!
11
Please, let's stop debating what these men didn't hear. They clearly heard "shithole" and are lying about it. It's not something you forget. We are now ending year-one of what seems like a 100 year presidency. The GOP is complicit in every way. They will never own it, so it's up to the voters.
40
The late psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled (1978), also wrote People of the Lie (1983), a study of malignant narcissism that chillingly describes our Liar-in-Chief to a T. The basic premise is that the Lie is at the heart of human evil. Peck also points out that this evil is contagious and corrupting; his assertion is borne out every time a Republican lies to praise or protect him.
40
Trump degrades and demeans everything and everyone he touches, from democracy to marriage, from political allies to wives.
35
It has been said that a man only gets one reputation. And if anyone gets too close to Trump, he takes that away. One day, each of these men is going to have a reckoning when they try to understand just when his reputation was consumed by a con man.
22
America must now endure an administration and a political party whose brand is ignorance combined with fraud, unashamedly and with widespread public support. They include those who until recently dared not speak their name in polite society: your local friendly white supremacist and/or misogynist, for instance, overt and covert. Dogs respond to whistles. Fine people though.
Trump is lifelong conl with a criminal knack of manipulating the legal process for personal gain, learned at the knee of that paragon of sleaze Roy Cohn. Now, as Liar in Chief he has brought American politics into the realm of fiction and global infamy. Dr. Mabuse, criminal mastermind (also fictional), once said the ultimate goal of crime is to establish its unlimited rule, an empire of crime; enter Putin’s boy from Queens and his love affair with Jim Crow GOP.
The susceptibility of their willing victims (read base) is that of the man who can’t see what he thinks getting paid requires him not to see - Trump stinks, but he smells like money, maybe. That’s all it takes for some people.
And so the Arch-parasite settles in to suck 'em dry, his hosts unable to resist his sweet denial of fact, his warm affirmation of their worst prejudices, his thrilling stimulation of their darkest fantasies.
They will carry on stripping the commonwealth in this way until they can no longer keep reality at bay and their crimes are revealed; but by then will America have the capacity to bring them to justice?
26
"Ethics are what you do when no one is watching"
What does that say about GOP ethics, when EVERYONE is watching?
26
Senator Graham knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to become Trump's buddy. He is despicable for doing what he did and gets no accolades from me for telling the truth. The only reason he did so is because he was offended by the rejection of an immigration plan that he helped create along with Senator Durbin.
Graham is as shameless and craven as the rest of the GOP in Congress.
17
Trump debases everything he touches. He always has. He always will.
Shame on Graham and the rest of the GOP for kowtowing to this twisted, corrupt and poisonous man.
33
Thanks, Mr. Bruni, for this laser-guided assessment of one Senator Lindsey
Graham.
17
Who to believe these days? Graham? The White House Doctor?
It will be hard to trust Senator Graham until we find out if the Russians have anything on him from the hack of the RNC documents and their individual hacks of Senator's emails (sure would explain his recent 180 on Russia).
It will be hard to trust the White House doctor when you realize that they are saying that our dumpling shaped President only weighs 239 pounds therefore rating him overweight (BMI 29.9), whereas if he weighed 240 pounds he would be obese (BMI 30). Wow, close call, right? Think they fiddled with the numbers? LOL
29
With a respectful nod to W. B. Yeats
I will arise and go now and go from D.C.
before I see the marble turn to dust—
For the greedy and self-serving
now throng the leader’s halls—
And the needy and their champions
are marched away hands tied—
Hands tied to stop the destruction
of all that was right and just
And all the glorious deeds
turning now to dust
And those who’ve been complicit
are tainted and corrupt—
And every past progress
Is cruelly swept away
16
Sen. Graham hails from a Southern state that gave us most recently, James DeMint, who resigned to take a far more lucrative position with the hard-right Heritage Foundation, an organization whose heritage is "soiled" just like Graham has become. And the longest-serving senator, Senator Strom Thurmond, a states' rights candidate for president in 1948 who walked out of the Democratic Convention that nominated Harry Truman who unexpectedly won over the bridle-cake groom, Thomas Dewey. Thurmond was anti-integration, a pronounced racist and bigot like Trump who secretly fathered a daughter in his youth by a black servant; he was forced to acknowledge publicly after keeping her mother quiet with funds. He ultimately, like most Southern congress folk, became a Republican so he could soil that party as precedent for Liddle Lindsey. The internet's list of South Carolina senators doesn't even include Thurmond who died at age 100 in 2003. At his death, Speaker Trent Lott, (R) Mississippi, praised him asserting he should have won
in '48; he was forced to resign in shame as Speaker. And Trump works diligently to appeal to these racists because he is one himself. Graham's lack of integrity, so beautifully delineated by Bruni here, will likely soil him forever. John McCain cannot save him. And Trump will likely disavow him for crossing him at that now soiled meeting.
16
Mr. Graham will have the opportunity to cleanse himself at Mr. Trump's Senate trial next year. Let's hope he has learned his lesson.
15
As my grandmother would say, "When you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas."
15
From the article: "Trump’s creeping authoritarianism"
Creeping? How about galloping?
22
Trump never hid who and what he is. His habit of lying and his authoritarian ambitions were plain to see from day one. People elected him not in spite of this, but precisely because of this. Trump's primary tactic is to weaponize his words and create an alternate reality.
If you knowingly put a goat in office, it's hard to remove him for being a goat.
26
It's true that everyone near Trump gets up with fleas. The person who lost my respect the most is John Kelly. Who can help promote a more humane agenda in this WH? If Trump is letting aides like Miller dictate his policies, he is surrendering his place in history to actually do some good for the American people. Why on earth would he allow that? Where did they find these people?!?
On the other hand, the one person sailing the highest over this cesspool is Melania. She's an elegant woman and, I think, has the goodwill of most people (aside from that birtherism thing and locker room talk). I'll never forget her change of expression after Trump turned away from her on the Inaugural podium. I've watched it many times and it saddens me. I assume she knew what he was before marrying him but still....... I wish someone would take a poll of how many women would take her place.
9
Because of his big ego, some of Trump's friends, like Manafort, are going to jail, his son-in-law could possibly be next, Bannon is unemployed - as The Hollies would say: he's King Midas in Reverse!
10
70 years ago we called such people 'collaborators' and 'quislings'. And traitors.
23
When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
6
Graham and Flake know. With a few exceptions, Senate republicans may be cowards but they aren't stupid. So, if not now, when?
10
The clean bill of health that Trump was given by the White House doctor proves that Trump cannot use excuses for his meanness and narcicissim He is purposely lying, hurting young immigrrants (who, by the way, fit the mantra of being allowed to stay here on the basis of merit), and otherwise doing harm to all of us. His backers may think he will bring back coal. Aside from the changes in the coal industry that Trump cannot control, he is busy dismantling regulations for clean air and water so we will all suffer. There are many other examples of his perfidy -- including, probably, his desire for a nuclear war. Maybe he imagines that in this way he can accomplish unity in the American people. After all, we rally together to fight wars. He has already shown that he is willing to use hate to get what he wants. Looking at his life, what a sad waste. He seems to have spent his life trying and succeeding in getting away with things that the rest of us would be ashamed of. He could still change, but I am not betting on it. Let's send him back to private life.
12
The New York Times hits another home run matching fantastic photography with a column or story. This picture is worth a thousand words!
9
At what point, if ever, will those who carry water for hatefulness, outright lying, and ethics- and morality-free governing actually pay a price? Any price?
18
I live in South Carolina. I am surprised by none of this. This is what he is and has been for a very long time.
16
Thank you, sir, for your cogent and intelligent columns. Keep up the good work.
13
As a democratic voter, I have been not only disgusted but puzzled by the obsequious behavior of many republican lawmakers. Those few like McCain with integrity have stood out of the crowd.
I think that Sen. Graham is now at a crossroads. What he says, but more importantly what he DOES from now on will show us whether he has learned a valuable lesson or not: Nothing is worth compromising your integrity.
15
We are living in the time of "the ends justify the means." That has never been good for civilization in the long term, but our "leaders" really don't care since all they are interested in is the next election and self interest. Very sad!
15
Another terrific, articulate, spot-on column from @FrankBruni.
15
You lie with dogs, you get fleas.
8
Great article, Frank!!!
When you get in bed with a liar and predator, you shouldn't be thinking you can make a better man of him. Now that Graham has been fooled...again, will he learn the lesson? No relationship with Trump lasts longer than his attention span...which is notoriously short. So, compliment Trump all you want...when he turns on you tomorrow, none of it will matter to him...and you look like an idiot.
19
With respect, Mr. Bruni, I don't think Trump soiled Graham. Graham soiled Graham by choosing to align himself with Trump. There are lots of things for which we can justly blame Trump, but the poor decision of some supposedly intelligent and honorable other man is not one of them.
78
Trump is a personality that knows no true friendships. His values have been so shaped from childhood that people have become only tools to be employed for his own purposes. Hence, as a politician no one can ever be other than an inanimate object to be manipulated and steered according to Trump's vacillating whims. Those who seek his graces soon learn they can soon be discarded like the worn out golf glove. The enormous carnage in the white house and its vast one year turnover reveal that such personality can never successfully manage a workable group of people. Sad but true.
14
" Sir I love you more than words can say, I love you more than eyesight, space or Freedom, beyond wealth or anything of value. I love you more than status wealth, beauty or honor..." The sycophantic Goneril to King Lear, prior to being named King's Regent and then shutting her father, the King, out into the raging storm.
'This is not, If we can say,"This is the Worst". The treacherous Edgar (King Lear)
8
When I read this I cant help but think about the situation of sexual harassment that goes on over time. There is a love hate push pull that a harasser uses to keep people in their grasp. These people are being manipulated by someone who has used this technique his whole life it seems.
All of these victims need to stand up and say, "NO MORE". But they are drawn in by what they might get for their constituents etc.
Terrible and deeply disappointing.
9
Did you ever notice how Trump’s fan-wavers and pooperscoopers in Congress ( and the White House) also have personalities similar to Trump’s own egocentric behavior? They care not a wit’s worth about anything or anybody other than getting re-elected. They run along behind Trump sweeping up while thinking that will keep them in the parade. Lindsay Graham (and plenty of others) has sold his soul to this charlatan, this huckster who we have to painfully call president. How is heaven’s name do these people sleep at night?
21
Don't delude yourself that eitehr party has a monopoly on hypocrisy. Politicians are inherently about one thing: re-election. I don't know whether term limits would fix this to any extent, but they sure wouldn't hurt. Limit senators to 2 terms and representatives to, say, 4 terms, and then just MAYBE they would grow moral backbones.
5
i had admired Graham for a short period of time. It was a very short period of time. Too bad. His spine is missing again. Typical Republican in the Age of Trump. What hold does he have on them?
8
So is this the new definition of LYING? ..."trying to wring the best from an unfortunate situation."
These spineless Trump surrogates will leave office with a legacy of having sacrificed their integrity and violated their core principles by blatantly LYING for Trump in order to "wring the best of an unfortunate situation".
"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised." Chinua Achebe
11
The desperation of the mainstream media and swamp creatures like graham know no boundaries. Graham would love to have more 3rd world immigration so he could get a rubber stamp for endless war to advance american imperialism that his backers so desire. The swamp knows no party and the mainstream media is their propaganda wing . The oligarchs demand globalism through war, immigration and decimation of national sovereignty. Trump may not be perfect but currently there is no other option.
2
"Not perfect". Trump is a liar, a racist and a host of other offensive traits. A true
Trumper, Don the Con right or wrong.
9
Uh, FYI: Trump is one of the oligarchs.
11
Lindsay Graham said yesterday that he wants the Trump he knows on the golf course to "come back". Back to WHAT? Good grief, this isn't high school, this is real life, people's lives are at stake!
I'm now wondering who in this pair is the bigger kook.
What a shameful misuse of the Country's time.
18
After reading the terrible things Trump said about Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Mitt Romney, how could any of them ever manage a kind word for Trump? Oh yeah, tax cuts for the rich. For Republicans, catering to .1% trumps all.
16
For years Graham has represented just about every position I disagree with. To me he was a doctrinaire hawk from a state which seemed stuck in a time warp.
During the campaign I began to come around, as Graham made plain his disgust for Trump. Maybe, I thought, the man has a sense of how enormously dangerous Trump's candidacy meant for the republic. He was doing his part.
Here we are a year into Trumpism and Lindsey Graham has become the poster boy for his entire party, sucking up to a puerile, intellectual dolt and chronic liar for a chief executive when clearly Graham and every elected and high office holding Republican knows the truth of Trump.
At a time when saving the country from this madman becomes critical, Republicans sacrifice patriotism for cash handouts for themselves and their friends, deeming it more important to "go along to get along" rather than stand before their constituents as principled statesmen. How they—and Senator Graham—can sleep well at night puzzles me.
And frankly, how he behaved in this time of incredible political disarray will stay with him forever. History will not be kind to him.
15
"He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
5
Many people are saying that Graham caved because he's gay and Trump threatened to out him. As a gay man, could you speak to that, Mr. Bruni?
4
If outing someone in this day and age is still that big a threat, shame on all of us. There are a hundred things more important about Graham in my view and I suspect it's the same for his SC constituents. I don't see how that would hurt him even if true. Seriously.
5
Lindsay Graham talking back to Trump is what happens when a braggart and a bully stabs you in the back as they rise up the presidential candidate ladder. They're still there on that ladder, a few rungs below to be sure, but they're there, and you have to deal with them. Trump does not understand that because there is very little Trump does understand. Trump's behavior has nothing to do with his excellent physical health or showing off his mental acuity by scoring a 30 out of 30 on a cognitive assessment exam where a score of 26 is normal. All these tests mean is that yes Trump has good genes (I am so blessed), and is not clinically demented. Which when one thinks about it, means that Trump, unlike Reagan, who had an excuse in his second term for his mental miscues, has no excuse. The mean, contemptible, bully one sees exhibited by Trump are real. Trump's now certifiable: he's sane, which says more about him then we may have wished for. If Trump has been diagnosed with some mental disability we then could point to it as not only proof of his crazy behavior but perhaps have some sympathy for this pathetic person. Now that it has been revealed Trump is not suffering from dementia, what Trump wanted to brag about now becomes the petard to wit he will be hoisted upon. What Trump is doing is deliberate. What a horrible, ugly man. Trump dividing this nation is done on purpose. Shame on him.
DD
Manhattan
8
Exactly! How does he live with himself?
4
It's astonishing that a politician who has been around as long as Graham wouldn't know that this serial liar is incapable of holding up his end of any bargain. It can't be that he hasn't been paying attention. I just don't believe it. No, there's something else going on. The question is what?
7
Today's Republicans make me recall the Pete Seeger song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (and the Big Fool said to push on).")
6
Trump judges people by whether he thinks they are "winners" or "losers."
Just one example: he ridicules the physically handicapped.
But, we judge him for the vacuous content of his character, not the color of his skin.
He has no human decency -- not a shred. He will try to "schmooze-use" those people who possess moral principles --- then condemn them for standing up to his transgressions; those who have no integrity or moral standards will intimidated and/or "schmooze-used" by him.
Trump is the ultimate "loser in life" -- he has absolutely no idea how repulsive he is to BILLIONS of people around the world. He is not a leader -- he is a "destroyer of worlds" --- a destroyer of the human spirit.
13
Trump has degraded the WH with his twisted lies, and the Congress has ripped the mystique that did accompany American political power right off itself. Underneath is some kind of Barney Fife statue.
Seeing these mostly men kowtow and "pretend they didnt hear", and strain to please Trump speaks of emasculated gestures, although Diane Black's "Thank you for allowing us to have you as President" was gag-worthy as well. They just look like a bunch of scared frat boys, afraid of their gang leader. They will be the model of sycophantic behavior for somebody's movie in the future.
11
Will the media starting with New York Times, stop advertising Trump through giving detailed descriptions of his shenanigans and start referring, accurately, to the GOP? Trump, like young misbehaving children, loves attention and he wants to have his name dominate the news, regardless why. He is the GOP creation and they should bear the responsibility in the next elections.
8
We have a big problem that Trump has shown exists. Nearly forty percent of our country has given up on our liberal democracy and they act like the other sixty percent are out to take everything away from them. They like Trump acting like an authoritarian white supremacist plutocrat because they think that all that effort to provide liberty and justice for all has diminished their circumstances and it will take someone like Trump to restore their happiness.
9
While I agree with all of the statements below, I would really like to see something actually being done with the GOP and trump. Their actions are so heinous, cruel, and unfortunately without one scintilla of compassion, honesty, or decency that it is hard to believe that this is happening in this country.
There has to be a way to get these horrors out of office before they blow this country up. It appears that the opposition to these abhorrent people is in the majority yet I'm not hearing or seeing the total outrage that should be sounding throughout this country. Where are the protests that would shake this country back to common sense? It appears that this has become the new normal and the country I know and love is being decimated by greed, ignorance, stupidity and hatred.
9
Everyone who works closely or is associated with trump ends up being diminished as a person or becomes a laughing stock. Look at the people who have supported or worked for trump and who have been cast aside. I assume that many people think that they can stay close to trump long enough to get some goodies before they fall by the way side. That reminds me of the old saying "those who would sup with the devil need a long spoon."
But often times trump merely comes out and says what many republicans think. Republicans, particularly the country club crowd, are respectable and have good manners. They go to church regularly and would not dare hurt anyone's feelings. But just the same they rely on bigotry and racial/religious/cultural antagonism to win elections. They are just more subtle and use code words. Which would we rather deal with? A person who lets you know up front that he is a bigot and is untrustworthy or someone who covers it up with good manners.
4
Anyone can justify their stands with reasons only they see and fooling their own consciousness, they don't realize that people are not that stupid, but maybe I am wrong about that part.
4
Hard to read anything about Lindsey Graham without McCain being mentioned and vice versa. But one still has his career to think about and the other is on his way out. That's a big difference in how much courage you have to stand up to your party's leader.
Yet McCain and Graham have much more to lose than other Republicans who never served in the military. With every hedge, with every lie, they lose another slice of their honor.
48
The concept of honor is not a sliding scale based on the number of times you tell the truth; honor is binary. You either have it, or you don't. There are no "slices," there are no mostly honorable public servants.
Cogent Americans keep track of those who fail to honor the Constitution, the United States, and all of us who pay the bills to keep Washington running.
To the dishonorable: your consequences come soon, hopefully this year.
8
Why are the Republicans so worried about what Donald Trump wants. He is only one person. It doesn't matter if he lost by 3 million votes or won by 30 million votes he is only one person and he is NOT OUR KING.
The legislators should do what we pay them to do. Pass laws. If Trump veto's them either override them or lay the blame at his feet. Stop genuflecting to Trump. He isn't King he is a public servant just like the rest of you.
17
Unfortunately what we have learned about the GOP via the destruction of the ACA and the GOP Donor Tax Plan is they are not working in the interest of their constituents. Instead they are self-serving in choosing big money order those who elect them.
7
This piece is perfection in its clarity in calling "a fake a fake"....and we have many choices from which to assume the above statement applies.
7
Not to make light of our predicament, but if George Carlin were still with us he'd have to revise his "seven words" to six.
More serious, though, is this observation. It wasn't too long ago that when Graham appeared on the Sunday talk shows he was understood to be a right-wing spokesman. He is now referred to as a "moderate Republican.". I don't think Graham has moved to the left. This is how Normalization happens (proper noun for emphasis).
12
to best understand trump and predict his likely actions, we need a thorough review of trump's behavior as a child and teenager: how did he act toward others? what drove his father to send him away to a military school? people don't change that much in their fundamental core between, say, ages 14 and 40.
some have suggested that trump as a "child" already was disturbed and somewhat sociopathic and/or egocentric. what do we expect now? why would graham or anyone who values his own reputation support and excuse trump?
even his name-calling behavior, "mild" as it is in comparison, demonstrates that trump is frozen in time to a narcissistic eight year old mind-set.
6
A spineless individual can rarely reclaim their integrity. LG take note.
As for DT, a human devoid of integrity, who has mastered the craft of double speak, double down and downright meanness to cover his shortcomings, a trajectory of this kind will never succeed. But it will take most of the silent and spineless folks with him and wreak exponential havoc on the blind, unsuspecting followers.
We are a country that collectively needs to STAND UP and take a good look at ethics, logic, integrity and history.
10
I moved back to SC three years ago after living in a progressive blue state with decent senators.
In my opinion, Mr. Graham didn't just lose his principles in his effort to influence Mr. Trump. He didn't have them in the first place.
Mr. Scott, our other senator, is no better.
I would love to replace both of them with people who actually care about their constituents, especially children, elderly, disabled and poor residents of SC.
75
It is long past time for Republican legislators to recognize and accept the President for the immoral, amoral and unscrupulous criminal that he is and start playing hardball with the President instead of toadying up to him. It is the same thing as Democrats ceding far too much to Republicans over the years in the woefully misguided belief that being "the adults in the room" and taking the high road, while honorable, would have honorable results. It is now interesting to see Republican legislators make the same mistake.
5
I liken Mr. Bruni’s observations to how we all sit and complain about our local sports team’s management: “How come they don’t see what we do?” By playing up to Trump, Graham, or whoever else we read about, is lowering himself to the abyss called Trump. The problem continues to be whether those who supported him, and continue to pander to his terrible behavior, will ever even begin to see the horrific person that he is, and what he’s done to the Presidency and seek another means of achieving mutually desirable goals for our country. I don’t think we can stereotype Trump’s supporters other than to say most of us are totally frustrated with the direction in which he’s taking our country. Time to put a stop to this, one way or another. But our message to our elected officials should be “Just do it!”
1
Lindsey Graham admitted in 2016 that his email had been hacked by Russia, so I find it strange that the article doesn't mention the possibility that his change in attitude might be the result of blackmail.
5
We are stuck with the GOP and its democracy destroying sycophants until and unless we vote. Here in Texas, we continue to have one of the nation's lowest voter turnouts (about 45% in 2016) and a low Hispanic voter turnout (less than 20% in 2016). So we have been rewarded with Cruz, Cornyn and state elected officials of similar ilk. They are destroying our country because we are allowing them to do so.
5
As we once said, "The whole world is watching." And we're not looking good.
4
Exhaustion is setting in . We may never recover.
3
Trump moved the out house on Senator Graham. like he has on his followers.
3
We have before us a textbook case of party loyalty and the consequences thereof. A significant majority of voters have seen blind faith for what it is and refuse to affiliate with either party. Republicans appear to be on the verge of total demise but Democrats are following their lead giving us the perennial choice between evils. Perhaps the significant question is whether we continue with a failed two party system that includes Democrats or is replaced with a multi-party system, as seems inevitable.
1
Graham saw no point in lying about Trump’s comments. It was the smart move. Cotton and Perdue decided to split hairs to mislead and in effect lied. It was clever for about half a day until it became clear that their denials were based upon a hopelessly insignificant difference about the derogatory word used. In the end it made both men look silly.
The Republican Party has decided to support and defend Trump’s most despicable behaviors because he will sign any bill that they send and because opposing him will alienate their constituents who think that Trump is their guy. They fear that if they abandon Trump it will bring down the Party. If they oppose him, then they will get nothing accomplished and fail to serve their constituents.
Meanwhile, Trump is assuring his own downfall by firming up the determination of most of the electorate to not see him re-elected, in 2020.
This does not mean that the Democrats are going to achieve control of the Congress next year. The Democrats have been avoiding doing anything to gain support from anyone who is not in amongst their core supporters, especially those who voted for Sanders or against Clinton in 2016. So they are betraying this country when it comes to politics by failing to stand up to Trump and the Republicans in Congress beyond some rhetoric, too.
Laugh and jeer all you want. The GOP is running the country. They passed a tax "reform" that is a gift to the wealthiest few, which will be paid by the rest of us down the road. They're about to take aim at Medicare and Medicaid with a view toward eviscerating them. Trump is appointing all manner of reactionary conservative justices, he's placed some of the least qualified people to run departments. The EPA is being gutted. Preserves are going to be opened up to drilling. Clean air and clean water protections are going to be curtailed.
Getting soiled is a small price to pay for redirecting the country toward a reactionary paradise.
They're in, you're out. The reactionary propaganda machine has had decades to program its message into the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. And progressives have helped them by failing to provide an effective alternative and by sneering, laughing, and rolling their eyes. Progressives took political correctness, which began as a response to the widespread racism, sexism, and other "isms" that permeated the country and turned it into a caustic bludgeon, playing into the right wing narrative that portrayed it as an assault against freedom. And progressives just sneered, jeered, and laughed all the way over the cliff.
Reading these comments gives me little hope that progressives can adjust their behavior to offer the compelling alternative message they need in order to regain some measure of power for any useful length of time.
3
Enough of the outrage about Republican law makers aversion to criticizing Trump’s bad acts. They have no ability to discourage it. Trump’s approval may be stuck in the 30’s amongst all eligible voters, but in remains at over 80 percent amongst Republicans. Until the Republican voters decide to withdraw their overwhelming support of Trump, the only reasonable consequence of standing up to Trump is to lose their chances to run again.
19
Lindsey Graham should have enough experience to understand Trump. Graham was one of five Republican senators who could have voted against the tax bill and kept Trump confined for another year. He helped Trump succeed at the country's expense. He has only to confirm Trump's words at the meeting which would help eliminate the discussion distorting the DACA and debt agreement. I think Trump has faced Graham down in a very demeaning way and Graham has accepted it. Please do not think Senator Graham was the first Republican to fall into the trap but it now seems to be something to crow about when Senator Cotton and his cohort can lie to the world and be proud of it. It takes grit to negotiate with Trump and these guys do not have it.
62
I am 62 years old and a 35 year veteran of the finance industry and I'll tell you three things about people who are acting odd or strange or out of character:
1) They are lying
2) There is money involved
3) Both
Ever since the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United there seems to be a lot people in Washington DC acting strange or odd or out of character.
34
Graham, like most of his GOP colleagues in both houses of Congress, has no core values other than getting himself re-elected and retaining power. If supporting 45 can get him something--a giant tax cut for the rich, for example--he's all in. When the stakes are low for him personally, he can act the statesman. Depressing.
13
People who have core values no longer run for political office. Only those with moral apathy run. That's why the US is a republic in name only.
1
We'll see which side gets blamed when the government shuts down. Democrats need to find a way to make sure it's not them. It's not them, of course, but Trump and his enablers are showing themselves to be true masters of the big lie. The Novembers in 2018 and 2020 are going to be the most important U.S. elections in the history of our country.
9
Mr. Bruni now uses words and phrases that before Trump would have been out of bounds in this family news paper. It is a measure of how Trump has degraded our discourse that this is acceptable and the only way we can accurately report this president. Will our country survive Trump's degradation of our society?
The Gasping Old Party that used to stand at least in theory on the side of family values is now dragging us all down to their demeaned level just to make browny points. oops.
5
"If it's too good to be true it probably is". Bernie Madof succeeded in his swindle because people who should have known better did not question his golden promises. Trump is using the same playbook and Sen Graham is a person who should have known better.
13
Excellent column Frank.
Graham is a tragic casualty of our poisonous political system.
6
Strong language, Mr. Bruni, and right on. Keep it coming.
8
There are a few Republicans in congress who selectively take honorable positions; but when it comes down to it they never seem to achieve enough escape velocity to break free of its gravitational field. It's not that trump soils the GOP; an already badly soiled party made trump possible; he then did us the favor of exposing the Republicans for who they really are.
31
In the last 30 years or so, and perhaps as a result of the efforts of "big money-ultra reactionary" people behind the scenes, the Republican Party has left traditional conservatism and become something entirely different. I believe that this evolution poses a great danger to our democratic form of government. Witness Russia, Venezuela, and Turkey. The history of democracies is clear. This is how they ultimately fail. My hope is that Trump's reign will prove to be so toxic that this movement will be rejected and reversed by voters in 2018 and 2020. A wholesale influx of more liberal representatives may make it possible to reverse Citizens United and restrict or eliminate "dark money" or even private money entirely from our political system.
25
Well said. Spot on. We need to get big money out of the political process. And I mean the big "Citizens United" money. What a horrible decision. It is facilitating the takeover of our democracy. God help us. Get out and vote.
1
I often wonder what Ronnie Ray-gun would say about the current POTUS and his sycophants in Congress if he was still alive and somewhat lucid.
How would “Saint Ronnie” react to the fact that the Russian government maintains an office in the White House.
The Oval Office.
1
Hmmm, the first of a series on the GOP and its resolute and forthright support of principle??
6
Lindsay Graham is trapped, and we are seeing that in his behavior. I am no fan of his, but most people are very much like him in lacking the courage and capacity to truly rise to an occasion like this one. We can blame Putin for what is happening, or a host of other things, but ultimately we have to come to grips with the fact that we in the U.S., as voters, are responsible for enabling Trump and kicking our country into this predicament. We are all responsible. So when we look at Lindsay Graham, we are looking in the mirror, whether we choose to acknowledge that or not. It is easy to want to "fix" the problem in November, but are we willing to put in the long-term work to ensure that someone like Trump never becomes president again? I'm not so sure about that. And if you've read Thomas Friedman's companion op-ed today and think quantum computers will save us, I would encourage you to think again. Computers are only as good as the people who program them. And right now, we're not looking too good.
28
At this point, any Republican who has not learned the lesson about 'loyalty' that Trump has been teaching them for the past year, is simply 'unfit' to serve. How many ruined, or soiled, political reputations do these pols need to learn once-and-for-all, being loyal to Trump is being a betrayer of their constitutional duty to defend the Constitution of the United States? It is stunning how few Republicans have learned that lesson. Graham just got schooled again.
25
That age old adage continues to ring true:
“If you lie down with dogs, you come up with fleas”.
1
Just like all of Trump's minions, Graham is just playing his cards to his advantage. I am no longer surprised by the accolades heaped on the golf course or the scorn he dishes to the media or on the Senate floor when it comes to Trump. No integrity, period.
20
10:1 odds that Trump made Graham pay full golf fees, plus cart for his round of golf at Sycophant Links...
16
Nah, Mr. Trump put in on the government tab.
1
Graham is no different than many other women (and a few men) the emperor tired of and cast aside throughout his long life of indulgent and unrestrained bullying. A malignant narcissist loves no one but himself, and those who seek to flatter and enable him are truly stupid to think otherwise.
25
A pox on all their houses: Purdue, Cotton, Graham, Trump.
A pox on the entire Republican Party and the oligarchs who own them.
38
Trump could not have any success without the enablers in the GOP. Since none of them will step up and defend our moral values, then it is imperative we elect legislators who will. Vote in 2018 like the existence of your country depended upon it, as it may well be the case.
24
he should heed the words of that great non-sage, Sarah Palin: you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.
11
The republican party has destroyed our country by not containing that person in the White House. Today that overgrown child is going to present the Fake News Awards........isn't that a disgrace. If he weren't the leader of what used to be the greatest country in the world, it would be hysterical. We are so lucky to have The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and more.
If the republican party wants to save themselves, more of them should come forth as Senator Flake did today and denounce that person in the Oval Office.
18
Don't forget that lindsey is a republican. republicans are white supremacists who, at their core, believe everyone that isn't white, wants to be white. Bring some of those whities over here from Finland, they can perform their fish-schlappng song. You simply can't go wrong.
11
The article hits hard but not hard enough. The last word should not be "soiled." "Stinks" is better. "Soiled" means a laundry washing. Stinks needs more than Febreze or Tide.
5
One could look at it this way: whether you agree with Donald Trump or not, he has been a catalyst, only if by precipitating crisis after crisis, enough of the country has decided it's time for lasting change. I wonder, with some trepidation, what will it ultimately take?
5
The discussion about houses and holes begs the question: Why does everything the head touches turn into excrement?
7
It's hard to have any sympathy for Graham. If one brown-noses a belligerent, psychotic president, one must expect to get soiled. And splitting hairs about whether it was house or hole is immaterial. It just demonstrates how Republicans have (mostly) become political whores.
30
Lindsey Graham seems to relish taking the mantle of Virtue & Moral Courage, but he's indulging in Virtue & Moral Courage Lite. It's a sad time when we get excited about a Senator who manages to tell a small part of the truth while his party is rolling back racial equality, the quality of living in the US, the safety net of the Great Society, environmental protection, laws preventing banks from gambling with our money, and our self-respect as members of a global society.
I was in Europe recently and, by and large, people don't feel angry towards Americans, they feel sad for us. I do as well.
23
I thnk that among the very worst political ideas, there's this whole, "What happens on the campaign trail, stays on the campaign trail." By which I mean that no, you can't say whatever you want and then pretend it never happened we're all best buddies now. It's destructive as all hell, as Trump amply proves.
I also can't stand a long, long list of Graham's beliefs, and especially not his militarism. But Bruni is confusing the Senator woth Jeff Sessions, who really is a toady and a liar.
This column is unfair. And it's unfair because of something the Left has taken to doing that I loathe: say what I want you to say, say it the way I want you to say it, and say it PDQ. Oops...too late.
Graham flatly contradicted the lying Trump et al have done. And apparently, he went right up Hizzoner's nose, at that meeting. So boo, hoo, he didn't read off a script, stand like Daffy Duck and posture, or become a democratic socialist. And, he's paying a price for it: already got attacked by the White House.
So waddya want, wicker?
Trump is a virus. All those who come into contact with him for any length of time get infected. It causes the victim to be a sycophant extraordinaire and they lose, forever, any good reputation they may have, in some extreme cases they lose their souls.
Trump is a Dementor (from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter who called Trump a 'little, little, little tiny man'). A Dementor sucks the life out of people and destroys them. What better description of Trump than that? He is destroying everything good in America.
He must be ousted. Somehow. I'm not sure we can last until November 2018. I'm not sure we can get to spring without this Dementor taking us to war.
And now the Dementor has a clean bill of health from his doctor. So now he has no excuse for his horrible ways. He is just evil.
17
Mr. Trump's genius is to weaken people by setting them against each other. Racism is used because it works.
4
Why does DT’s behavior seem like a surprise to anyone? The nation has had access to everything you need to know about this porcine person for YEARS! The Mueller investigation will not come up with a smoking gun for collusion but the money laundering through Trump’s real estate dealings will be clear to anyone who understands such transactions. However, the Republican Congress will NEVER impeach him on that basis because they too work for corporate people whose profits underwrite their own election!
It is ironic that our democracy has been sold down the river (as in the slavery reference) by our “freedom loving” capitalistic system that allows for little to get to the working man but leaves him with a simmering resentment and little understanding.
Elections will allow the look of democracy but the rules and the laws will be made in the WH. —as they seem to be at the moment. Anyone like Lindsey Graham who still believes in bipartisan legislating will have his teeth knocked in by the extreme right wing.
10
I think this all goes to show that maybe Trump's call for stronger libel laws is the one good suggestion I've heard from him (though laughably, he'd be the most impacted by that).
If these losers didn't feel like they could slander people any way they want during a campaign without legal ramifications, then I bet we'd see a lot fewer liars and creeps in office--and that goes especially for Trump.
2
Yep, once you sell your soul to the devil, it's impossible to get it back.
9
I wonder how German sycophants behaved toward Hitler?
8
Sort of like the Starburst Suckup, except in German: "Ja mein liebenswerter Gruppenführer."
1
Lindsey Graham, like all politicians , has exposed himself to be the whore that they all are. They will do anything, say anything, to protect their benefits, pension and jobs and the people who elected them be dammed ! I hope the voters have learned a lesson. November, will give us the answer.
8
Now here is politics at its finest. Principals are mere postures for whichever way the current wind blows. Its like holding vomit in your hands. It reeks, its slimey, and you can't contain it. Mr Graham could do us all a big favor and resign effective immediately.
5
Seems to me once you factually accept the Norway comment as an alternative to Haiti, Africa, etc., it doesn't matter whether any barnyard expletives were included. The racism point is already indisputable.
12
Trump, being the bully emeritus, loves people who kiss his derriere as he perceives this sycophantic behavior as repulsive, ugly, a sign of cowardly behavior and he will pounce. He holds back with guys like Cotton because he knows he to be smarter and better educated than him... and he is a legitimate combat veteran. Trump likes those tough military guys and they deserve all the accolades for their dedication and service to the Country. Not necessary to revisit Trump's military background. There is a strange dance here as Cotton obviously has high aspirations and Trump needs but is wary of him. In the end Trump will placate Cotton as a way of keeping him in line. But remember in Humpty Dumpty Trumpty's world there is only room for one king and Cotton should keep this in mind lest he, in Mr. Bruni's words, becomes soiled like Graham.
1
That Graham who was once a fierce of opponent of Trump and then sucked up to him makes you think that maybe Trump has something on Graham and maybe something about his sexuality. Anyone who would suck up to Putin as Trump has and has the bad smell of treason about him wouldn't object to blackmailing someone.
5
Wow. I have known seen the word, 'Sh*thole', spelled out, in all it's glory, in three different New York newspapers. It appears that the current occupier of the white house has not only degraded the presidency but also, print journalism. I'd ask if this could get any lower if I did not hear the sound of earth's core, breaking.
3
This morning I read a piece about Homeland Security Nielsen's recent testimony (and her likely perjury) when she claims to have not heard "shithole"or other specific language in the infamous Oval Office meeting.
It occurred to me that she, Sarah Sanders, Tom Cotton, David Purdue and any number of other sycophants and enablers are taking a huge gamble. If you believe that Trump and Trumpism will prevail and that the GOP will remain in power, then sycophancy and lying can have a nice pay-off, politically and economically. If you believe that the end is nigh, that civility and honesty will ultimately prevail, then sycophancy and lying will lead to a lifetime of disgrace. Poorly qualified opportunists like Nielsen may be enjoying the intoxicating attention and success for the moment, but the bargain is Faustian. A few months or years of heady success in trade for your soul? Not a deal I'd consider.
For the rest of us, whether as voters, potential employers or journalists, we will not forget. Infamy is the legacy these women and men will inherit.
15
Current elected Republicans seem to be hell bent on destroying this once great country of ours. Only when honorable Republicans who have not been elected to public office like Steve Schmidt, Max Boot, Richard Painter, Nicolle Wallace, and others vote for Democrats in 2018 will we be able to begin to return to the great two party nation that we once were!
8
Poor Lindsay Graham: a prostitute quickly running out of Johns.
5
Mr. Bruni:
We all know who Donald Trump is and are very familiar with his many character deficits. All this was well known before the 9 November 2016 election. The American people elected him in spite of this because they wanted change and felt that he was the only available alternative to possibly get the desired change. We are going to judge him on the basis of his performance in office as President of the United States, not on the basis of anything you or any other newspaper commentator may say. We are not stupid: we can figure out if he is screwing up or is a bigot without your help. Please just report the unembellished facts without commentary and allow us to interpret them. In November 2020 we will then decide if he should stay in office.
1
You know that Frank Bruni is a columnist in the Opinion section, yes? And that columnists in the Opinion section write opinion pieces, not news? If you understand those things, then you should understand that your post makes no sense.
2
What surprises and confounds me is that Graham seemed (seems?) oblivious to how sucking up to Trump did not work at all for Bob Corker.
2
A tempestuous tale of desire and betrayal is the Old South! Gone with the Wind 2 with Trump as Rhett Butler and Graham as Scarlet.
I cant wait for the last scene:
"What about me, Donald! What about the Republican Party?"
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"
4
Graham has "soiled" himself. He is a clown.
6
Lindsey Graham, like many members of his party, has reduced himself to whoring for the president in hopes of a future payoff.
5
I recall 2 ads Hillary ran during her campaign, where children of all nationalities were shown watching trump rant, use obscenities far worse than the one which has blown up on him now, threaten people with physical violence, and lie. These bits of his campaign were and still are verifiable fact. He was a nasty and horrible jerk then, he’s a nasty and horrible jerk now, nearly 2 years later. Nothing has changed. The fact that less than a third of registered voters handed him our highest honor and position screams the reality of an archaic system of election. We need to get rid of the electoral college. The midterms will see whether Graham, who didn’t raise the issue of trump’s obscenity during the campaigns, survives them. Engage, America. We have a system of checks and balances, we need to use it. A Blue Congress can stop much of the damage trump is doing, here and abroad. Censure by the people can help with the rest.
9
There is only one solution to all of this: civil disobedience. As in the 60’s & 70’s you MUST take to the streets and DEMONSTRATE. All day & every day. In every city and state across the country. The boomers need to get out of their homes and TAKE TO THE STREETS!! If you want your country back, demonstrate!! SHOW YOUR COUNTRY AND THE WORLD WHERE YOU STAND!!
2
A small, sad part about all of this is that it is now acceptable to print vulgar words in the New York Times. Every standard we had as a country and a people prior to January 20, 2017 has been defiled, degraded and destroyed. For no apparent purpose or greater good.
3
"what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul" JC
Poor Lindsey, I hope he repents and starts regaining whats left of his soul by standing up to the mad tyrant Trump. And that goes for the whole suck-up GOP. I'm not holding my breath.
3
The Bigly advantage to all this sucking-up is November when we have an opportunity to change the Republican congress.
4
Our people say that it's a good thing for the wind to blow sometimes, so as to remind us that the chicken does indeed have buttocks. Without this madman POTUS, we would probably have forgotten what the Republicans are all about.
2
Who really cares what Uber hawk Lindsey Graham says or does, his positions on continual wars in the Middle East already put him into the category of something you would look at and scrape off the bottom of your shoe, ditto Haley.
5
Is it the taunts, the school yard bully tactics, or the tweets that Graham and the GOP old guard fear? Or is it the loss of status and privilege? Regardless, they have abandoned principle, lost their pride and sense of shame. Scott Adams captured their condition best with his strap-on porta-spine cartoon. We're confusing the GOP for people with spines.
5
Every Republican in congress … Graham included … treasures control of all three branches of Government above anything else. Honor … law … ethics … basic values ...the Constitution … all pale in comparison to the power their control brings them. Sadly, it's that simplel
5
Once you've sold your soul to the devil you can never get it back.
5
Trump and Graham. Takes one to know one.
Lindsey was already soiled a long time ago. He soiled himself.
4
Say what you will about him, but Trump has found the key noun to characterize his presidency, the people he hires (with a "ty" added), and those in Congress who lie for him (with a "head" appended). No surprise that it is vulgar.
3
To be arrogantly spouted with snooty nose in air while rolling eyes and stroking chin for effect –much like that pompous ass,the late William F Buckley...
"Huruumphh..Hurummpph,, yes, yes, this Trump fellow, terribly unrefined and coarse you know. He's not a man of letters, not a Harvard or a Yale man with a proper civil temperament for conservative leadership. Mr. Trump has that A type personality, has to win at all costs, so he will be unable to regularly compromise and accommodate the Democrats largess legislation like Robert Dole,John Boenher, John McCain, or Pat Ryan. Nor is he intellectually brilliant and a member of the Bar like Juris Doctor Senator Ted Cruz you know; just a mere business man, a hustler who wheels and deals globally for profit. And Mr. Trump is new money you know, not old family wealth like the Bushes. Yes, Mr. Trump is not the sort of chap we should have to the club for cigars and brandy with Karl Rove and our colleagues who share our world view on how to properly guide and govern the great unwashed deplorables as Hillary has defined them. Hear! Hear!
1
I won't be surprised to see Senators Cotton and Purdue and Secretary Nielsen to focus the next round of statements on whether it's chicken, horse or bull...
4
I'm pleased to see Lindsey Graham get called out so effectively; he's earned it. But the rot spreads so much further--let's not forget that. We've seen Orin Hatch cap off his long career by praising Trump to the skies while on the White House lawn celebrating the tax scam bill. Mike Pence, America's self-professed #1 Christian, can't sing Trump's praises loudly or long enough--won't that be an interesting reckoning on Judgement Day? The entire evangelical community has devoted its holier-than-thou stance to propping up Trump. A few months ago NYT columnist David Brooks sneaked senator Tom Cotton's name in on a list he had compiled of "honorable men" at work in Washington--wonder if Brooks has had any second thoughts about that after watching Cotton cover up the "shithole" ugliness. Thank goodness some writers for the NYT are willing to help build the record of just how slimey Trump and his enablers really are--future historians will value this record as they try to figure out just what in the hell happened to a nation that had once been a shining beacon.
7
As Sarah Kendzior wrote before the 2016 election: "Your loyalty to Trump won't be rewarded. I study authoritarian states. I know how this works. Maybe he's blackmailing you. Maybe he's bribing you. Either way, his word is no good. Trump is going to screw you over like he screws everyone else over. He will humiliate you and you will have sacrificed yourself for nothing."
9
Thank you thank you for finally making public the hypocritical base calculations that Graham and all his colleagues have been using in playing politics with the national conscience. The White House is trying to gaslight the public and Congress. It is frightening how both our democrat leaders as well as the republicans including Flake and Cornyn keep getting sucked in only to be humiliated. All of them have lost their credibility and integrity. This is Trump's M.O. Wake up. Stand up and fight for the good, the just, the merciful.
6
Let's all quit focusing on the utterances of a gold plated jackass and focus on destroying the Republican party in 2018.
9
It was understandable, but naive, to think that Lindsey Graham or any of his Republican cronies were going to somehow save us from the insanity of Donald Trump as president. All their disparaging tweets and distancing of themselves from Trump during the nominating campaign were nothing more than the move they thought was the right one at that moment in time. As soon as he got his crown it was time to kneel before the king. Dilly, dilly!
Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting a first class tour of the Pit of Misery.
5
A Thurmond in Thurmond's clothing. As an 8th generation South Carolinian, although I'm in exile from my native state, I had hoped Graham might be better than Strom Thurmond. This is a low bar. Unfortunately, he isn't.
6
What's new here? Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
3
I see ao many comments echoing the vile and reprehensible behavior of Republicans in general and Trump in particular.
So, what are you going to do about it? The electorate keeps sending the same abominable people to their local state and national governments, or stays home on election day, failing to even cast a mail ballot, and then we expect different results? Then we are appalled at OUR atrocious representation?
Act. Act now. Keep acting. Be the change you want.
7
This is the type of representation you get when you are the only modern democracy that discourages voting. Short time to vote, work day in the middle of the week, and in winter. If Election Day were a summer holiday, these old white men would have term limits - by the American electorate.
5
When life gives you lemons...
I did feel grateful that Graham spoke up. Sure, he enables Trump as much as the rest of the Republicans. But at least this time, his remarks weren't about what's wrong with the dumb bigot in chief, like Corker and Flake's denouncements were.
This time it was a reminder of America and her aspirations. You know, about what actually matters?
It's a sad time when we must settle for crumbs in our policies and discourse, but such is our present.
1
The republican party has gone so far down the rabbit hole that there is simply no way back. The last poll I saw had trump with over 80% approval rating from republican voters. Many of these voters are rabid supporters. Nothing trump does will change that fact.
Witness what happened to Steve Bannon. One day he is the darling of the far right "populists", and the next he is anathema. For a republican politician, being seen as an enemy of trump is a career ender. The only republican members of Congress who can afford to oppose trump are those who have decided not to run for re-election--and republican incumbents are dropping like flies.
The party owns trump now (and vise versa), and there is nothing they can do about it.
4
Dear republicans, rest assured that we smell you loud and clear.
5
Yes!...there is a lesson for all of us...keep it in mind.
3
It's time to admit to the obvious: Graham is a toadie. Period.
1
The thing that bothers me the most is all the lying among politicians. They don't even try to cover it up anymore. Apparently Trump made it fashionable.
3
You'd think that by now, he - and others - would realize that flattery will only go so far and this maniac pres. could turn it around in a second. He himself equates flattery with having a good relationship but only as long as it serves him in a speech or in his mind. One would think Graham would have a better grasp on reality - being you cannot predict the behavior, mood swing, or impulses of someone with no frontal lobe "executive function."
2
Donald Trump has this super power: he is able to sense who will be willing to go the extra mile for him, yet put up with the ritual humiliation that inevitably follows. We've seen this from the very beginning, and Lindsey Graham's journey from whatever he was in his previous incarnation - a conservative with whom I disagreed for the most part but who could be counted on to occasionally make sense - to what he is now is a minor variation on the theme.
2
Mr. Graham is not the really story here.
The real story is Senator Cotton.
Here is a man who honorably served his country in the Army, graduated from Harvard Law, and was rising star in the GOP. Neverthless, blinded by ambition and desire to serve as Sec. of State, Cotton stupidly attempted to cover up Trump's "s" hole comments.
First, Trump makes the comment. Now, anybody who has somewhat followed Trump knows he makes these horrible racist comments. He does it publicly and privately. He has doen so all his life. We are shocked and ashamed every time it happens but we are not surprised. There is patttern.
Senator Durbin blows the whistle.
Cotton is pressured by Trump to lie and cover for him.
What does Cotton do? This is the amazing part. Cotton says "I don't recall that language being used."
Sorry, when any POTUS says something this gross, it gets your attention and you don't forget it.
But it gets better.
Cotton says, "Durbin is the real liar here."
Keep in mind, Trump has told 2000 documented lies or half-truths in less than a year as President. He isn't a liar, he is "the liar." But Cotton flips the script.
But it gets better.
Senator Graham later confirms exactly what Durbin said.
Game -set - match. Cotton is spineless, lying, power-crazed goofball lackey for Trump.
So sad! How do you live with yourself? Not only that - knowing you look like a complete idiot for lying so poorly.
Graham? yeah, he looks bad but it is nothing compared to Cotton.
25
Trump is a psychopath. Why won't anybody just come out and say it? Oh he's not cognitively impaired, quite the contrary, he's quite intelligent. He's also a psychopath, which simply means he has no feelings whatsoever for anyone other than himself.
That's why he has no problems with ruining the lives of 800,000 people or letting others rot away in a Guantanamo prison for the rest of their lives for no good reason.Don't argue with me.
To simplify it for you just go back through his history and make a note of how he's treated people. I'll save you the trouble. He's treated them, all of them, with utter and complete contempt and disrespect.
God help you fools who trust and believe him.
7
Did you, perhaps, mean sociopath?
1
In the first place, the message has been clear for months. In the second--so what good, precisely, does yelling this in the President's general direction do?
1
The lying spineless senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue are a national disgrace.These disgusting, cynical, Trump sycophants, have no place in the U.S. senate.
8
You are only now getting that Graham has no character. Where have you been?
3
Trump is nothing short of a white, puffy, nasty tar baby. Once you touch him, much less embrace him, you cannot get the tar off of you. The irony of this image, given its racist Br'er Rabbit roots should be noted.
What would the white equivalent of black tar be? Marshmellow whip?
3
Wow. We have a crumbly Graham cracker. a Purdue Roaster, and a Cotton Boll. Do these Senators have to live down to their names? Will we elect a Pooper scooper?
We already have a 4 No Trump, and a 2 Pence. Where is Charles Dickens when we need him? Shout Scrooge. B
2
Lindsay is soiled as he should be. Every republican has the stink of trump on them.
2
He's one of my Senators. I send him advice, but he doesn't listen and only responds with a form email. Now he looks like one of those Germans who thought they could control Hitler. We'd be better served if he teed-off with Jeff Flake.
4
Here 1 path to redemption for Graham:
Rally Congress to impeach Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, for lying to Congress
4
If these people continue to go to Congress and lie under oath with no consequences (or not even a bona fide attempt to investigate the false statements), then why bother with the ruse of swearing them in. Just allow them to say what they want unrestrained and unrestricted or they will simply undermine the integrity of the oath and the sanctity of the swearing in and the whole process for generations to come.
1
Graham seems to be in denial about himself
3
You either have integrity, or you don't.
2
Still, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King: Graham looks like a relative profile in courage compared to the possibly treasonous, apologist Cotton...
2
Dear Frank,
Great oped.
Good to read your opinion implying that The Don has lowered the bar to a level where direct language is reported.
Bravo!
Trump has the words of a New Yorker who is trying to be cool by association.
If you want to know a city and your voters check out a bar/pub around 5.30 am.
The Don may not avoid vulgarity when he exits his gilt cage.
The language of a railroad worker working on the docks after a long shift along with cops and wharfies made in a pub at 6am is not part of The Don's lexicon of the reality of the Big City.
Skull the last beer, enjoy a great breakfast and get the train home and sleep.
Have lunch with the family, talk to the kids and kiss the wife and an early tea then back to work.
The Don is a try hard and vulgar language does not wash with the working class.
The pub also received the earliest editions of the city morning papers which were read and discussed with due vulgarity expressed about politicians.
No ladies present.
Some men chose to leave their "Don", priests, teachers, seafarers and bank managers to work on the wharves and railways.
Many Republicans lack the integrity to confront The Don fearing losing their seat in Congress and their "dignity".
I note that your oped uses the term "manure".
May I use the words: supine, effete and overtly obsequious.
Perhaps "The Choir Boys" novel by J Wambaugh reflects an inept Congress.
Trust CIA and FBI, yes; trust The Don and Congress, no way.
1
This is not your best article.
The language Mr.. Bruni employs reminds me our a joke my mother told in the 1950s. it goes something like this.
Reporter: Mrs Truman, can't you get the President to stop using the word, "manure?"
Bees Truman: Do you know how many years it's taken me to get him to say that?
1
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I ha' lost my reputation, I ha' lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial!
William Shakespeare
1
Each day I open the NYT - in the last 2 years - I am soiled with demented, exaggerated anti-Trump hatred emanating from all the first page articles. I feel polluted and soiled by this newspaper each time I glance at the home page and after 20 years of being a faithful reader, I can no longer read it, even for free.
Graham is your basic garden variety politician who has planted himself in manure enriched filth.
1
What this GOP has done, is doing, and wants to do to this country, and it's people, is nothing short of treason, and should be dealt with accordingly.
An idiot can see where this is going. For one year now, we have watched the systematic destruction of the fabric of our society.
Hold on ! We have 3 more years of this lunacy, only if we vote this degenerate out. If we give this loathxome beast another term, we deserve what we get.
1
Graham is not a stupid person. He gambled that he could cozy up to a sociopath and not get any of the excrement on his shoes when it hit the fan. The real question is : Will Graham learn his lesson or will he clean off his shoes and cozy up again to Trump? Here's my advice for Graham: If you can't recognize that you are gambling with your soul every time you play Trump's game, you will come away a loser. So you either have to go along with everything Trump says and does, or you have to toss your cards in and walk away. Either way you are sacrificing something. It will always be a lose-lose proposition with Trump. The question really comes down to: How much of your soul are you willing to gamble? Because Trump wants your entire soul. So remember: You have to get up every day and look at yourself in the mirror. Are you going to like what you see?
4
It is the fawning synchophants who deserve our most profound disgust.
1
It's as simple as this: If you lie down with pigs, you get dirty. Congress has a lot of members who have dirtied their reputations and that kind of dirt never washes off.
2
There’s a criminal in the Oval Office ... cozy up to that.
1
"There’s no honor or wisdom in cozying up to Donald Trump — just a heap of manure."
Should be a banner over the entrances to both chambers of Congress...
1
To Donald Trump you are either Donald Trump or you are dirt.
1
Just to be clear - Trump did not soil Graham. Graham soiled himself.
We went from eight years of Obama to this. This snake pit.
3
The leader of the GOP is an unstable, misogynistic, racist who defends the KKK and accused pedophiles. In other words, the GOP is an unstable, misogynistic, racist who defends the KKK and accused pedophiles. Voters should be reminded of this.
1
'marvel at his putts'? Ugh, no thanks. That's vile imagery.
2
Only a fool dances with the devil and expects a waltz.
8
Trump is a racist ? Of course he is, if you've been paying attention at all for the past 18 months or so you already knew that, right ?
4
Senator Graham and other moderate Republican Senators have a few key problems:
-A significant number of their constituents agree wholeheartedly with everything Trump says and does. Any disparagement of Trump for any of his myriad bigoted, racist statements and tweets will count against them next election cycle.
-Regardless of his racist statements and tweets, over the past year Trump has pushed to move forward the Republican agenda. Tax policy favoring the rich over the needy; elimination of Obamacare in any way, shape or form; and restriction of immigration to prevent lower income immigrants from taking jobs away from the Republican base, all are actions Trump has taken which align with current Republican beliefs. It does not make sense to disparage a President who is making gains on all points of the Republican agenda - especially a President who holds loyalty to the President highest among any attributes anyone else can have.
Senator Graham and his moderate friends in the Senate are caught between a rock and a hard place.
2
Graham is not and never was a moderate, neither was McCain.
They both voted against the ACA which provided health care coverage for those who ordinarily could not afford it. Their happy to let people die for lack of medical care which makes them and all the other republicans in political office accessories to murder.
1
Ever since this president absconded with the Republican party, there has been more flip-flopping among Republican Senators than the law allows.
This is not to deny there have been moments when a few of them showed some spark of integrity in opposing some of the more outrageous things Donald Trump has said or done, but on the whole, they all end up caving in and running back into the fold.
Lindsay Graham is no exception. Even though he recently stuck his neck out to confirm one of the more vile things to come out of Mr. Trump's mouth concerning immigrants from Africa and Haiti.
But there's still little doubt that like those who at one time or another also publicly criticized this president, be it Senator McCain, Senator Corker or Senator Flake, his moment of truth will fade as Trump continues to drive this country in its downward trajectory with his next barrage of perfidious remarks. SAD.
1
At least you can say that Donald Trumps's evil is "pure" unlike Lindsey Graham's whose character shifts depending on which way the wind blows. Likely why our "Dear Leader" still has a "whopping" 31% approval rating while Congress is in the single digits just a few points higher than the Taliban.
2
NY Times, why don't you put full-page ad to ask each high-rank Republican congress asking their inconsistent pledges to Trump and the rule of law until they answer? Do you need billionaires to buy those pages? Or can you put that by yourself?
Graham is thinking he can run in 2020. Requirements: 1. Don't alienate the base 25 percent who would stay with Trump even if he "shot someone on Fifth Avenue." 2. Give appalled Republican moderates a view of himself as sage and sensible.
I call it Trumpholm syndrome. Then again, it might be something else. I think he serves Kool-aid at the White House because plenty of people have been drinking it. SAD.
1
The GOP sold its soul. Country be dammed. That's all.
3
Your column, Mr. Bruni, and the voice the NYT gives to The People, is the reason I continue my subscription. Keep it coming. We Shall Overcome!
3
The relationship between Trump and his party is some sort of bizarre variation of Stockholm Syndrome or just plain old co-dependency. The words from Brokeback Mountain keep playing in my head: "I can't quit you."
For the life of me I do not know what anyone sees in Trump as a friend or companion. He seems like a colossal boor and bore. Are there really people who enjoy being around someone who appears to have no sense of humor, no interests other than golf and eating and when he's not bragging is battling? Even the hookers and porn stars didn't even hold out for a lot of money. Sorry - a night with Trump should be worth a lot more than $130K! Can I just say eeewwww!?
As for his deal making? Give me a break. A history of fraud and abuse and these idiots in Congress fell for it. Pathetic.
10
The SS Trumptanic will take the entire Republican Party, especially Republicans in Congress down with it. There is no honor in supporting a lying racist wannabe dictator. There is no honor in propping up an obviously corrupt leader. There is no honor in propping up a demonstrably unfit occupant of the Oval Office.
They may mollify Trump's angry white racist base for a while. They may mollify the greedy billionaires that fund their campaigns. But we, the people, are on to them, and we will make it clear in November....if we are allowed to vote.
3
How long will it take these wannabes to realize that Trump wants to 'dirty' everyone?
2
Those complicit Republicans deserve each other and Trump; but the rest of America deserves better. Counting down until '20!
3
He's a "gracious golfer" as long as you let him take "gimme" puts from up to 15 feet.
1
Bravo Frank Bruno for this terrific op ed. Every word rings true and provides needed humor to your readers.
2
Yes yes yes. But they’re all still rallying around this 239 lb. crazy man. The Pentagon is set to put forth a new nuclear agenda, so Trump can blow anybody up at anytime (I’m prone to hyperbole these days). Trump has got us all wrapped around his pinkie. We, the resisters, what are we going to do? Wait till November? Meanwhile, everyone who’s not white and male is under attack (except Mueller), the environment is under attack, and it’s clear that we are being held captive by a 24-hour news cycle of all Trump, nothing but Trump. We’re his imprisoned viewers on his reality show.
We MUST move beyond him. He is every bit as dangerous as Hitler, because of the many who continue to support him, both in and out of government.
And we too must stop staring at him in disbelief with our mouths hanging open. We have get to work to stop not just him, but the whole complex of Trump Republicans. They’re a very dangerous lot. They’ve lost sight of what America is. Or perhaps, are bringing to the surface what’s been there all along, but it now needs to be eradicated. It’s just plain anti-American to deny immigrants. Anyone who’s with Trump is against this country and its true moral values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For everyone.
2
Elect a reality show actor to the highest office in the land and that’s what you will get. Anyone with a brain knew all of his promises were worthless. To assume otherwise makes you the fool and that is what is happening to the Republican Party.
4
The GOP has tied itself into knots in their efforts to deflect, deny, and explain their leader. Meanwhile they are complicit in defiling our nation. Putting lipstick on this pig won't make him less of a pig.
7
It's amazing how Southern Republican males can become charming Republican pussycats and Swamp toadies when it suits them. Part of Southern culture, no doubt.
1
The bottom line is that Trump is a psychopath. He has no conscience. Thus he is loyal to no one and could care less about who he hurts. It’s impossible to bargain with the Devil. People like Graham will go down in history as corrupt and stupid when they could be heroes. Many of our “leaders” here and abroad are facing their worst fears materializing in the faces of Trump, Putin, Kim Jong Un and Duterte. This is one of those incredible moments in time that will make a person a great hero or crush them.
5
They're floundering but it's all motivated by greed. Every moment they have to ask themselves: Should I be a toady now or will I look better as a phony proponent of ideals? They derided flop-flopping but now they're doing it at high speed. Hypocrites and sycophants, all of them.
4
In recent pictures it seems Bob Corker has also become a close buddy of the Chief Pathological Liar. Whats up with these hypocrites? Who is buying them off?
4
I do not believe the physician who lead the team that examined Mr. t. I have to many people I know who are quite certain he is insane. But then so was Hitler. I have no idea how we will exit from the game t is playing. I am uncertain whether my grandchildren will have anything like the kind of life I would wish for them. We are near a breaking point or cusp. I fear for us all.
1
A life lesson that I learned in elementary school was that you can't placate a bully. You might get a temporary reprieve, but that's all that it is: temporary.
Standing up to a bully might get you a bloody nose or broken glasses, but it will often stop him from continually bullying you and you will feel better about yourself.
Trump is a bully and a coward. He is not going to change. Everybody needs to realize this.
4
Over here in Europe, everyone thinks mr. genius and his followers are goons. They are right.
4
i am continually amazed by the ongoing spectacle of Republicans taking a flyer on Trump in the hope of getting something from him. No one who has worked with him in New York at any time in the last thirty years would make that mistake. Disheartening but unsurprising, given the history of their party over the last 50 years, to watch the Republican party leadership follow the rat aboard the sinking ship, all the while praising the stench coming from the hold.
3
From this side of the Atlantic one is left wondering how these Quisling enablers live with the stench that comes from wallowing in Trump’s cesspool of lies and corruption. Are they able to wash off the slime of their mendacious rhetoric, or have they simply become immune to the stink. Take care America. Your reputation for decency is at risk. The civilised world is beginning to doubt your honesty.
5
Many Republicans in Congress consider Trump to be a useful idiot. They will ride the Trump bus while they push forward their agenda of tax cuts for the rich, entitlement cuts for the poor and in enormous amounts of defense spending. They will cut him loose when he no longer serves their purpose.
3
Doctor Declares Trump’s Health Excellent, With Perfect Score on Cognitive Test --- NY Times, 1/16/18
So there was this world famous medical clinic in Switzerland .....
And one day the top doctor in the place called three of his patients into his
office for a meeting.
One was an Englishman, one was French and the other was Jewish.
And the doctor said: "I have bad news and good news for all of you."
"The bad news is I have evaluated your cases thoroughly and unfortunately there is nothing more I can do to help you. All of you will die within a month."
"The good news is that I am granting each of you one wish to choose anything you desire."
Hearing this, the Englishman immediately began to describe a month-long series
of elaborate dinners that he wished to have prepared for him by the most famous chefs in Europe.
Not to be outdone, the Frenchman asked that the ten most beautiful women
in Europe be brought to the clinic so that he might be suitably entertained by
them in the last month of his life.
Finally, the doctor turned to his Jewish patient and asked, "And what sir, may I
do for you?
To which the Jewish man replied, "Well to tell you the truth, I'd like to
see another doctor."
3
I love it. You got it right. I want to know where "they" got the cognitive test? Donald Trump is the only aging senior I know who grew an inch in height. Most seniors shrink. Maybe they measured his nose. It sure is growing.
1
In the end the GOP will be destroyed. Every cloud has a silver lining. They are beyond despicable.
3
Mr. Bruni, kudos to you for telling it like it is. What a disgraced and degraded bunch of sycophants in the GOP - they know better than this, but they will sink to the level of kissing up to Trump just to hang on to their power. And look where it is getting us: a cabinet that tears down their own departments, an increased chance of nuclear war, opening up our coastal waters to oil, and frankly I can't think of anything good that is happening right now.
Trump has soiled the Republican party and the nation because nearly 63 million Americans did not care that he is a liar, a sexual predator, and a racist. Now Perdue and Cotton are lying for him. The woman from homeland security is lying under oath for him.
We the People need to call a halt to this nonsense in November. Throw ALL the Republicans out. Give control of Congress to the Democrats to put a check on Trump and his enablers.
The United States is US. We get the leaders, the government, and the country we deserve.
2
So now Frank, you demean yourself and this paper by not only repeating Trump's vulgarity, but by using an obscenity as a rhetorical device. You are better than this. NY Times is better than this. America is better than this. Please, let's not March with Trump down this hole.
I guess a clear sign that we are living in the trumpian age is that a NYT columnist can use the s-word multiple times, and it feels kinda normal.
Graham is soiled all right, but what about Perdue and Cotton? They have sunk so low there are no polite words to describe their situation. Using the Trump word they claim not to have heard would best describe their present location.
6
He that touches pitch shall be defiled.
4
It's an old line: when you lie down with dogs you wind up with fleas . SAD!
3
Lindsay Graham was not soiled by Trump, he's always been a complete phony.
You never lose money by betting on Lindsay Graham to do the wrong thing.
5
Always be kind to those you meet on the way up, because those are the same people you meet on the way down
1
I admire Cory Booker in the way he stood up against the DHS Secretary yesterday.
He clearly identified: "The moral weakness of those in power". It was Albert Speer in his "Spandau Diaries" who used those words when admitting his own role.("Speer in Spandau", Meulenhoff 15 Jan 2018, translations by undersigned):
“When, during the court* interrogations, I testified that I was not aware of the murdering of the Jews, that is thus correct, but then only formally. This question and my answer to it were the most difficult moment during the many hours behind the witness stand. It was not fear but the sense of shame that I only knew too well and yet had not reacted. Shame for the cowardice silence at the table, for the moral weakness of so much repression of the reality” (*Nurnberg Trials)
“Would the European myth about Napoleon and the resulting worship of the great man have contributed to the inclination of capitulation by the European citizenry (ánd the workers who worshiped their Marx and Engels and Lenin) who put themselves at the mercy of phenomena like Mussolini and Hitler? We were all fascinated by important historic personalities, and even though a person was not somebody like that at all, but only handily knew to present himself like that, we all crawled in the dust. This was similarly the case with Hitler. I believe that part of his success was based on the brutality with which he pretended to be a great man.”
"Speer" is an urgent "must read" for politicians.
To be a Republican in 2018 is to be amoral, sycophantic, and spineless.
Hillary was right - her supporters are deplorable.
1
Somebody ask Lindsey Graham how the emporer's new suit is coming along.
3
Soiled is not the word for Graham. He has joined Agent Orange in the void that is devoid of words and living things.
3
All true, Frank, but guess what? He'll be re-elected in a landslide.
2
Being a Republican is a choice, It appears that Trump and his sycophantic bullies have made it crystal clear that acceptance of every abusive, cruel word and act from this administration is the cost of membership in this sordid club.
Almost every Republican member of congress who has chosen to question the most outrageous, racist, and stupid Trump utterances have made tepid statements and then backed down. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker may be exceptions, but they have relinquished their political careers. I keep remembering my state's senator, the late James Jeffords, who left the Republican party because he actually had core beliefs that he couldn't square with the party's actions.
It is clear that there is absolutely no line that Trump can cross that will create real resistance among the amoral cowards in Congress.
2
Thank you Mr. Bruni for your superb ability to articulate so precisely what those of us that are not nearly as gifted strive and struggle to put into words.
2
Well said, sir!!
1
I would like for Lindsey Graham to make up his mind. Lindsey, are you for him or against him? Have some integrity and honesty. Graham's nose goes from brown to red. I am so tired of these Republicans (Ryan, Graham and Cocker) who one minute are saying that Trump has no morals and then the next minute kissing his you know what. Are there no honest politicians? I think I have become delusional just asking that question.
2
Graham could care less about immigrants or anybody for that matter,except those who bankroll his 30+ useless gig as congressman.
He was angling for Rex Tillerson gig.
Too bad he didn't learned from Mitt Romney humiliating experience.
2
This article is why pawns like Lindsey Graham should stop carrying water for the Democrats. You trumpeted McCain when he was going to be a Democrat. Let any actual Conservative idea be advanced by a Republican and they will get condemned by you. The President should require full funding of the wall; end chain migration and reduce visas. Even if you got everything you wanted on DACA you would simply attack him the next day and call him a racist.
One can pass a cognitive test and annual health exam and still be a loathsome, narcissistic, incurious human being.
4
Trump soils everyone he touches as well as those who dare to align with him - Bannon, Flynn, Priebus, Mooch, Lewandowski, Hicks, Ivana, Kushner, Ivanka, Graham, McCain, Maples etc. A path of scorched earth lies in his wake. The list will continue to expand. Fly in his orbit and the end result is a crash. Economic and foreign policies aside - some are good, some are bad - Trump is a toxic person and represents a dark chapter in American history.
4
One wonders about John Kelly's role in this crime against our democracy!
2
So Trump's doctor says he's a few pounds short of obese but cognitively sound. I guess that confirms what we all knew. He's not crazy, he's just a jerk. And his enablers need to pay the same price he will. We still have voting rights, at least for the present.
4
Remember when an adult would try to motivate ambition and put a dream in a child's eye when he'd say .....you could grow up to be the president!
My God.....feel free to x out that phrase from our cultural dialogue. Seems kinda hollow, doesn't it?
Steve C
2
Just look at that face. is that the face of a man at peace with himself and his place in the world? looks to me like he would rather be anywhere than at the WH.
2
Good leaders are creating a positive working climate so that you contribute positively to the success of the organisation. Bad leaders are driving their subordinates to bad feelings, like insecurity, despair, or even depression. This is what president Trump does with his collaborators, he drives them crazy, he denigrates them to a point where they are not able to serve him anymore, forcing them to quit. Trump is a looser.
1
I live in South Carolina. Lindsey Graham is, using an impolite term, a snake. Then we have Tim Scott, a sycophant, and Mark Sandford. And former governor Nikki Haley now spewing Trumpisms At the world. How could we be so fortunate?
4
Sorry Bruni, this is not news. Trump's behavior is well known to the intellectually honest. It's a serious case of hubris and folly for anyone to think they can tame this beast.
2
Ironically, the dishonorable gentleman may have accomplished more with immigration policy had he shown a mere ounce of respect to Barack Obama. You know that president who was LEGITIMATELY elected and re-elected with landslides. I could almost pity Graham and is obsequious serville colleagues if they weren't such pathetic passive actors to a metastasizing national calamity. As of now the word complicit will likely appear in the first paragraph of Graham's obituary in twenty years.
4
Donald Trump's EXCELLENT physical condition is because he has no conscience. He may not sleep many hours a night, but he sleeps well. Is it the sleep of the innocent or of a sociopath?
2
Graham has been a Senator from the Great State of South Carolina since 2003, a state with a huge Black population that could easily unseat this unprincipled man of waffling conviction, this tool of the Americans for Prosperity racists. Is he still in office due to voter apathy or might it be gerrymandering and statewide voter suppression? May his days in office be numbered!
2
If Nikki Haley runs against Lindsey Graham in SC for his next term, Lindsey will pop up as burnt toast. Very burnt toast.
What's so mind bending is not Donald, anyone with a whit a intelligence knew he was poison from the get go, no, what's mind bending is how deep the GOP has allowed itself to sink in the churning cesspool that is Trumpism. I've followed politics for a long time and I haven't seen anything more rancorous what is going on now. Donald promised to drain the swamp. Not. He's just cruising through on one of those fan boats, throwing chum into the water. Folks like Lindsey Graham, in and out of the WH think they can manage the Don. Ha. They might as well have elected Hannibal Lector for all the control they have over him. A year in and they have a tax bill that is less likely to survive than Obamacare, and they still don't get it.
2
But Mr. Trump did ask a fruitful question as well : “Why don’t Norwegians come here “? Could it be because they have full health insurance, world-class schools, a civilizing culture, the highest standard of living in the world ? Don’t be surprised if before this is over the Norwegians consider immigration laws to keep Americans out, at the least to protect their culture from the influence of Trumpism and its many ills.
2
If only Graham had succeeded when he served on the team that prosecuted the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He rose to greater prominence, but Clinton managed to survive, with no Democrats voting guilty on any count. We all took another step in defining deviancy downward. We laid out the conditions that led to Trump. Trump is a classless boor. But are his vulgarities new? Are his smokescreens a recent novelty? We didn't used to share the language used in meetings, but we know that presidents have foul mouths. LBJ, Nixon, and Obama have been documented using foul language. Bill Clinton not only abused women while in office, he crassly celebrated the Jones dismissal by beating a drum and smoking a cigar. More troubling, presidents have used their office to deceive us about success in Vietnam, arms for hostages, keeping your doctor, not negotiating with the confederacy, not preparing to invade Cuba, or not sending american boys into foreign wars, bombing Cambodia. We forgive the lies that seem to protect the national interest. Fair enough. But we forgive liars solely for partisan reasons, even defending them strenuously, without principle, and solely for expedience. Trump is not a spontaneous mutation. He is the product of political devolution. He is a boor and that makes him easy to attack. But we have been soiled and sullied for years, just by a better class of liar and abuser. Sadly, Trump is shielded from principle because we have not been principled.
Graham has always seemed like a slimy opportunist snake to me, so nothing two faced about him surprises me. What does surprise me is how unprincipled all the Republican's are in both house, who care more about their party than their country. I'm 73. The Republican party used to at least be respectable, honorable, believable, and patriotic. Along the way they lost their mind's and now their credibility. It breaks my heart more than anything to see them being so heartless, cruel and slimed by a ............(you fill in the blank)
Get religion out of politics. It is poisoning us all.
2
Dealing with trump is like dealing with the God Father or the Devil. You might get what you want now however you will definitely give up your moral soul in the future.
2
I was just trying to think of anyone who has come into contact with That Man who has not been soiled by the encounter. So far no luck. Remember the old saying about lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas? It still applies if you change it to lying FOR the dog . . .
Something else you have given me to meditate upon: is house a better and more acceptable suffix than hole? And does it matter, given the prefatory word?
1
At least Graham shows some hint of self-awareness, and he demonstrated during that meeting that there was some line he could not cross with Trump.
The scary one is Cotton who stares blankly into the camera and lies like he's in some kind of trance.
3
I believe that Graham is painfully aware of how pathetic he appears and how much he's sold out. I assume there's some kind of blackmail going on. Senator Graham, what's the worst that can happen now? We already think poorly of you. Just stand up for what you honestly believe, and take the consequences.
3
The behavior of Graham is like that of his congressional peers: gross. What a sickening flood of hypocrisy we're treated to daily. Graham's behavior here is no different than Booker's interrogation of DHS's Nielsen. His "tears of rage" were conspicuously absent during Booker's Newark tenure. Newark is no gem, so it's hard to overlook the glaring, theatrical hypocrisy. But this is just par for the course nowadays.
We should have 1-term congressional offices, slightly longer than at present. That way the members would be less likely to have themselves and their glorious futures always at the center of their decision-making.
Will we vote them out?
Will we who resist rise up to vote?
Will a wave of resistance push the GOP out of office through the VOTE?
How many will not Vote?
Will we go door to door to turn out the vote?
Will we organize block by block to carry people to vote?
Will we begin right now to get the viable candidates to carry the great day of the VOTE?
Will people of color and cultures within the USA surge to take down Trump and the GOP through the vote?
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE VOTE!!
Will the NYT get out the vote? Will the Post get out the vote? Will Huff Press get out the vote?
Will the media get out the VOTE?
Will we monitor the polls? Will states use corruptable machine Voting?
Just be sure to vote and get all your friends to vote out the despots!
LET"S ALL VOTE!!
2
Graham has not been soiled by Trump. Rather the Trump phenomenon has allowed what was tacit or politically questionable emerge into the light of day. The significant underlying racism in some of American society was hushed but now can be nearly full-throated. The real Graham is approaching the megaphone.
2
Lie down with dogs, get fleas.
Great column Frank- the especially shocking and despicable element here is that Graham supposedly "knows better", from his various utterances that you quote. AND as a followup to everything you describe is Graham's attribution of Trump's behavior and language at that meeting as a result of "bad advice from the White House staff". The enabling and excusing apparently knows no bounds, and the ONLY thing that will produce any real movement towards sanity is the Republicans being clobbered in elections. I submit that in addition to loss of credibility, honesty, and decency, the "expertise" of those who prostrate themselves to Trump becomes highly suspect. Graham bills himself as knowledgable about foreign affairs and the military, yet behaves like this towards a dangerous, foolish, unstable would-be autocrat in the White House? Give me a break.
1
"Reckless folly" indeed. When you are playing in his sandbox, regardless of the rules, he will throw sand in your face when you are not looking.
The inconsistency of Graham's utterances all depends on how much liquor he has consumed.
1
DJT has the book on Graham. And it shows.
Graham and Durbin soiled the United States by announcing to the world what Trump did it didn’t say. Words allegedly spoken in a classified and public setting. Why don’t you ask these two why they “soiled” DACA snd why won’t they release to the public the amnesty bill that was presented to the president.
1
There is an old country saying: "If you lie down with dogs, you come up with fleas."
To be a Republican in 2018 is to be amoral, sycophantic, and spineless.
Hillary was right - Trump's supporters are deplorable.
4
They follow him because he will sign enough of their evil agenda items into law. The party of Lincoln hates women, immigrants, minorities, and even children. Plain and simple.
2
Graham: Today's Wednesday, a "Defend Trump day"; Fridays are "call him a kook day". Saturdays: "Chastise the press for calling him a kook day." Mondays: Talk about what a pleasure it is to work with him and how you want that Trump back; Tuesdays; use milquetoast language to kinda, sorta acknowledge Trump used vile language but don't actually say it outright and don't call your Republican colleagues what they are: LIARS....
I think Graham is pathetic, certainly no hero.
"... marvel at his putts." I am sure, Mr. Bruni, notwithstanding your ethnicity, that you are familiar with a little Yiddish. Well said - you hit Trump's needs right on the button.
1
llie down with dogs get fleas
I have heard a lot of people talking about Trump not being qualified to be president. He meets the definition in the constitution. He got elected. He did it for 1/4 of his term. The country has not imploded yet. I think, and this is only my simple opinion, that the media has harmed the national security of the country by making our president look like a crazy man. Of course Trump is no Obama. He is not a Clinton. He is not a Bush even. But he is who is elected. We need to try to stand united. I think this exact thing was starting to happen when George W was in office, then 9-11 happened and the country united. Lets hope we do not come together over a national tragedy. We have always complained about our Presidents. Look at Nixon. We will get through this one. Lets not make ourselves look like idiots in the process.
Your rationale is disturbing. Trump owns his craziness, his slurs, his grabbing, his blustering, his ignorance, his narcissism, his vanity, his temper, and all the bad karma that swirls around him like a tornado and which makes him so unsuitable to lead this country. Stop blaming others for your guy's egregious shortcomings.
Mr. Graham reminds me of the many mayors and civil servants who stayed in office during nazi-occupation in Holland: "to keep an eye on things & prevent worse" they said. Needless to remind you, that didn't work at all.
You have the " deplorables " and you have the enablers . It is difficult to say which one is worse .
1
On a related topic, I'd like to ask Sean Hannity now what he thinks of Trump's and his acolytes in the cabinet's ridicuous amount of time spent on golf courses. Even on MLK day. He was the tireless accuser of Obama spending too much time golfing.
Fake news is alive and thriving.
Fox News brainwashed enough Americans to take over the country, only Oprah can save us with an alternative "fake news".
Maybe republicans will now finally start to realize that to Trump they are all just expendable characters in his current reality show, not much different from the celebrities on the Apprentice. Trump is dumb, has no principles, and at the end of the day, even though he is driven by hatred and racism that is resulting in bad policy, he really has no policies either. He doesn’t really care about any of it. DACA, no DACA. A wall, no wall. I’m convinced he doesn’t really care. For him it is all about “the ratings” and whether in his narcissistic mind he has bested someone else. Anyone trying to have a rational policy conversation with him, is on a fools errand. It’s all just another TV game show to him.
There is only one word that sums up Graham, "Deplorable".
1
Palmetto Parasol Princess strolls on both sides of the trump fairway and takes a 2 stroke press penalty.
Bravo, Frank Bruni, your prose is brutiful and telling. A mix of brutal sarcasm and beautiful expose. A delight to read! Both exposing this charlatan, and then a morose retelling of his undoing, all for the sin of clinging closer to a demagogue.. Part mockery, part eulogy, part epitaph, for all who would partner with this cancer we know as: TRUMP. Touche!
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
When is the public going to wake up and realize a good percentage of politicians are out for their own interests, not the interests of their constituents or countrymen? Do most politicians start out with good intentions and become corrupted by their office? What is particularly disgusting is their fake morality. Most of the worse ones call themselves Christians. Yea, right!
10
So Trump only wants educated whites coming here. My ancestors fled a genocide from Turkey to come here. My paternal grandparents did not know what electricity was and had to the up the ceiling fan with rope because they did not know how to turn it off. My paternal grandmother never learned English. My maternal great grandmother was illiterate. Yet we their descendents became a judge, a teacher, a law firm partner, a World War Two hero, a female head of household.
10
The party of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower and senators Barry Goldwater and John McCain has been degraded and now nearly destroyed by Donald Trump and his elected enablers in the Senate and House. They are Republicans first and Americans second, who choose to hear no evil when it comes out of their vile leader in the Oval Office.
Pandering sycophants are damaging us more severely than declared enemies.
8
Lindsay Graham is an opportunist and traitor to the Republican Party. He ran as a Republican candidate for president and did not do well. He was one of the first to drop out of the race due to poor ratings. His nose is still out of joint for this embarrassing loss.
He is not to be trusted and anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. He would throw President Trump under the bus if given the chance. I would trust the words of Tom Cotton and David Perdue over Mr. Graham as they do not have an axe to grind. Maybe it is time for Mr. Graham to retire from politics. He seems more like a hindrance than a helper for the party.
I am sure President Trump is leery of Lindsay Graham and will be very careful now when in his company. He knows who is friends are and will rely on them for truth and guidance.
Cotton and Perdue may not have an axe to grind, per se, but I would guess they have ulterior motives, especially Cotton who hankers after a cabinet position or higher office. I think Trump has very few true friends....he uses people and spits them out.
1
Aside from Sen. Graham, the other sad story is Sen. Tom Cotton. Here is a man who went to Harvard Law School, joined the Army and refused a JAG assignment because he wanted to serve his country on the front lines. He jumped out of airplanes and got a Ranger Badge and a Bronze Star. He then became a congressman and now a Senator after one term in the House. So far, so good. However, he has somehow forgotten the several oaths he took to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Unlike his Commander-in-Chief (George Washington is turning over in his grave), he has read that document and understands the gravity of the oath. Nonetheless, he goes out on national television and flat out lies to protect what? Like Graham said, this country is an idea, not a person and certainly not Donald Trump. If he had any thought in his mind to run for higher office in the future, he has flushed that down the toilet of history to defend the indefensible and has soiled his service to our great country. Good luck Tom. You will surely need it when you open your own law office because nobody will hire a someone who has shamed his uniform.
12
RichF--Best way to judge Cotton is to watch his last "town hall.". He's a genuine weasel.
3
In the harsh light of hindsight, history will favor those who stuck to their morals and principles. Every Lindsay Graham who convinced themselves they could sell their soul to play the Trump card to their advantage will be remembered for what they are - disposable pawns.
3
Lindsey Graham may not be sycophant, and that's about the highest praise he deserves. The next step on that ladder is "enabler," and he has been that in spades...Bruce Springsteen's " dog that's been beat too much Till you spend half your life just covering up…"
2
Color me shocked that a Republican turns out to be a slimy, disgusting, dishonest, two-faced opportunist willing to relinquish whatever integrity and honesty they had left to genuflect at the teeny-tiny feet of their Dear Leader.
And we need to remember that Graham rose to prominence as a Congressman intent of protecting the dignity and majesty of the Oval Office by viciously - and now, apparently, hypocritically - going after Bill Clinton during those good ol' Impeachment Days.
6
Term limits for senators and congress people are a good idea - Lindsay has been in office now 15 years, obviously he is getting progressively dumber. I guess that comes with accepting bribes. Actions and statements which even just over a year ago would have appeared really stupid to him now he does reflexively, like complimenting his Don´s golf course. OK Frido.
The deal with the confidence man or person as its an occupation that knows no gender or race, is he or she is good at one thing - getting what he/she wants thru whatever means possible, thereby compromising you, the conee and then having you in his/her pocket. Look at anybody who has accepted a $20 bribe - they are done forever. Everybody knows this, some with more bitterness than others like the fools who accepted Bernie Madoff´s "guaranteed 10-12% returns". Like the fools who contracted with Trump casinos, golf courses, university and expected to get paid, to get a genuine education or at least genuine piece of paper. We have no reason to accept fools for Senators.
we have entered the era/universe of dimensionless distinctions
I hear everyone talking about Republicans, WH staff, now a cabinet secretary, lying for Donald Trump - no matter how many times we've seen people get burned by Trump. The pattern is that, it is clearly integrity, soul, and career suicide to cozy up to Donald Trump. What I don't hear but would like to is WHY. This is not the usual defense of a US president. This is cult-like, bizarre lying. I'd understand it is Trump were a charismatic, kind leader, maybe like Barack Obama. But he isn't. He's an odious person plagued by the lowest character we've seen in the WH, at least in modern times. How does such a despicable person get so many to lie prostrate before him, shed their integrity, and worst, their patriotism and the country itself? I don't get it, but I wish someone somewhere in the press would ask why and how this is achieved.
Now, where is all that rage over perjury we once saw from Republicans over Jeff Sessions and now the Sec't of Homeland Security after her pathetic and abysmal performance of Bad Perjury yesterday?
10
So we're shocked at Senator Graham's pliability re all things Trump? Could it be that Trump is clearly capable of outing the Senator re something more difficult to explain in the court of public opinion than simply changing a cellphone number?
When someone lives a lie they're vulnerable to the unprincipaled liars around them.
Whatever your political stripe, we had it made with Obama. While he was a liberal Senator from Illinois, he governed as a political moderate and was a class gentlemen, not to mention his family. There were good people in the Cabinet, too; Biden, Gates, Jewell.
8
Lindsey Graham is the poster boy for Republicans -- too little and too late.
4
Ask Dr. Ronny Jackson. He stood there and lied about the President's height and weight, saying Trump is 6'3" tall, meaning he grew at least an inch since 2012 from age 65 to 71, and that he's 239 pounds, just UNDER the BMI scale for "obese".
Both numbers are nonsense. I don't even believe he's 6'2" because standing next to President Obama (a REAL President), who is 6'1", Trump was just a touch shorter.
Having recently been dieting to lose weight, I began at about 230 pounds, and I'm only 5'10", and even then I was far less rotund than our current WH inhabitant.
Now I'm no believer in fat-shaming, and for all my criticisms of our former governor Christie, I never once criticized his weight, nor do I think that's appropriate. But for this sad excuse for a President to corrupt even the White House physician simply to assuage and stroke his gigantic and insanely fragile ego (the old man thinks he looks like he's 35) is yet again an example of Frank Bruni's premise:
Donald Trump will soil you.
Then there's the Propecia, a drug so dangerous around pregnant women it makes Thalidomide look benign. It has among its adverse effects, depression, despair and extreme loss of sexual function. Apparently, it can make you crazy as well....hmmm....
8
To me it is not an issue of positioning yourself, it is the issue of your personal character. I would no more work with Donald Trump than I would with David Duke, Roy Moore, Roger Stone or Richard Spencer to name just a few. To me, you confront bigotry not try to work around it because that just empowers a bigot by giving them credibility...
6
As the commentator Rick Wilson says, everything Donald
Trump touches dies. Lindsey Graham's standing as a man of principle being the latest casualty.
5
Throughout his history, Donald Trump has consistently degraded, dishonored, mistreated and/or abused people, both friends & foes alike. Republicans in Congress still haven't learned that when you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.
3
LG is clever, while DT is also, and It appears the latest faux pas is a dog whistle simultaneously. In other words, DT is signalling to his fans that he is no squish, and absurdity is his infamous trademark or brand in reality. That is my interpretation of his deliberate or calculated nuttiness and foolishness, and his t
Mr Bruni should use the term flexible core values when describing the sycophantic groveling displayed by Republicans who formerly opposed Trump.These folks obviously have allowed Trump to undermine their supposed true beliefs in order to curry favor with Washington's current political center and out them as hollow men only interested in power and it's trappings. The grift,graft,lies ,and lack of ethics and morality that define Trumpism have infected these men of supposed good standing have left the party a tattered shell who care only for the needs of their wealthy contributors while making a mockery of the needs of the vast majority of the country's working people. We can only hope that they have not undermined the foundation of democracy and a stronger nation will rise from the ashes foisted upon us by these charlatans
3
The Republican Party has become the nation’s political landfill. Editorial boards and op-ed writers are wasting their readers time trying to find some pieces of trash there that are less soiled than others. The GOP should be designated the nation’s largest and most toxic Super Fund site and shut down. It will take decades to clean it up and the cost to American democracy will be enormous.
4
Lindsey Graham has said that the Russians hacked his emails. Could that have anything to do with his changing point of view? Not that I can imagine he would have anything to hide....
2
Emotion driven writing galore!!! Trump's supporters believe he has been treated disgracefully by the media and ignore his big mouth. His worst critics accuse him of being mentally ill. Where can we find critical thinking by people not letting their emotions cause them to lower themselves to the emotion driven level of social discourse, or roughly, 4th to 7th grade level, and I feel, in saying this, I am insulting all the middle schoolers of the world? Certainly, not in the company of Mr. Bruni and many readers. While I don't agree with Mr. Graham most of the time, he behaves in a civilized manner and what he did in reacting to Trump's disparaging words is exactly what a professional should do, object to them when they are said, use the dynamics of a group meeting to pressure Trump to watch his words. No one else spoke up like that. Later some expressed their disapproval, denied they heard the words, Trump denied he said them. This column guesses at Graham's motives, underlying motives and interests and assaults his character and his intentions, in short, Frank, you are lowering yourself to Trump level.
Lindsey Grahm didn't get where he is by being a dummy. But he's proving that it's never too late to start looking like one. He desperately needs to put more distance between himself and Trump.
1
Lindsey Graham, just like Steve Bannon and many others who have been debased and abused by Donald Trump, will get back on his personal roller coaster of obsequiousness and hate, and ride up and down until he can no longer distinguish whether his head is still on his shoulders or not. Trump is a master manipulator and by Friday, we will see Graham accepting another invitation to play golf with him. The fact that Bannon is still covering for Trump, refusing to answer questions even under subpoena, is the mark of a man who has been taken in, hook, line and sinker, by a monster.
3
Like many people who voted against Trump, I felt that the sensible wing of the Republican party could be strong check on this Trump. Just when you think things may turn, it get's worse. The entire Republican congress are totally inept and there are no sensible Republicans in the party. How this ship won't sink is beyond me.
5
You mention his “core values”. What might those be?
4
Graham has been soiled for a long, long time, long before Trump. There's not a principled man or woman left in the GOP now. He's just a very good example of a GOP leader who, if he had any principle besides a love of power, was willing to put it aside almost instantly once Trump took over.
1
Well said. L. Graham is the typical GOP pol. He panders to a base of rubes so he can cater to a cadre of plutocrats.(aka rich donors) Come on, would you listen to someone from South Carolina? The state that launched the civil war and has really never re-entered the Union. (only in words, not in spirt) So I really don't blame Donnie John for playing Graham like a fool. He is one. He got what he deserved. Unfortunately the rest of us suffer for him to be force fed humble pie.
1
What is the correct term? Backward country? I guess that's more polite. But it is the government that is backward and corrupt, not the people. The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an island. Same geography, similar ethnicity. DR is Spanish speaking, in Haiti they speak French. DR is mostly Roman Catholic, Haiti is more Protestant with some voodoo thrown in. Literacy, DR 92%, Haiti 61%. They have a similar population, about 11 million. The GDP per capita for the DR is a little over $16,000. Haiti, a little under $2,000. Haiti has twice the problem with AIDS. So you have a Spanish speaking, Roman Catholic, literate, country, with a respectable GDP. And a French speaking, voodoo Protestant, half literate, poor country. What's the word? Backward? Sounds nicer.
This should run in the WSJ and in the lesser Murdoch rags, even if the contents would be immediately deflected by the tinfoil hats of the Trumpists.
It does't say much for the moral fibre or priciples of anyone especially those sworn to uphold the rights and the welfare of the people they serve to bend them with such facile rationale.
One can always rationalise anything. Shame on these republicans which stand for naught but self agrandisement. They have had everyone fooled into believing that they were bigger men!
I am sick and tired of people blaming Donald Trump for everything. The prophets of gloom and doom continually playing who can make the worst future imaginable as a result of this one man. Trump is irrelevant really.
People, Donald Trump has not changed anything. We are now seeing the real GOP, the real Republicans without the veneer, without the filter and without the gloves. The only thing Donald Trump has done is make republicans realize that they can actually do or say anything and get away with it.
The political elites in the GOP were always careful to present a "respectable appearance" . They now realize that they were worried about nothing.
The bigotry of the GOP white working class base will accept anything the GOP does to enrich the mega wealthy so long as they are allowed their guns, their narrow minded religious cults and the belief that the non whites are being held down.
the GOP did not dare say it, now they dare.
At least Graham didn't flat out deny that Trump said these vile things, unlike the sycophantic liars Senators Sonny Purdue and Tom Cotton. Cotton in particular is disgusting. He holds himself up as a moral paragon, and then uses a weasel-word excuse to deny what Trump clearly said. I sincerely hope these dishonest politicians get skewered by voters. Given that they represent Red State southern Trump maniacs, I am not holding my breath, but if it could happen in Alabama, it could happen anywhere.
2
What I want to know is how Joe Biden can remain friends with Lindsey Graham in the face of Graham's normalization of Trump. Frank Bruni has nailed it. Great op ed piece.
Soil. The headline writer found the perfect four-letter word.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
3
Graham should be cloaked in a robe of shame. However, it appears selling their souls is now standard for the Rebulican party and there are not enough robes of shame to go around.
2
All those good ole boys from the South....Graham, Sessions, Purdue, Cotton et al... know full well that when you sleep with a dog you risk waking up with fleas. With Trump, getting fleas may end up being the least of their worries....those can be treated. Other deals with the devil have a much higher price.... personal, political and permanent.
When you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas. What's most disconcerting about Senator Graham's almost fatuous inconsistency ('almost' because he is at heart a man of intelligence and experience) is his misguided rationalization that he can influence the actions of an utterly brutish and oblivious man.
1
Frank Bruni posits that Lindsey Graham was compromised by getting too close to Trump. This is wrong, Graham soiled himself. What we can see in the record of Graham’s comments about Trump over the past two years is that Lindsey has no spine, and no convictions. It was convenient for Lindsey to call Trump a “kook” and a “danger to the country” in 2016. And it is now convenient for Lindsey to praise Trump and sidle up to him. Over that time Trump has not changed, he was then and still is the massive fraud, the incompetent, uneducated, greedy megalomaniac, that he has always been. What has changed is the posture of Graham, from the “courageous” (more likely convenient) anti-Trumper of 2016 to the Trump sycophant of 2018. We have learned two things about these two men. Trump has been consistently awful, unfit for office. Graham has been a spineless hypocrite, bending in the wind. Which is worse?
2
I can't decide which is more likely: that odious oligarch toads like Graham have decided to flatter Trump so that he'll do whatever they tell him, or that Trump had the cunning to dig up dirt on all his Republican 'foes' to serve up as he saw fit.
I'm thinking it's probably both.
One cannot trust what Graham says anymore than what 45 says- both are after one thing- their own self aggrandizement.
Mr Bruni tells the parable clearly. Engage with Trump and he will drag you into his sewer. He makes everyone around him smaller. People like Perdue, Graham, and Grassley used to be worthy opposition. One could vigorously disagree with their policy proposals, but one never doubted their knowledge of their sworn electoral duty to the United States of America and their essential decency. Lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, as the saying goes. Human failings are contagious, Mr Graham. There is no gain to be had from thinking Trump is going to be anything more than the aberrant, vulgar person he is.
Censure follwed by impeachment. That is what Graham should be tweeting.
however....
The Baby Boom generation delivered lots of positive changes. But it is also wrapped in a return to greed on a scale unimagineable when we were young. There is a direct line of selfish rationalization within the Republican Party that began with Reagan and flowed through Limbaugh and now Fox News. We can rail against bigotry and racism. We can fight for the rights of immigrants. But part of the overall GOP startegy is to get us exercised with outrage over stupid comments while they quietly plan the distegration of the social safety net and establish a serfdom overseen by the Oligarchs.
I am less concerned with what a dunce like Trump says than what the Mercers and Kochs are whispering in the backrooms as they shovel cash at our "leaders".
Trump serves as "reality show" distraction as the unengaged and uninformed are surgically being removed from the American Dream.
1
In a word they ‘ normalize’ Trump
That is the national scandal
Where is the press in pressing the questions to these sycophantic enablers?
Why is there so little of the type of behavior exhibited by the Dutch press in pressing the ignorant US Ambassador?
Where are you?
45 has shut you down He’s degraded you
What does the press have to lose?
1
One of the weirder ironies in all of this particular kerfuffle is that Trump considers 99% of South Carolina (as well as Tom Cotton's Arkansas) to be shitholes full of shithouses. I can only imagine that this does not bother the two senators because they share that view of their constituents. And, in the weirdest irony of all, these same constituents return that disdain from Trump, Cotton, and Graham, with never-ending adulation and support.
2
Lindsey Graham is a politician and as such has no respect for himself, his constituents, or the truth. His only task is to see that he can get enough votes to get reelected. Of course, I could have put "insert name" in place of Lindsey Graham. I would rather have my daughter marry a used car salesman than a politician.
1
If #45 is as "smart" as the Doctor said we are in deep waters.
I believe the Doctor said #45 has blood pressure of 120/45?. If so, what is his secret?
1
For a couple of brief moments I thought Graham was showing some integrity and dignity. But alas and alack, Graham's true colors have shown him to have a very brown nose and really no integrity.
Do the following diagnostic criteria shed light on the ways Donald Trump expresses himself?
The Characteristic Patterns of Self Expression of Persons with Paranoid Personality Disorder
-believing that others have hidden motives or are out to harm them
-doubting the loyalty of others
-being hypersensitive to criticism
-having trouble working with others
-being quick to become angry and hostile
-becoming detached or socially isolated
-being argumentative and defensive
-having trouble seeing their own problems
-having trouble relaxing
Hit the nail on the head. The Homeland Security Secretary seemed very professional until she had to defend the indefensible.
3
Beautiful Frank Bruni. We are well pass the time for mincing words. The nearly entire claque called the GOP has surrendered the Republic.
Sadly, because DT will ultimately crash and burn, we will inherit Pence. Pence who boasts that he is a Christian first, a conservative and a Republican. Does it worry his colleagues that he does not mention being an American?
As a lesson, we should have prosecuted the liars and corrupters two administrations back, and established our resistance to this inevitable decline.
There's no point in toadying up to a man as erratic as Trump, when he will support an idea one day, and then throw it in the garbage the next.
The only thing that actions like Graham's have proven is that there is literally no Republican in Congress with a shred of integrity. They might grumble and gust here and there, or give cheesy speeches on the Senate floor, but when it comes time to vote they are in solid lockstep with Donald Trump no matter what he proposes and no matter how he has insulted them.
The tragedy is that we and our nation are covered in Trump's effluent. The best way to start to clean it off is to vote in November and give both the House and Senate to Democratic control.
1
Lindsey Graham, Joe Wilson, Mark Sanford, Trey Gowdy. Apologies to my fellow Americans as a resident of the state that elects and re-elects these people. We'll try to do better. It helps when Lindsey does this sort of thing; reminding us that he's way less honorable than he'd have us believe.
3
This is exactly what I was about to write except that I would add Nikki Haley to the list.
1
PJR: my bad - you are right, of course. Forgot about Nikki...
Today Donald Trump is representative of all Americans, even those of us who didn’t vote for him.
Trump has unwittingly exposed what the Republican Party truly is and is not. It is a coalition of the greedy, the racist, the bigoted and fanatical followers of a perversion of Christianity. It is not the party of fiscal responsibility or national security or "family values." It cannot be the party that will reform government because it would rather destroy government than make it better.
And the sad part is that he is the best of them. Most of the rest of the Republican caucus have been unfailingly Good Germans.
1
I must second the factual comments here that Trump is one odious horror but that the real danger is to keep focusing on him but ignoring the GOP minions.
The reporting and our energy must turn now, early in this election year, to the Republican Party that gave Trump his position. To RESIST effectively we must expose the complicity of all the Republicans and make sure an accurate picture is painted as to how their votes and actions hurt the average family. We don't need movie stars or celebrities to carry this message, just regular people, honest Facebook posting, bill boards, and low cost out-reach.
3
All the so-called "principled" Republicans differ with Trump merely in matters of style not substance. Corker, Flake, Sasse, Graham will all come groveling when Trump snaps his fingers, equipped with tortured excuses. When you hear any of them speak, at the outset, they sound like men of good will but as they go on, you realize their only wish is that the GOP agenda could be ramrodded down our throats with less acrimony, particularly from the opposition. Pinning any hope on these sanctimonious frauds is a complete waste of time. Vote them all out.
One commentator warns Trump can easily throw sycophants like Graham under the bus, but all those he has, are doing the rounds aggressively supporting him on CNN and Fox. This begs the screaming question why on earth would they? They were fired! Some of them like Scaramucci quite ignominiously. There’s only one explanation: they will still be paid as long as they toe the line, flatter and defend Herr Trump. There’s no other possible explanation.
The Emperor has no clothes, yet Lindsey Graham and other high-profile Republicans are eager to protect him. History will not be kind to Trump' enablers. I am hoping 2018 will be the undoing of this unmerited alliance to an unworthy president.
Although I had studiously avoided paying attention to the exhibitionist "vulgarian", Donald Trump, for years, as well as his tacky products, once he became the nominee I decided to read several of the biographies available. I cannot stress how important I think it is for every single Republican politician -- I would say person, but I'm a pragmatist - to do the same. It might give them some insight about the man that they have decided for whatever reason to support.
While I assume that some of them did that as part of their opposition research, or at least had staff thumb through, there are lessons in those books that all of them would do well to absorb. The most notable is, if you choose to associate with him, you will lose something dear to you, from your nest egg to your reputation to your moral compass. It's not just that Mr. Trump possesses a collection of negative traits that far outweigh any positive attribute, it's that in his defense, you will be forced to mimic them.
Are we at Full Fellini's Satyricon yet?
The last days of Rome were probably saner.
3
We created a system of government predicated on the belief that it would be held in place by the ethics of its members.....and it worked, for a long time.
Then we allowed this system to get corrupted. How? Money. Our elected officials, should in theory, be beholden to the voters. Instead, they are beholden to the mega donors. It is nearly impossible to find individual integrity and honor if the individual is really part of a larger team with a paid mission. That is the state of politics today.
I think it's time for serious campaign financing reform..... I just don't know who is left to lead it. The Supreme Court? They are already getting bought by the unit.
Perhaps the only thing to save us (in the spirit of a good guy with a gun) is a good guy/gal with a billion. Perhaps it's time for the Bill Gates, Warren Buffets, Mark Zuckerbergs, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Bloombergs of the world to join Tom Steyer to try and buy our country back. Something must be done.....
....beacuse as of right now, our country is owned by a hodgepodge of billionaires, criminals and foreign powers, but it is most decidedly not owned by the people. That is not democracy, folks, that is a kleptocracy.
7
“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.”. Thomas Jefferson
No surprises here.
1
I have several friends who are "conservatives" who state that, while they do not like Trump, they admire that he has shaken things up in DC and he "has done what he said he'd do". However, the bottom line for these folks is that the stock market is up and they are making money. So it seems that it all boils down to individuals and their personal wants, rather than seeing the larger picture and seeing the existential (and real) threat that this administration is to our ideals as a nation.
8
Of course it's party over country. That's how it works, when you have the best congress money can buy.
Until and unless we federally fund federal elections, and ban all contributions, with all valid candidates getting the same budget, we will not break this endless chain of fund-raising so lawmakers can hold their jobs.
The founders didn't want permanent fixtures in government. They wanted public servants who would serve, and then go back to their private lives. Term limits would be a good idea, in the present time. A strict constructionist might interpret things that way.
Thomas Jefferson said in 1816: “Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times."
Might that not apply to the electoral college? If nothing else, Trump is doing us a favor by exposing weak kneed, self-serving legislators like Graham. But his presence in the white house also highlights the fact that one-man, one-vote is an illusion.
It's time we listened to Jefferson's words, and evolved.
3
The gop has mostly accepted the fact that trump has no plans, principles or platform other than garnering the maximum amount of money and adulation he can from the job along with using the republican agenda to get back at or punish anyone who crosses or criticizes him.
1
Trump uses what impresses him, his wealth and power, to impress others to support or defend him. The people he can't scare, he hooks in seemingly harmless ways. The 1980's film "Broadcast News" predicted Trump's rise. Albert Brooks' character, Aaron describes the danger of the TV star, Tom; "What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he's around? Nobody is
going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I'm semi-serious
here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get
a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never
do an evil thing... he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they
are important. Just coax along flash over substance... Just a tiny bit. And
he will talk about all of us really being salesmen. And he'll get all the
great women". Think about how all of us have grown to accept the daily lies and outrageous behavior with a shrug. A year ago, when Sean Spicer presented to Trump lie of crowd size caused an uproar and how the daily lies don't dent the news cycle.
3
As a Canadian, who travels in the United States frequently, it is alarming to watch as your great nation implodes. The population is categorized as either Democrat or Republican, and the states are hardly united. The republicans in congress have acted in an appalling manner, but I suspect the Democrats would do likewise. They are after all, politicians.
I cannot understand why the American people accept, and strictly adhere to, a two party system. It seems obvious that both parties are drifting ever outwards to their respective fringes. While your people loudly describe themselves as either Democrat or Republican, I suspect that the majority of Americans hold opinions somewhere in the middle of left or right views.
If now is not the time for a real, substantial,consequential third party, then when?
1
Yes, by all means, we need to oppose Trump and get rid of him. But we also need to remember that he is basically a distraction.
It will do the Democrats no good to take power and then continue to pander to the powerful corporations and financial firms as they always have. It will do the Democrats no good to pretend to be civil and rational, when, in fact, they will continue to support deregulations as it is being dismantled now, under the cloak of Trump's distractions.
It will do us no good to be against Trump if we are for business-as-usual.
Does no one realize the Trumpster is operating out of Grover Norquist's playbook i.e. weaken the goverment so badly that it could be drowned in a bathtub. What a country.
1
there exist: dimensioned distinctions, undimensioned distinctions, dimensioned undistinctions, and undimensioned undistinctions
this is the paradigm-shift for the 21st Century
Thanks for this cold-water dousing to bring me back to my senses. I have, at times, been seduced by Lindsay Graham's willingness to verbally stand up to Trump. I hope some of the cold water will finally bring Graham to his senses.
Graham is a type I've encountered throughout my life. When the stakes are low, they shout out their principles and shout down their opponents from theirlfty moral perch.
As soon as a real test comes, they crony up to wherever the locus of power seems to be. With Lindsay it's Donald (tenuous, yes, but with the crazy loyal 35% the only game in town right now).
Ethics, morality, character, and principle are utterly irrelevant. Power and position are all the counts.
Why are the Republicans covering for Donald Trump? Lindsay Graham doesn't need Trump's approval and it is most unlikely that he would be chosen for a presidential appointment of any consequence (certainly nothing as important as US Senator). Most likely the Republican party is feeling the pressure od the 2018 elections and the real possibility of losing the house and the less likely possibility of losing the Senate. They are trying to get Republican voters, not just Donald Trump supporters, to feel the president is being mistreated by the press and Dems. It is I believe, more of an attempt to get Republicans to come out in 2018, than to really try to justify Trump.
2
Why can't these retiring senators go out on a limb and start calling out this menace? Why not be the canary in the coal mine, or a whistle blower, or just an ordinary citizen concerned with country not party?
There is one truism with this presidency that applies to everything - Everything Trump touches dies. And so it is with Lindsay Graham's reputation. When I think of Senator Graham I picture him sitting with his good friend John McCain, in Arizona, in Washington, on the campaign trail. I hear his words as he waxes poetic about Senator McCain's heroism and patriotism, and integrity. And then I watch Senator Graham cozy up to Trump and I see his past pronouncements as insincere because you cannot worship McCain and then heap praise on Trump. No one can hold both of these men up as good, honest, and capable leaders. And so it goes. Senator Graham, for reasons only he knows, put his decency on the shelf and lay down with a dog. And now, surprisingly to him, he is covered with fleas. Because everything Trump touches dies.
1
It's not just Lindsay Graham that's been soiled under the Trump administration. It's anyone that boarded the Trump train and that includes the entire Republican Party. Of course they were soiled before Trump, but were a lot better at concealing their perfidy with spin and feigned patriotism.
So now we have almost half of the nation absent of any moral compass and the complicit Republican Party attempting to defend the indefensible. That this involves obstruction and violations of their oath of office need not even be mentioned here.
The entire affair is sickening. We're now a Banana Republic and the rule of law and democratic principles are in their final stages as we race to corruption and an authoritarian, tyrannical government led by an unstable and unfit criminal surrounded by enabling thugs.
Are we winning yet?
1
I have never understood Republican philosophy, and that was before Trump. I comprehend high taxes, raising all boats, egalitarianism, like the Norwegian system, which Trump admires from afar, but would never tolerate. The government Norway has created would make his taxes too high, and he'd be censured constantly for provocative hate speech.
Given I'm not in synch with the Republicans, they have historically been keen on civil discourse, even while blocking important measures for Americans.
Under Trump, it's as if some weird spell has been cast on the Republicans in Congress. They kiss up to a dangerous fool, on a daily basis, Their normal, narrow, money-driven goals have gained fresh avarice under Trump. They steal from poor and middle class Americans, with higher taxes, fewer human services and environmental destruction, but not because it shrinks big government -- their normal rationale.
No. Their tax plan has increased the deficit, so the idea of "smaller government" has gone right out the window. Under Trump, as a group -- Republicans in Congress, voters who believe in Trump's brand of hate, rich Republican donors whose tax breaks come at the expense of all Americans and the Cabinet -- have abrogated their oaths to uphold the law and the Constitution, to treat fellow Americans with civility, to invest in America, to represent the missions of their Cabinet posts faithfully.
Congress has chosen to relive "Lord of the Flies".
1
Why do people think they can "manage" or even influence Trump? Apart from advice that he perceives as "self-preserving", he is deaf to reason, logic, and moral argument. He will sacrifice anyone to save himself. Great leaders are those who are willing to sacrifice themselves to preserve moral imperatives, to protect the welfare of many against the advantage of the few, to do "the difficult thing" in the short-term to ensure a worthwhile future in the longer-term. Trump shows none of those characteristics. He is feckless, unprincipled, delusional as to his "gifts" and in constant denial of anything that doesn't suit his jaundiced world-view. He has no long-term strategy, merely a "goal" - to prevail, to force his arbitrary will on the world. Trump is a tyrant, perpetually insecure and increasingly dangerous. You can't change him; you have to defeat him with overwhelming force. November 2018 offers that possibility - if we make it that far.
I came to the US as a student in the 60s and was amazed by the openness and civility of the American people. Most impressive, I felt that, even as a foreign student, I had more personal freedom in the US than I ever had in my country of birth. I even felt that I was a better Muslim here than in the predominantly Muslim country I came from. After completing my studies, I returned immediately to my country of birth eager to help. And what a disappointment that was under the perpetual dictatorship that had gripped the country for decades, so much so that I quit entering a mosque ever again. After three grueling years in my country where I, as a citizen, had no rights or a law to protect me, I immigrated to the US. That was over fifty years ago, and I never regretted making that move. Until now, that is. I fear that the present leadership is steering the US in the direction of the same dictatorship I had previously experienced in my country of birth. The difference is that the leadership there did not have access to an “atomic button”, and that is frightening, to put it mildly. I pray: May God help us.
2
If a guy asks your loyalty, you need to stand up right away, leave the room no matter the ensuing damage to you personally and if it's your death by torture warrant (unless your next to do can only be achieved by staying quiet for a while, the way Edward Snowden had to operate, though he´s a dubious example, as now he´s trapped by the next one who asks full loyalty), inform and warn the world, and never look back.
How many of us fail that test and do not learn from past failures?
Only the so-called basement dwellers and the few of us who successfully pull off an independent career? And then only those among them who also pass the test of not staying quiet in the face of an anti-democratic, oligarchic coup surfing on divisive hate and bigotry while whipping up new extreme lows of those.
If you're in the agro or nutrition business, you´re forced to be loyal to help spread the poison scam of the worldwide pesticidal ecocide, or you´re out.
If you're in a medical profession, you're forced to be loyal to a trillion dollar profit scam that abusively scares people into hysteria-dependence on therapies that worsen the condition and life-span of the patients while financially ruining them, as the first two chapters of www.journeytoforever.org/bflpics/WorldWithoutCancer.pdf make irrefutably clear.
We have been trained by big corporations demanding loyalty a long, long time already, battering us into the subservience they need and capitalize on, leading us directly to Trump.
1
Graham exhibited zero moral courage & honor during the 8 years of Obama's Presidency. He stood with his fellow GOP Senators to obstruct every single attempt by Obama to benefit our country. Graham is a war hawk & works for his campaign contributors, mostly military contractors, which make billions scamming tax payers.
1
Well that's a big boohoo for Lindsey Graham. He found out that Trump is untrustworthy. That was obvious when Trump was just a candidate. It's time the Republican Senators and Congressmen stop trying to cozy up to Trump and do their job by protecting this country from Trump and start upholding the Constitution.
Nota bene: It was Senator Graham who solicited TRUMP to intervene on his behalf with Roger Ailes, at the time head and founder of FOX NEWS, in order to get hired as an analyst. The President obliged him, but Graham did not pass the audition.Ailes would not give him a contract. Demeaning enough to ask someone to recommend you, but when he does, and you don't meet expectations,it must seem doubly humiliating. Author as well as those at CNN, a network on which he appears from time to time, must love the vulgarity because they use it so often,and write it incessantly. You have to have served, earned your living in a third world country to understand how hopeless life is for the majority of inhabitants, which explains why everyone wants to escape to the West.Spent time in Agadez in Niger whence truckloads of refugees leave daily for dangerous trek across the Sahara and then, "avec de la chance,"to stowaway on a boat for Europe.If 1 has not had experience of earning one's living there, which believe neither Bruni nor many of his catty colleagues have had, then they should maintain a discreet silence.No se ofenda, but so many of Trump's detractors have led pampered lives.Re Sen. Durbin, hunch is that his severe stomach problems explain his negativity.Trump was referring to the despair of living in poor countries, which explains why so many want to leave. Try being positive for a change, Mr. Bruni!
This has been hard to watch as Sen. Graham has been lured in by this President. You keep wondering - hoping - that he and others will wake up one morning and decide it is time to reclaim their dignity and integrity. Our own Sen. Cornyn is slipping into the same boat. They were right when during the campaign they attempted to warn the American people what a disaster it would be if Trump were elected. Sadly, the political system as it exists now, after eight years of polarized opposition to the President, draws them into this position of surrendering all integrity and kissing up to this man. There remains no intellectual honesty in the process. The reclaiming of our democracy has got to start with the elections in 10 months!
Appeasement is the only tool in the tool box, I guess. No one will stand up to trump, because you will be vaporized. The republicans are fighting for their lives, backs to the wall. Therefore, we can expect nothing but ruthlessness and shameless behavior. Trump is the ideal standard bearer. Graham is just the kind of lightweight shape shifting politician to be able float on the top of the waste stream that is trump's administration. Not of course to do any good for the famous"American people", but survive.
1
So the President isn’t a negotiator. His medical doctor ruled out dementia. His WH staff continually tells us that it isn’t ignorance. The Prez reminds us that it isn’t intelligence.
No one says it—but might it be evil. Everyone and everything he touches loses some essence of his or her goodness or integrity. Our country is losing its respect. Leaders are choosing conscupience, greed and avarice over love of country.
Graham made some Faustian bargain and clearly lost.
The world has seen evil men and we have managed to have elected one.
2
The feigned indigence festival seems to be drawing to a close, as the false whiners like Bruni find themselves unable to whip up anger over the use of a term commonly used by fellow New Yorkers to describe areas of the South Bronx and Manhattan.
Travellers to Somalia, Haiti, and othe rsimilar locations huse the same term, every day, all the time, because it is applicable and accurate.
It is not a function of color, much to the distress of the Progressive left, who are without any reason for existence without racism.
Rather, it is a function of corruption of public officials, diversion of resources away from support of the citizenry, poverty, level of education, respect for individuals and personal property, and the level of corruption of the law enforcement and legal systems.
From the broadcasted immigration meeting where Trump agreed first with one position and then another it is apparent that Trump has no deep insights on policy. Other republicans have probably concluded that he can be easily manipulated; given that they got their "donor tax bill" that appears to be an accurate conclusion to make.
But like driving in this cold and snowy January it turns out steering Trump is like driving on an icy road; sometimes you slide into the ditch and get covered in a dirty slush.
1
It gets worse and worse.
With a narcissist bully, relationships only go in one direction. Graham, like virtually the entire Republican Party, deceived himself that Trump would reward his support by treating him with respect. Trump treats no one with respect. It's all about gaining and holding an edge, using others to advance his standing with the self-selected "base" of voters who've been had over and over and still come back for more.
The world has seen this behavior before, to great regret. Fortunately, Trump's paranoia and repugnance will do him in as more and more Americans come to their senses and vote him and his party of convenience out of office.
That's my hope, at least.
1
Someone who will break his vows to his wife, over and over and over and over again, is someone who isn't faithful to anyone but himself and can't be trusted. The Republicans are learning what it is like to be Donald Trump's wife.
2
No matter how much redeeming they can attempt, be it from Lindsey Graham or any of the so called "reputable" Republicans, all Republicans in Congress have sold their soul to the devil and they will pay at the polls. There is no reason to feel bad for them. They have known since the nomination of this President last year and his "coronation" at their Convention that they elected a monster. But they hoped that despite all of it, they would be able to subject America to their conservative agenda. Little did they know how divisive and incompetent this administration would become. They are digging their own grave. No blessing is needed for these souls!
Hey, Frank! Don't sugar-coat it, just tell it like it is! The trouble is, that while every thinking person is rightly appalled by the Trump phenomenon, there is no cure in sight. This produces a helpless feeling, feel-good parades and well-written op-eds. God help us all!
It is not the rudeness, classless, twits, it's the bad policy, the racism, the misinformation, lies , education policy, environmental policy and dangerous foreign policy that needs to be addressed.
The few Republicans that have spoken out about Trump support the bad policy . etc. So they worry me as much .
24
Tom,
"...Trump’s creeping authoritarianism"
============================
I would call it a monarchy. We are becoming a United States of Trump, period!
Why not call it what it is. Do we really want a US of T, not a US of A?
Is this the future for the nation? What else can we call Trump's rule?
I say, the only thing we have to fear is ... Donald (US of T) Trump.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
In the Trump era reality show administration, powerful GOP politicians -- like
Lindsey Graham & associates -- seem to suffer from battered woman syndrome (BWS).
According to the medical literature "BWS is dangerous primarily because it can lead to what some scholars say is "learned helplessness" – or psychological paralysis – where the victim becomes so depressed, defeated, and passive that she believes she is incapable of leaving the abusive situation. "
30
We have the President we did not prevent from being elected. I am not a fan of Lindsey Graham because of most of his political philosophy, but I'm not sure what is to be gained by attacking him for his efforts at "getting along" with this President that we allowed to occupy the White House when Graham's motive is reasonable. He's a politician. That is a line item in his job description: make nice with the guy who can veto your bill. It's also well established that Trump is a sucker for sweet nothings whispered in his ear and if that is what it takes to limit the mischief this President we allowed to be elected can accomplish, so what? We should hold the dustpan to his broom and thank him for whatever he can do.
9
Graham and I are poles apart in our political inclinations. I think elected politicians should try to help their constituents.
But for awhile, a very brief moment it turns out, I admired him. He stood up for his values and beliefs even if it meant going against the president. I still didn't agree with him on anything, but I could respect him.
Now he's turned into a another of Trump's amorphous swamp bottom-dweller. His pursuit of Christopher Steele and his bromance embrace of all things Trump clearly show that.
I wish he had the integrity of Flake and Corker and just resign.
Graham, you've got your pension. You've been there long enough. Resign before you do any more damage.
321
My feelings too; I briefly admired Graham before it turned to disappointment. But I guess its never too late to learn Republicans can't be trusted. What a pathetic fate for the party of Lincoln.
3
"I wish he had the integrity of Flake and Corker and just resign." Flake and Corker have no integrity and never had. They fleeced the American taxpayers by giving Trump a big win and lining their own pockets (don't forget the "Corker Kickback"). Yes,they spoke out against Trump, but they are both selfish and disgraceful.
6
If only he could hear...
There is another dimension to the obsequious behavior of leading Republicans. It is likely that, like Donald Trump, they are being blackmailed by the Russians. Trump is imperiled because of his criminal money laundering, leading Republicans because they were bankrolled by Russians during the last election.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-con...
15
I wonder what Trump has on Graham that would lead him to genuflect so deeply?
24
Let's face it. Millions of people voted for the clown in the White House, despite his bragging about about grabbing women by the whatever, his insulting remarks about Sen. McCain, Gold Star parents and on and on. So there is enough blame to go around.
The problem with Sen. Graham and, to a greater extent the likes of Senators Cotton and Perdue, is that it is almost always party over country. While Senator Graham deserves some credit about being somewhat truthful about Trump's insulting remarks about Africa and Haiti, Cotton and Perdue deserve no credit. Trump's facility to lie like heck is apparently contagious. Senators Cotton and Perdue, among others in the GOP, see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil even when they are in the middle of evil.
The midterm elections will tell how prescient Sen. Graham was when he tweeted, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."
Let's hope it will be the GOP that'll get destroyed and not the country, although it is not looking so great for the country so far.
528
With Cotton, I’m not sure it’s party over country. I think he was in that office for his anti-immigration feelings/positions. John Kelly had Cotton there. What is his Barrel filled with?
2
Trump won on three issues: avoiding new wars, staying out of international agreements that infringed on our sovereignty and ending illegal immigration. No other candidate in either party staked out these issues, so we had to go with Trump, warts and all. That he's a pig is just a bonus.
What I have learned after 40 years in business is that people often fire themselves, and self inflict the worst wounds
The GOP appears to be headed down the drain with 45 diving head first in front
In 10 years the GOP will be either an afterthought or a white supremacist party
3
Thank you for your article about public servants being "soiled" by President Trump. But there is a difference between currying favor (Graham) amd outright lying (Senators Cotton and Perdue.) Trump's moral decrepitude certainly does flow downhill. Senator Graham's motivation seems to have been his drive to pass the Republican legislative agenda. The other two Senators lied in order to protect their President's image. Senator Graham at least called out the President of the United States in a meeting of his peers when Trump crossed the line. Perdue and Cotton, however, compromised their moral and professional integrity when they suddenly remembered that Trump said No Such Thing, most likely at the urging of the Office of Propaganda. It's sad that the manure rolls off Trump's coattails and not only stains the integrity of elected officials; it effects us all, including our children. Tell the Daca victims, as they pack to move to a country they have never set foot in. that they were kicked out of our country because the President was mad at the Democrats for soiling Him.
273
Senator Graham lied when he sent Christopher Steele's name to the justice department. He is an enabler and now a liar as well. And, unfortunately for him, this is how he will be remembered.
2
Cotton served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Given his facility with lying, I wonder how many lies he told while serving? Glad he is out of the service now--I find it hard to believe he could be an honorable officer.
1
Unfortunately the fact is no one can soil Lindsay Graham. He is interested in only one thing which is how to continue to publicize himself as a bipartisan senator while repeatedly losing bipartisanship at the most opportune times such as the recently passed tax bill. He cozied up to Trump after Trump was elected to keep himself relevant. Just that fact tells you that he plays on both teams whenever it is convenient for him. Fact is Trump got elected because Opportunism reigns supreme in Washington and beyond.
17
Like a good many politicians, Graham speaks out of both sides of his mouth at once. But if he was an honorable man, he'd do the right thing now--resign.
9
Mr. Graham, an allegedly politically bright man, has recently eaten from the tree of knowledge. Unfortunately he has sampled both the good and evil fruit it bears, and not appreciating the difference, me thinks he has gotten a bit too much evil fruit. Hence, he has basically sold his soul to our incarnated devil, for the person he is bantering with has no moral compass, and the tree of knowledge has no moral fruit.
10
If we survive this attack lead by Trump on the core of what America has stood for... I have wondered how history will treat politicians such as Paul Ryan and yes - Lindsey Graham - for enabling and standing by as this erratic angry man who is president did such ugly damage to what our country had been.
14
Paul Ryan doesn't care. He is a hollow man. A shell. He personifies the utter banality of evil.
1
Frank we all agree that the language Trump used was deplorable. Can we also agree that using spastic, a term for people with disabilities, as a way of disparaging people is also offensive.
6
While it is true that one use of the word is to describe a person wracked by spasms, the word “spastic” is not a derogatory term. In this instance, its use, meaning “acting or proceeding fitfully,” is correct and apt, and in no way insulting. “Spastic violence” is another typical and common phrase, one with which one would be hard-pressed to find fault.
What a terrible place American democracy finds itself in today where elected officials cannot recall what they might have heard then, by some strange process, they suddenly become people to whom certainty has returned and are able to put aside all doubt. In an atmosphere like this where a truth is hostage to short term considerations and sycophancy, the word of man or woman is like chaff in a gale of moral decline.
The damage to all when what is true or false is just a calculation of percieved advantage is terrifying, and is the common element of every political system considered corrupt, broken or evil. If it is acceptable to the individual to perjure themselves, what trust can others have in them without a record of events which is independent of another man or womans account ?
299
Moral of this story: wear a wire.
No, the moral of the story is stop electing people whose word cannot be trusted.
2
Trump's soil denigrates his whole team as they dance around with fear and "friendship". Even Machiavelli would be envious.
5
Bless you, Frank Bruni, for this well-written opinion piece. I have one question for Bruni: why limit yourself to Lindsay Graham? Many Republican lawmakers kiss Trump's behind, thus supporting Trump's craziness. They are complicit with Trump in his outrageous unpresidential and embarrassing behavior.
18
There are many wannabe Trumps waiting in the wings of the GOP for their opportunity to reign supreme, now that 45 has shown the way - the odious and seditious Tom Cotton being a case in point.
If progressive American voters are unable to mobilize sufficiently next November to quash the power of the Trump enablers and hobble this dangerous and destructive president, then we will get the government that we deserve.
11
Mr. Graham and his Republican colleagues in Congress suffer from the same human condition that most of us do: they find it nearly impossible to admit having made a mistake...because to go against Donald Trump would be to take ownership of their actions and words...to admit they made a mistake, and a very grave one at that.
To spare themselves the indignity of admitting publicly that they've been soiled and need to be cleaned up, they are willing to submit the American people to a highly increased chance of nuclear war, a highly decreased respect for America by the other peoples of the Earth, even greater wealth inequality further destabilizing society, treating children and their families with no compassion by taking away health care and insurance and even food deliveries, putting people of color and other "minority" groups (including ethnic and religious groups such as Jews and Muslims) at greater risk of societal marginalization and even physical danger, and more.
If Mr. Graham, as has been reported by the spineless Secretary of Homeland Security (a person who as one of Trump's "best people" doesn't even know that citizens of Norway are primarily white), used what she described as "tough language", then it is time to stand up to this dictator president and use tough action...before it is too late.
364
The only reason we're in this position now is because the failsafe devices installed by the Founding Fathers to prevent someone like Trump becoming president in the first place have failed.
1
Perhaps Trump voters who still support him may be doing so because they don't want to admit they made a mistake.
Perhaps they support him because they identify with him.
Perhaps their lingering adolescence revels in destruction. He is playing their favorite violent video game.
Daily I try to come to terms with the nightmare that is the Trump presidency.
I suspect many Republicans are living a similar nightmare.
I can almost feel sorry for them.
1
Why are all these republican legislators so afraid of Trump? Most of them already have plenty of money--certainly enough to be comfortable for the rest of their lives. Why are they so eager to climb on his evil bandwagon? Is it just sheer greed? Do none of them have a conscience or any morals?
1
The frog who initially jumped out of the sizzling frying pan has climbed into the more comfortable pot of warming water. Now that water is coming to a boil.
5
Graham is a seasoned politician, and this article is more about backtracking than standing up to our pompous president. Graham plays the field close to his sleeve, and is well aware of Trump's erratic, offensive behavior. The only way Graham's integrity will return comes if and only if he stops waddling across the line and consistently stands up to the president. He needs to stay away from the liar's camp.
12
Can one play with a skunk and avoid the logical consequences? The core behavioral elements of Donald Trump are offensive to persons with a shred of decency. His recently announced medical results inform us that the president is cognitively sound. So his acts, tweets and utterances flow from a "healthy" mind? Yup. Trump used ad hominem insults throughout his campaign to undermine political rivals, attempt to destabilize the media, and now, to achieve the ultimate objective of "whitening" America. Trump merchandises himself to the lowest elements of our society. Trump did not hijack the Republican Party. Rather, he motivated their natural base of supporters for calculating politicos whose self-interest was served by assorted efforts to deny minorities the right to vote. Hence, Trump galvanized their emotions, and directed them to the White House. In their bi-partisan book, Crisis Point, Trent Lott and Tom Daschle remind us that angry people vote. This explains the consummate loyalty of the Trump base. The recent results of votes in Virginia and Alabama inform us that offended people also vote. Time will tell.
326
Being "cognitively sound" in this context means that one domain of cognitive function was tested, such as short-term memory (a delayed word recall test) or several domains, such as orientation, attention and recall (a Mini Mental Status Examination or equivalent). These tests do not assess personality, intelligence, emotional or social intelligence, or other parameters vital to the performance of the duties of any executive, much left the Chief Executive.
8
It's not about whitening. It's about ending the idiocy of choosing as immigrants the most dysfunctional people from the most dysfunctional countries. It's also about ensuring that all immigrants follow our laws.
Just a note, cognitively sound does not mean his is mentally sound. I am his age and have had these brief tests and they are easy unless you have begun to edge into dementia. Three words like tiger, chair, banana are given and you repeat them a few minutes later. This guy is an elephant when it comes to remembering who slighted him or didn't pay the needed adulation. Mentally sound was not evaluated and we can all guess how that might turn out. Also how can someone like Sen. Graham chose to ride this moral rollercoaster without himself becoming mentally unstable. Please stop, take a relaxing break and chose one side or the other and then stand firm. It's a frightening rollercoaster for all citizens. When can I get off this scary ride?
3
I was watching The Wizard Of Lies, and it's startling how many similarities Trump and Madoff have (except for the fact that Madoff admitted to his guilt)
Both are not nearly as knowledgeable in their practicing field as they pretend to be.
Both manage to convince people otherwise because they're charismatic and know how to tell people what they want to hear.
Both are representatives of typically overlooked norms. Madoff's scam only worked because of ineffective oversight in finance, people wanted to believe in unrealistic gains, and didn't want to question/regulate the golden goose. Madoff is hardly the only unscrupulous financial advisor, investor, or fund manager. He's just the most obvious and egregious.
Trump too is hardly the only racist, self-absorbed, corrupt, or dishonest politician. He's just so used to being catered-to that he says things other politicians have learned to disguise in prettier language or whisper behind closed doors.
The danger is that we focus so much on Trump or Madoff as outliers that we forget they are only the most obvious examples of more widespread problems.
16
We should be kissing Trump's feet for stimulating the economy and the Market. This will lift many out of despair and hardship.
1
Its like the football coach who admitted, after winning the super bowl, that "I took Tony Dungy's team and won the game". Trump is standing on Obama's shoulders the same way rich. Trump has accomplished nil.
And your evidence is...?
Kissing Trump's feet? He'd like that. Would you like to crawl too?
I am an American. I don't have an emperor.
1
Graham plays a good game and is the swamp the president voters did not want. The president is not a player. Graham is very, very strange.
5
Trump plays a good game and is the swamp the president voters did not want, but thought they did. The president is a player playing at not being a player. Trump is very, very strange.
I wanna like Lindsey Graham, however .... he does and says many things I agree with and then does and says things I don't agree with. So, I question, "just what does this guy believe in?" It's all too 'scattershot.' (There are one or two others (haha) doing this, also.)
3
And all the while, in the distance and faintly like the industry of tiny insects, the republicans build the structures that hide their true objectives and protect their malevolent puppet masters and benefactors; The NRA, The Mercers,
Toby Neugebauer, C.V. Starr & Company Inc., George Soros, Norman Braman, Kelcy L. Warren, Farris & Jo Ann Wilks to name a few.
They will continue their obscene embrace of Trump and their profound and crafty silence because they have engineered a position, and a seeming indestructible armor that can withstand even the apparent collusion (demonstrated by their silence and outright obstruction of the Russian investigation) with enemies of the United States.
So we can continue to be distracted by all the Trumpian antics. We can discuss each and every aspect of this republican induced hallucination we find ourselves in, or we can snap out of it and prepare a legislative agenda that will begin to untangle the mess we are in.
8
Do I remember incorrectly, Frank, you saying just a column or two ago that Wolf and co were demeaning the anti-Trumpistas for speaking as badly of him as it seems you are now? The one thing we have Trump to thank for is revealing that nearly all Rs and conservatives and evangelicals are something bags. It hurts, but better to know than not.
5
The Republicans are intellectually craven and morally bankrupt. I am appalled at how genuinely principled people, albeit people I probably don't agree with, allow themselves to be humiliated, degraded and robbed of their dignity and self respect. This applies to everyone associated with this administration except for Sec Mattis, and most of the members of the Congress. Ironically, the RNC chair is a niece of Mitt Romney's, with the RNC leading the Trump cheerleaders.
But then there are those
5
Yes, Graham personifies the hypocrisy of Republicans, but if his current revelations remain in place I say 'Better late than never'.
1
We may be missing a much larger story here. It's possible the Russians are using the hacked emails of some of the senators to blackmail them.
This could explain some of the complicity. We can't rule it out
9
That's a good, and interesting, speculation. You're right: can't rule it out, and it would explain a LOT.
Maybe Lindsey Graham finally realized that he needed to face up to the fact that he had entered into a deal with the devil by trying to cozy up to DT and he finally listened to his inner self telling him to step back before it's too late. I hope this is the case. Although I don't agree with some of Sen. Graham's positions on some issues, I do think he's a honorable American and that's more than I can say for some of the low life creatures in our Congress who have no moral fiber.
You can like or hate Trump, but he is the president. And if you want to influence how the country is ruled - what Graham's job is about - you will have to deal with him. And a bit of flattery is part of the job - certainly with the type of person that Trump is.
Of course you can discuss whether Graham is giving up too much and whether his final goal is not some political ideal but personal power. But the implicit assumption in the article that he should stay far from Trump strikes me as nonsense.
1
I would hate to be Graham's brain right now.
We all know during Presidential run Senator Lindsey Graham was an honest critique of trump without any reservation. That was the time trump gave away Senator`s cell phone number on television which is so inappropriate and unethical would make anyone cringe.
Then there were many moments when Graham spoke up and we thought ,finally someone with courage and conviction in the Republican Party.
Fast forward to now, two are thick n thin buddies until now Graham admitted to something said by trump to show inappropriate vulgarity has no bounds uttered by the President of US of A.
There is still time Senator Graham as you have years left but no one knows about future so do take a clean bath and wash yourself well to start again.
5
As usual Bruni handles the nuances of power politics. None of us can be surprised by this; all of us are deeply bothered but only because of the extremes of Trump. Powerful elites have been guiding the 'play' for quite some time. Perhaps 2018 will awaken just how powerless 95% of us truly are...fingers crossed.
1
History later written offers judgment on character. Graham, Trump, et al. have to worry. They play now, to our detriment, but no statues ahead as their reputation crumbles.
I lost all respect I had for Graham while watching him grovel to trump, vote to take away health care from millions, then make it unaffordable for the rest, and vote against the American people's best interests in order to reward our corporate masters and the 1%.
7
No matter what you think about Trump, he is doing exactly what the people voted for him wanted/expected/hoped he would do: crush people. This isn't about governance in the least. For them Trump is a fulfillment. He is an avatar to use to assuage every frustration, real or imagined. And worse, Trump knows this.
6
Watch how these enablers throw Trump under the bus and embrace Pence if Mueller comes up with anything that makes impeachment doable without alienating the base. Trump knows this better than anybody.
4
“
But it’s reckless folly, because it doesn’t take Trump’s creeping authoritarianism, his instability, his degradation of the presidency and, yes, his racism into full account”
This “creeping authoritarianism” has broken into a full gallop. Rein it in soon or our system will cease to function.
1
Sorry, guys, I am resigned to expect Mr. T would survive this episode. Why? Because he represents many current voters; enough number though not the majority.
Senator Graham long has come across as a sap, now more than ever as a toady with Trump. It's a broad brush, but Graham examples the South should have been cut loose to stumble away after the federal victory in 1865. Meanwhile, we're still fighting much of the ideological differences to what avail again?
1
Exactly . The problem isn't so much that Trump made the poison but that the GOP are happily drinking it.
2
As a South Carolinian, I am proud of Senator Graham for his consistent displays of honesty and dignity at perhaps the most undignified time in our country's history. He is clearly trying to do his best to serve us by any means necessary. Why is he being vilified? Can you do a better job? I appreciate his adherence to his values and his commitment to try to save the country from almost certain ruin.
The nation, or the better part of it, continues to reel from Trump's remarks. Intuitively, we know a red line was crossed. But exactly how, the media doesn't yet specify. This shall not be forgotten. Yet where is the purpose of remembering?
I'll tell you where. Trump campaigned on breaking alliances, and in office withdrew from treaties. Campaigns aren't impeachable, and the Constitution is ambiguous about withdrawing from treaties. But it's explicit about a dull sounding process called advise and consent. That's what Graham and Durban were doing, meeting Trump about immigration policy. Like the abuse of pardons, Presidential statements during advise and consent, if they undermine US foreign relations, are impeachable.
The President's advise and consent communication has the power of executive intent. That's why it's so appalling. That's why African countries, allies against terrorists, important trading partners, vulnerable to China, now turn against the US. That's impeachable.
1
"To reporters and colleagues, Graham has reasoned that he’s positioning himself to push his own agenda and exert a positive sway. It’s an argument in line with other Republican lawmakers’ rationalizations that they’re trying to wring the best from an unfortunate situation."
And it's working. They got their tax cuts. They have finally sufficiently dismembered and eviscerated Obamacare that it's unlikely to survive. Scott Pruitt is surely dissolving the EPA from the inside. Ryan Zinke is dismantling the Department of the Interior in all but name, and they have finally cleared the way for all the most polluting extractive industry activities on the United States' coastlines *(except for Florida, as that is the home of Mar-a-Lago). And all that after just one year. There's lots to come.
5
Senator Graham is 62 years old. During his adulthood he has received the best medical care this country has to offer, particularly since joining the Senate in 2003, and having the best health care coverage money can buy. Of course, if he needs care that is not covered, he can well afford to pay for it himself.
What does this have to do with anything?
Well, barring accident or unknown condition, Graham can expect to live to a ripe old age - much longer than many of his constituents in S.C.
If he can make it 20 more years, to 82, he may be exposed to just the beginnings of history's judgment of him and his legacy. History - and historical perspective takes time. But after 20 years, or 25 or 30, the results will be starting to come in.
And the results will be brutal. Lindsay will be judged for his sellout to Donald Trump. His early military career and lengthy civil service will take a distant back seat to the fact of his mealy-mouthed, spineless acceptance of Trump, and his ruinous policies for America.
A legacy is a terrible thing to waste.
Tred softly, Lindsay. The bus is gassed up and idling in the wings, ready for the day he decides you need to be one of his sacrifices.
647
The idea of term limits should be explored thoroughly.
I understand that is our, the voters, responsibility, to vote candidates in or out,
but when the Constitution was written, the elected did not receive so many benefits which have now been taken for Congress itself, by itself.
Also, Citizens United is a scourge on us.
1
Oh...and he will be...every good thing he did will mean nothing
3
Our legislative leadership has migrated to the likes of several dictatorship countries. The only difference is the fear of political poisoning rather than some countries actual poisoning.
4
Graham and the GOP in general have seen what he gets away with doing unto others and they don't want him doing it unto them.
1
DJT hasn't changed in 40 years: he still turns on anyone once they have outlived their usefulness to him. He has the loyalty of a rattlesnake and the generosity of spirit rivaled only by a barracuda.
Why trust oneself to befriend a man who cheated on all 3 wives,who has dismissed loyal employees for illness and stiffed contractors on payments and municipalities on property taxes?
2
Thanks for this well written essay.
1
In response to Bruni's excellent essay I want to say something that's been on my mind lately:
Politicians from both sides of the isle (especially at the national level) seem like aliens from another planet. Lindsay Graham is only one example of these creatures. They seem to have landed here on earth with an agenda completely disconnected from the lives of real humans. They operate with an a-moral ruthlessness that I find almost reptilian, primitive and dis-compassionate.
If U.S. citizens want to "make America great again," perhaps we need to start electing human beings to public office instead of the darwinian opportunists who now inhabit the halls of government.
3
That's a really good piece of writing, Frank. Beautifully-built sentences that say the truth. Good stuff.
1
Trump has not only degraded the Presidency but the entire government. His Senate-approved State, Interior, Education, HHW, Treasury, Homeland Security and other secretaries are all Koch approved. Some we haven't heard much about, but give them time. Add in the many judges appointed for life and subtract the vacant positions Trump doesn't care about, and whatever happens, this mess will take a long time to fix. What is even scarier is Trump's base, who seem to believe every word he says, including that the mainstream media is lying. We all need to get out and vote in the midterms and change this arc. Thank you to the New York Times for its investigative work. Lindsay Graham, it's not too late to redeem yourself--There was never a time when the vote of one Republican Senator could be more powerful.
3
The right wing establishments in both Britain and America have proven themselves to be a malevolent force; their supporters happy to victimise immigrants, break families and cull waste people via a dysfunctional NHS and the travesty of American "health" care. I
But May, Johnson, Bannon and indeed Trump are truly nobodies. The real players driving this show are the offshore criminals (the Mercers, Kochs, Murdochs and worse) who are going for control and stealing the commonwealth (remember that?). No trickle down on offer here folks!
Brexit and Trump are bookends for two national disasters. The good news is that the way is paved for a leftward force that, rather than projecting nostalgia, is suited to the 21st century; but where is it? Stay tuned.
1
I guess I missed Frank's columns during the Obama years about the democrat Senators who would swoon publicly on the White House front lawn about President only to confide as "unnamed senators" in the press about his ego-driven, impractical plans. Or have we forgotten all those unnamed democrats who would complain that Obama was so self-centered that he believed he was always right and his mere words should move legislators and even whole countries to act as he wished?
1
It is embarrassing to see grown men behave this way, like little children, without common sense or emotional maturity. It is not possible to think any better of Mr. Graham. At this point, I'm not sure who he is ingratiating, and I don't think he knows either.
Right now, as you look around, the Republican Party is totally devoid of anything remotely resembling a leader. It is a party that has some how reduced itself to the craven and the greedy, and simply can not tell the truth on anything.
The real concern is that there is no solution, that the government is corrupt and that the best thing that one can hope for is sabotage. With enough boots in the machinery, maybe this travesty will come to a halt, and a real solution will emerge.
2
Lindsay Graham and 50 other Republican senators voted for a bill that will steal trillions from ordinary Americans to further fatten the obscenely wealthy. It will also result in the untimely and unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Americans over the next decade by depriving them of healthcare.
To pretend that Graham has a moral center capable of being corrupted is both naive and dangerous.
The Republican Party, not Donald Trump, is the real threat facing the world today. The fact that Pence, Ryan, McConnell, and Graham may be more presentable than Trump does not remove any of the blood from their hands.
The only thing that will save us is the utter destruction of the Republican Party, feared by Graham in his May 3 tweet. It is a consummation devoted to be wished ... and worked towards. As I type, the midterms are only 293 days, 8 hours, and 26 minutes away.
865
It's now very obvious that "conservative" means white supremacist christian and republican means neo nazi.
It's imperative that U.S. citizens wake up and vote all of these republican clowns out of every single political office, including the PTA.
5
The entire Republican Party deserves to go down in the midterm elections due to its complicity in enabling Trump who stands against every decent American value we have had or aspire to. I was heartened to read this morning of another Democratic special election victory for a state senate seat in Wisconsin in an area formerly held by Republicans and and which Trump had won handily. So, volunteer to register people to vote; participate in anti-gerrymandering efforts; and then make sure people get to the polls. It is the most patriotic and valuable thing we can do.
34
Even as Graham shows Trump to be a shameless liar (not to mention a racist whose views should not guide policy), the Senator still tries to placate Donald. Graham described a likable incarnation of Trump and said that is the guy he plays golf with. But, one can hit the greens with any number of people who are not qualified to be president! The White House requires a credible person with a consistent personality and receptiveness to information and opinions. That will never be Trump, no matter what he is like off the clock.
96
Of course Frank Bruni is right about Lindsey Graham, the man who refused to be a toady and then warmed to the role and then dared, once again, to speak up to Donald Trump.
Graham’s recent honesty followed his worst offense: seeking a criminal referral against Christopher Steele in tandem with one of the legendary hypocrites in the senate, Charles Grassley.
That being said, these are unprecedented times, and we are probably living under the most ill-equipped, corrupt and dishonest president in modern times. Trump should never have been allowed in the White House – even as a visitor.
A glimmer of honesty and non-partisan integrity by a Republican on the subject of Donald Trump is rare, and so Lindsey Graham’s moment of fortitude should be applauded.
94
"A glimmer of honesty and non-partisan integrity by a Republican on the subject of Donald Trump is rare, and so Lindsey Graham’s moment of fortitude should be applauded." - Really? If Trump invites Graham to dine at the WH, Graham
has proven he comes cheap and he'll flip again.
Sorry, you'll hear no applause from me for Graham, or any of the other truth-challenged Republican defenders of this President, who has waged war on the truth.
"Trump International Golf Club is a spectacular golf course"
We knew he would vote party line no matter who won, but Mr Graham's tweeting an ad for Trump properties is the clearest sign he's been bought!
111
Gosh, no speculation here on why Lindsey Graham and others turned from antagonists to lapdogs. It’s intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer. But reporters won’t go near it. Every other boundary has been crossed. Why not this one? No need to mention specifics, just the general idea. But my oh my, how delicate journalism’s sensibilities become in the face of thuggery.
61
You mean that Lindsey is being blackmailed as are many in Congress? I'm sure Dementor Trump has the goods on lots of people in Congress.
1
Donald Trump has not so much soiled Lindsey Graham as he has exposed Mr. Graham as an artful self-serving career politician willing to offer his unrestrained, full-throated support to our bigoted racist commander in chief for short term political gain. That the Senator has sacrificed his self respect in the face of humiliating disparagement only to be publicly undermined again by our duplicitous President evokes an embarrassing naïveté, the image of an overweening wheeler-dealer done in by his own conceit, now indelibly stained as sufficiently racist to back a transparent and hopelessly prejudiced con artist.
111
Lindsey Graham is not naive. He's been talking out of both sides of his mouth for the last couple of years.
The same can be said for all those Republicans kowtowing to our "Idiot-in-Chief" .
All Republicans should pay attention to our would-be dictator and Lindsey Graham: the same faye is sitting on the doorstep of every one of them. And, actually, every one of us. As the robot in Lost in Space repeatedly warned, "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger !"
60
Trump for all of his faults has took the cover off people who we once looked up to as people of character. Now we have Senators calling other Senators liars and willing to publicly lie for Trump. Our Homeland Security Secretary can't even recall what the president said in the Oval Office but she is in charge of protecting our nation. Romney before the election thought of Trump as a clown and bully but after the election went hat in his hand looking for job. Graham killed his cell phone with a baseball bat after Trump gave out his number but now they golfing BFF's. Trump has taken the veil off people with little Principles and no Character. How can Senators Cotton and Perdue ever be trusted again after falling on the sword for their leader? How long can Graham play both sides of the fence and still look himself in the mirror. Trump is a user of people and none of the people involved seem to know that. Trumps treatment of his Guru Steve Bannon should be an example how he discards people after they are no longer useful. Trump is so self centered that he has little use for anyone not propping up his ego 24/7.
142
Just an aside about Tom Cotton, my "senator" (unfortunately). Cotton is a highly ambitious man, ambitious for higher office. He has been in hopes of being appointed by Trump to an administration position if Trump shuffles around some of the current heads. To ensure he stays in Trumps good graces, he will say and do whatever is required to achieve his goals, even if he has to "get down on his knees" to DJT. I'm actually hoping he'll get a position as that way we can replace him with another Senator, get Cotton out early.
2
I called the offices of both Senators Cotton and Purdue giving them credit for being amateur liars. I said at least you are showing not to be very skilled and practiced at lying and that's to your credit I suppose. At first they couldn't "recall" then they said oh yes they could recall a very fine distinction of the S word.
1
Does these guys ever think about life after Trump? Do they think their lies and spineless behavior will be forgotten? Trump is running our government like it was an organized crime outfit. No one one dares cross The Godfather
Trump will bankrupt the country to sell off OUR assets to him and his cronies. He doesn't care about anything except money and adulation. Since adulation is not going to be forthcoming, he may hasten the deaths of millions by declaring war somewhere. People are not needed, particularly those of no "value." The GOP doesn't care about people either or they would have impeached him by now. Instead, they are spinelessly "retiring" rather than standing up to him. Why? Because they are too close now to their real goal, what all his endless lies and tweets obfuscate, the real end game: dumping social security and medicare "entitlements" (only you think that you have paid into the system over the years). You will work and work hard until you die. And thanks to all that hard work, you will die sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, AI managed by weird egomaniacal men in black turtlenecks or gray t-shirts with a penchant for theatrical presentations about the UI, believing that because tech's algorithms need data sets, its corollary must be that you don't need privacy...or an education beyond coding, (or real jobs or money), these men are also failing to see that they too have no place for the human in humanity.
32
Were Trump not supported by the Republican party he would long ago have been thrown into the garbage heap where he belongs. There is something about this party of enablers that is evil, cruel, selfish, and oblivious to the serious problems of others. Allowing families to be broken up so that children (born here and therefore citizens) lose their parent who is deported , no matter that he is a loving father , and not to protest this absolute evil is unforgivable. And to cover all this evil with a mantle of lies and deceit. The Republicans --the party of evil.
162
People with personality disorders often display Trump's gas lighting behavior. He has the Republicans "walking on egg shells". I recommend they file for a restraining order. The faster one begins to not engage this type of individual the sooner everyone begins to heal. Did you hear me? Do not engage!
60
Thank God for Dutch journalists. They forced another Trump Quisling, Peter Hoekstra, to admit his falsehoods regarding purported Islamic terrorism in the Netherlands. Maybe the immigrants we need are journalists from Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, etc. Even from Norway! Perhaps they can demonstrate what it looks like to have courage, knowledge, and backbone. If Republican politicians can not emulate these traits, at least the journalists can expose them.
87
What need more are journalists with the courage to not back down, who persist
To ask the tough question and who don’t fill their reports with false equivalency. I’m still waiting on that new emphasis on telling the truth that was described to me in a thank you email from the new publisher.
1
Kindly bear in mind Mr. Bruni's column in mind when you consider Trump's 'family'. All three wives and four children are visibly fearful of him and would never contradict him for fear of banishment and disinheritance.
Does Melania look like a happy camper in the White House? How about those two sons and two daughters - are they articulate, mature adults who have forged their own lives and identities?
65
I feel very sorry for Barron for having such an evil man as his father. He already seems beaten down by life - or his father. I truly wish Melania, someone I neither admire nor disdain, would take her son and leave him. There are many, many stories of Trump's abuse against those he supposedly loves. He's an abuser, no doubt about it.
4
Yesteday I watched a video of the family leaving a plane. Bannon looked miserable. Melania tried to keep up with The Donald, but Bannon trailed behind. At no point did the President even look at his son, never mind talk or interact with him. Such a contrast with the former First Family whose intimacy was apparent and infectious.
2
Have never forgotten the way Melania was treated by Trump at the inauguration.
1
You cannot touch pitch without getting defiled yourself.
A moral compass is the first thing jettisoned when elected to Republican office in these United States.
No healthcare. Few gun laws. Tax relief for the rich. Education for the rich. Gutting of environmental regulations. And Trump? What is he but simply an execration in a list of execrations.
But the rot goes deep. It is not just Trump. There has always been a propensity in conservative America to claim a Christian heritage. Yet that heritage is tempered in their pursuit of wealth and power according to the old dogmas of Calvin. It is a cruel dogma. The man on Main St supports the man in Washington and on Wall St. For what? So, that Mexicans and blacks occupy the bottom alone? Reliance on old habits is at work here. The white guy on Main St voted against his own best interests so as to see another race perpetually at bottom. What was Trump to these people? He was one of them. They identified with his wealth and his antipathies for 'the other'. Calvinism at work?
Graham and other schmoozers rub up against Trump like coquettes. Their morals are for sell. They are simply obeying some deep ethos in the American psyche. Because Trump is a wealthy man he is in the club and men who know money don't defile each other. They are then startled when they get pitch on their precious morals when wooing him.
53
Graham has a long, checkered history of waffling. His unpredictability is his only consistent attribute. He is a biological example of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
24
Human decency has gone out the window, and self-respect among politicians is non-existent. How have we sunk this low?
45
Ah ! the question which no one in government or society in general wishes to answer. America was defined with the notion whether real or false of "exceptionalism". It has been replaced with ignorance coupled with arrogance. America has been dumbed down.
Money. The want of and availability of, money.
I notice many comments from Northern readers who seemed to be surprised at Senator Graham's actions. As someone born & bred in the North but living in NC for quite a while I can attest that the senator's behavior is not unusual. His is actually very typical of many well bred Southern "gentlemen". These men (and women also) are taught from early childhood that the only real goal is maintaining the status of your family, kith & kin. It's only important to be as "good as you need be". The key thing you must understand early on is this - Never turn your back on one of them. We now know this philosophy is also native to Queens, NY. I guess the saying birds of a feather flock together has some truth. Shameful.
60
There's a long way to go while we see how this plays out. Graham may come out looking like the adult in the room who got the president to seal the deal, and who got immigration reform passed.
5
Won't take that bet.
Keep up the good work, Mr. Bruni. There are two few consistent, humane, intelligent and level-headed voices keeping us sane throughout this corrupt ordeal of a presidential term of office.
50
Different topic but did they release Trump's blood pressure numbers? Also, has he ever had testing done for a variety of ailments such as PSA, FITT test for colon cancer, etc. I appreciate the doctor spending time today to answer all questions but my sense was that he was being deferential to the president's desires ("excellent" health, etc.) in order to gain his confidence to make further improvements in his doctor/patient relationship.
Trump is not 6-3 and he is clearly fat/obese. And gained a lot of weight this year - all that great White House meatloaf? 10 pounds a year will mean 80 pounds by 2024. Will this affect his health? I think the cholesterol and BP numbers would be key indicators on his fatness/fitness. Another is lack of sleep. Many older people don't sleep well and this affects their health. Let's not spin him not sleeping well as being high energy.
Overall, though, much as I hate the guy, he's in pretty good (not excellent) health for an old guy who eats too much and doesn't exercise. Obama smoked and that is probably the worst personal health habit anyone could have. Kudos to Trump for not smoking and not drinking.
Prescription: get a treadmill so that when he watches all that TV news, he can at least walk. Maybe get a raised desk over the "dreadmill" so he can do some reading too. Main exercise he needs to do is the "pushaway" where you push yourself away from the dinner table.
Also, see Donald, transparency wasn't that hard, was it? Russia? Nah!
6
Except that he doesn't read; I don't think he can.
1
President Obama quit smoking after being sworn in for his first term.I believe Trump has shown us many more bad habits than smoking cigarettes.
President Obama gave up smoking.
Every single time I wavered, and waxed even slightly sympathetic to either Graham or McCain, in the end they always, always disappointed me. Kind of like Graham, as he swings back and forth with Trump. He is sullied. Fully.
62
Yeah, I agree with you about Graham and McCain. Look at what McCain did on the tax bill. He refused to vote for the Republican Health Care bill because it didn't go through 'regular order'. And then he votes for the tax bill when it didn't go through regular order! Both Graham and McCain are not to be trusted. At all.
1
Say what you will, but Lindsey Graham is one of the few among the GOP trying to stand between us and Putin's skullduggery, and, perhaps, between us and a government shutdown. Yes, he'd made a Faustian bargain, bordering on obsequious, to advance his and Senator Durbin's higher purpose of an immigration compromise. And, I gather, he was one of the few on the GOP side in that fateful White House meeting to try immediately to get Trump to erase the vulgarities he had just spouted, sensing their harm. Despite tremendous pressure from his GOP colleagues, nonetheless Graham has, as carefully as he dare, communicated to us the truth about what was said that day in that meeting. Frank Bruni, you disappoint me. Point your barbs elsewhere.
8
I am 61, and while there are many descriptors which apply to national politicians the word “integrity” has never been one I would use to describe any of them with the sole exception of Jimmy Carter. It is because of this that Donald Trump was elected president.
One would think that with his election we might all of us, on both sides, reflect on how we got here. But no, it is like both sides are locked in a divorce action where the parties seek to inflict as much pain on the other side with no thought of the the long-term damage being inflicted and engrained enmity being created.
16
Graham has it right on the mark when, in Jan 2016, he said that the choice between Trump and Cruz was the difference between "being shot or poisoned". Asked if they were any different, he quipped that being poisoned at least held the hope of an antidote. He was prescient.
24
Lindsey Graham is just another victim of the dossier syndrome.
The GOP has gathered dossiers on congressional persons since the time of the Nixon Administration - if not before - as one might know if one happened to live in the Washington, DC area during that period in time.
Political circles in the DC area and its environs represent the atmosphere of a typical "small town" environment.
May this well-honed GOP dossier force create a counter force that will bring down Trump in as short a period of time as possible.
The process is in the works - no doubt - as recent revelations indicate.
Turn about is fair play and politics is not bean bag. Today's GOP now plays the game with a medicine ball, however.
The names of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, among others, spring to mind.
Mitch McConnell most likely is the current keeper of the dossier files that keep many GOPers in line.
Over time the list of GOP dossier creators/wielders is long ..... and it can be knit into a very long and colorful scarf.
18
I know of no politician who is consistently rational, but I believe that Senator Graham has done one of the best jobs among all politicians of dealing with the whirlwind that is Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the president of the United States, whether any of us like it or not. It would be, and is, irresponsible for politicians to reflexively support or oppose the president just because of who he is, and all Democrats and too many Republicans are doing just that, only on opposite sides of the equation. Trump should be opposed when you disagree with his policies. He should be supported when you agree with his policies. He should be condemned when he threatens to ban Muslims from entering the country, but praised if he offers a policy that is focused on our national security without making gross overgeneralizations based on race, ethnicity, or religion. Graham, like a few other Republicans—Romney, Rubio, Ryan—has condemned Trump when he is beyond the pale, but still worked with him to affect policies with which he agrees. Mr. Bruni, on the other hand, is obsessed with Graham praising Trump golf courses, which for all I know may deserved to be praised, which shows that Frank cannot think objectively about Trump.
5
Bravo, Frank (trusting it's OK to use the familiar)! Please keep producing articles like this one summarizing the idiosyncrasies of members of Congress when it comes to coping with Trump. That should make for many, many columns. Cheers!
11
I, for one, applaud Lindsay Graham. He was straightforward about why he was cultivating Trump, that is to help him become a better president, and to get legislation passed that would benefit Americans. I suspect he was referring to his long time interest in immigration reform, but whatever, I was all for facilitating legislation to help Americans. From the beginning he was staunchly stood up for the Mueller investigation and continued to do so when he and Grassley wanted the Steele investigation which, of course was a sell out to Trump, but everyone is human and the Senate has always been a place which could be bad for one's reputation. In the latest incidence he really spoke truth to power and the whole experience should be another stone in the downfall of one Donald Trump, at least I hope the other Republican legislators have finally learned something about how dealing with this president doesn't produce honor or results.
6
If Lindsey Graham's method of interacting with Trump has not worked to produce more responsible actions, what can work? All the psychiatrists who said President Trump was crazy were not helping.
I'm not a mental health professional, but it seems to me that when Trump feels loved by someone (as he once did in the campaign when he quoted "Dreamers" as saying, "Mr. Trump, we love you, but this is very tough.") he moves in that direction, but when he does or says something off-the-wall and is attacked for it, he doubles down on what he did or said (as in whatever specific thing he said about Haiti and Africa and their people).
Anyway, as I understand the purpose of medicine, it is not merely to diagnose but also to treat. Let psychiatrists figure out what moves Trump in humane directions and recommend strategies for people in a position to influence him.
5
An FBI profiler would be good at figuring out what moves someone.
It's probably a waste of our time to agonize or even puzzle over Sen. Hamlet Graham and his zig-zag relationship with Trump.
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Lindsey Graham, we hardly recognize you. When did you lose your scruples, your values, and your senses? You have made a deal that will soil your reputation for the rest of your career and your sense of your own virtue for the rest of your life. I hope you can find your way back to the man we knew.
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If only Lindsey Graham had been as willing to give President Obama a fair chance as he has to give Trump undeserved indefinite second chances...
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How far the once proud Reputin Party has fallen. Licking the shoes of a pro-Russian traitor would have been unthinkable as little as a year and a half ago, but it has become the daily routine of a party willing to pay any price to shower its wealthy patrons with taxpayer money, drive women back into the kitchen and return African-Americans to the plantation. November 2018 and the midterm elections are swiftly approaching. There are many organizations actively preparing to flip this Congress. Swing Left, Voteriders, Our Revolution, even the Democratic party is showing it is ready to fight. Are you? Between now and November, we have to work our asses off, spend some of those ill-gotten stock market gains, to return America to its past decency. Given the traditional voter drop-off during midterm elections, if simply everyone who didn't vote for Trump would turn out again in November 2018, this Reputin Party would be history as in gone. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
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What used to be one of the great political parties in the United States, the Democratic Party has devolved into nothing but a regional hate group. These folks have whipped themselves into a frenzy believing they will win big in 2018. However, given their history of gunning down members of Congress, attempts to shut down speech, and crimes of hate and violence elsewhere, there is no telling what they will do once they realize they will fall well short of their expectations in 2018. Beware.
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And we need to Run For Something. From school boards, to city councils, to statehouses.
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Calling the Democrats a hate group? What we have here is an example of the pot calling the kettle bxxxx.
When I was a child I remember my parents had a book from World War II written by a former American diplomat in Germany entitled "You Can't Do Business with Hitler."
Perhaps somebody will soon write a similarly entitled book about Trump.
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"Trump will soil you."
Well, for most Republicans (I'm saying "most" because there might be one to whom this doesn't apply), their integrity is like a pair of old jeans that you do all your dirty work in and never wash. They're so crusted over with mud, dirt, paint, oil, old food, and (why not) blood, that you can't even tell what color they're supposed to be any more. Then you rub up against Trump and get manure on them too.
"Oh no!" we exclaim. "Now he's soiled!"
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President Trump's White House portrait will probably look exactly like the Picture of Dorian Grey oozing with Corruption and Decay.
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Graham isn't stupid. He is in the humiliating position of being Trump's new poodle because Trump probably dug up incriminating dirt on him
Kennedy couldn't get anything passed in Washingon. His successor. LBK. gpt tons of stuff. Veru simply J Edga Hoover constantly sent him reports of scandal in Washingon dug up by Hoover's FBI agents.
I believe Trump has dirt on Lindsay which is crippling his Freedom
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No. Not that gay rumor again!
2
If Kevin McCarthy ever grows weary of sorting Trump's "Starburst Fruit Chews" for him, Lindsey Graham is eminently qualified to pick up the slack.
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Sunday school lesson for the GOP:
I will sell the soul to the devil because...
1- "He will then stop bugging me"
2- "He will become my friend and give me three wishes"
3- "I want my friends to think I'm cool"
...are all bad reasons. Once you sell your soul, there is no easy way to get it back.
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Bruni speaks as if Lindsey Graham actually had integrity to lose.
He appears to have forgotten that Graham was in the House during the impeachment of Bill Clinton and served as one of the prosecutors (managers) at Clinton's trial before the Senate.
During the trial when he started to realize he didn't have the votes he suddenly decided he needed to bring in witnesses to testify before the Senate whereas during the House impeachment proceedings he claimed witnesses weren't needed.
Graham was a lost soul long before this.
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Trump destroys everybody and everything. Poor Senator Lindsey Graham. He is tarred for life, sold down the river for wanting to be important but lost his moral compass. Either he was wrong in describing Trump before the election or wrong after it. Or is it that he is just plain WRONG ? About time to retire, Senator Graham. And don't forget to call Senator Flake for a few chats.
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What counts - in the end - is how political words lead to real change - and whether this change is progress or poison. There are an awful lot of poisonous words going around - and they have been leading to poisonous changes.
By the way, the stock market is trading at 26.8 times earnings, which is higher than it ever was prior to the dot com bubble of the late 90's. Anyone who thinks this sort of asset bubble has no downside is naive. The markets have been going up for 9 years now. I wonder how Trump and Company will respond when the markets inevitably come back to earth. The historic mean PE of the S&P 500 is 15, which translates to roughly 15,000 - an 11,000 point decline. Will the Republicans take credit for the decline as they have the bubble?
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I am so glad I have a balanced portfolio that is sort of lean on stocks. Still, the portfolio has gained quite a bit in 2017. There will be a downturn but when?
2
The Republican 100-year game plan is going quite well. Not one of them particularly cares to keep anything about democracy except the name...at least until they have firmly established the private-militia-protected oligarchy for the few and reduced everyone else to serfs and slaves. They have worked hard to degrade public education over the past 50 years. After all, no one needs a smart serf or slave to trim the hedges, peel the potatoes and service every whim of the few. (Oh yes, and then those serfs should have the good sense and decency to die quickly and out of sight after they've stopped being useful.)
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Thank you for this. It’s a truth the vast majority of Americans can’t accept and most Democratic politicians refuse to do anything about. One of the greatest experiments in self-government in the history of mankind is dying and its putative protectors are asleep. May God help them, and us. But wait, there was a Democrat in the Senate who was telling the truth every day. They got rid of him.
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You noticed that, too, huh? And I thought that I was the only one being cynical. But that looks like it is exactly what the game-plan is. And the thing is, there isn't much that we poor serfs can do about it. The puppets might change come November, but the puppet-masters will be the same.
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The puppet-masters may be the same but, realistically, one set of puppets has announced they will cut Medicare and Social Security and the other set has said they will reverse the tax cuts so that those cuts don’t happen. The first set attacks democratic institutions like the free press and the courts. The second set doesn’t. The first set despoils the environment. The second doesn’t. On and on and on. They are not the same no matter who owns them.
When you deal with the devil don't expect not to get burned in the process.
Graham was a fool to think he could trust Trump.
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Trump uses people and then sends them packing when he is finished with them. He hasn't finished using Putin yet or vice versa.
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Politics is, by its very nature, a transactional enterprise. The unspoken rule in that is currency: the more transactions you accrue with a politico, the more of a bellwether of currency between the two of you that develops.
Trump has thrown Washington into convulsions by basically failing this political system that is as old as the capital itself.
People make a mistake when they think politics is noble, or that politicians are moral. They are not: they adhere to rational, maybe even moral or ethical policy purely from the social consequences of doing otherwise. In the absence of these consequences, we have an absence of nobility, ethics, or morals in politics.
Trump is actually doing a lot to drain the swamp, but not constructively. He shows that bald self interest, when spun right, keeps a core group enthralled. He removes the guardrails that keep essentially amoral politicians from promulgating noble policy prescriptions that satisfy constituents and traditionally ensured their incumbency. This may frustrate a traditional model where politicians were self-dealing but trying to hew to social good, but it opens a whole new model of self-dealing that is arguably more destructive to our republic.
Now, trump demonstrates there is no transactional currency to be built: it is total, shameless using. We’ve had amoral self-servers as politicians for centuries, and with the advent of trump breaking the system, we have a room full of them with no more guardrails. Greeeeat.
15
When will people learn about the self serving nature of this snake, who also happens to be our President. Graham learned the hard way how toxic this man can be. Just like Trump dangled the Secretary of State position in front of Romney and then pulled the rug out from him, Graham was lured by Trump only to find how duplicitous he can be, Rounds of golf, rides on Air Force, and private meetings in the Oval Office and then the double cross. Trump has been doing this to people his whole life and then behind the scenes laughing at how naive people can be. Graham needed some counseling from the ailing McCain. But he flew solo and now has been shut down.
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July 2015 - for me, that was the turning point of the 2016 campaign. Donald Trump stood in front of a rally & gave out the telephone number of a sitting US Senator. It was Lindsay Graham's number. At that point Republicans, tucked their tales between their legs & ran for cover. They didn't want to be Trump's next victim.
If Graham thinks he'll get the Secretary of State position by kissing up to Trump - he's mistaken. Graham should go meet with Gary Cohn.
20
Lindsey Graham as a "profile in courage" just doesn't cut it. He is an enabler and he is complicit. The entire Republican Party is soiled. They ruined a once great country that had the potential to become even greater by going forward not backwards.
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Congressional Republicans increasingly look and sound like they are caught in a strait jacket they made for themselves when they accepted Trump and his base as their masters.
18
It beats me as to why anyone would risk their own credibility and potentially destroy their own honour by defending a man they know would dump them in an instant if it suited his own selfish ends. However it seems that there is a never ending stream of men and women who elect to stand by nodding and smiling whenever your POTUS straight out lies to the American people.
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Those giving up what’s left of their honor don’t care very much. So many other things are more important.
1
Lindsey Graham isn't the only one soiled by Trump. He's a stand-in for the entire electorate. We elected him. We did this to ourselves and our nation. Just as Graham and the rest of the Republican leadership chose to enable Trump and see what they could get out of this president, we voters put this man in office. We've put up with him for a year, and I see no reason to believe that he won't be right where he is three years from now. We are now enablers too.
7
Speak for yourself, M. Blakeley. More than half of the voters in this country did not vote for Trump. We "did not do this to ourselves." Most of us knew that this guy was bad news and voted for the lesser of two evils. WE are not to blame for this. If you want to cry "Mea culpa," fine, but don't drag the rest of us into this.
13
Uh excuse me but who is ‘we’? The majority of the country voted for a very qualified and sane woman for president. For most of the people I know election night 2016 was one of the worst nights of our lives and every day is a confirmation of that sentiment.
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@. M. Blakeley St Paul, MN
Who is this WE you refer to?
The 3 million that voted for the other candidate?
Trump ruins everything and everyone he touches. A lifetime of practice, leaving disaster in his considerable wake. As for his physical and
" cognitive" exam, was this done by Dr. Seuss??? SAD.
Thanks, GOP. November.
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Lindsey Graham has been quite willing to enable a vulgar, crass narcissist, presumably so that Graham can advance his pet projects. That Graham is enabling the debasement of our country sadly seems of little consequence to him.
16
Asking for morality, reflection or loyalty out of Trump is like expecting a blind person to understand "Blue." They can hear the word, listen to the definition, but having no way to ever experience it, have no idea what it means.
None of the people who have entered Trumpworld are stupid, they have apparently decided the rewards out weigh the costs. We should judge them by their actions.
10
Recruiting a spy is an interesting game. You see, spies aren't men like James Bond. No, spies are people who are recruited by handlers. It starts out simple, maybe you are riding a tram and you meet someone who strikes up a conversation. You find out you have a common interest in some triviality, but it is an interesting conversation. You meet again. Conversations evolve. He asks you for a small favor. You do him a favor and he thanks you, maybe slips you a little cash in exchange. "oh, that's alright, I don't need that." "Please, it is a small thing but it means so much to me." Slowly it evolves, he asks for something from your work, a phone list or maybe your boss' office number. Then he asks for something on the edge. "I don't know." "But is it breaking a rule?" "No, I don't think so." The reason is unimportant, or the reason he tells you is innocuous. It isn't really breaking the rules. He gets you used to bending the rules until you, barely, break them. Then it is all over. You are his toy. He will do with you, his spy, as he wishes and when he is done with you, your side will put you in prison, or shoot you, or no one will ever know what.
This is how Trump works. He is charming one on one I have heard. He reels them in. I give you something, you give me something. Until, you have sold your soul and you have nothing left to give, then he throws you away and you, rotten little thing you are, you have nothing left for anyone.
17
You cannot rationalize an irrational President.
Graham probably thought it was better to try and manage the situation in order to protect the country overall. It's tempting and has been tried before, notably by Neville Chamberlain, a main character in a popular movie drama that has received much praise and awakened a new reverence for Winston Churchill.
But Graham and virtually all other Republicans, and all of Trump's base, missed the point of the movie.
You can't negotiate when your freedom is in the mouth of a lying, corrupt, amoral President.
16
Lindsey Graham's naivety was in believing that Donald Trump would be able to stand up to his right-wing critics and forge a deal with Democrats on immigration. What he failed to grasp was that when Trump said, "I'll take the heat," his intent was only to generate a headline that day, and not to express any commitment or conviction. Graham now looks like a fool, a disappointed toady. The only moral way to deal with Trump is to resist him, even when he sounds temporarily rational or reasonable..
17
Speculation is that the entire GOP is now run by Putin. The Russians have hacked the US Senate. They have dirt on all of them. Trump let Graham know that he knows about Grahams affair that is rumored to be with a male political consultant. That pretty much explains the complete 180 degree turn.
7
When Paul Ryan endorsed Trump, that was the beginning of the end of current modern republicanism. Newt may have started its decline back in the day with his negative ideas of governing, but Ryan finished the job. Ryan, Purdue, Cotton and their sycophantic approach to Trump will not be forgotten. Trump will be....in 3 more years.
9
To find the seeds of the decline of the Republican party, you have to goo at least to the oft-revered RR who identified Government as "the problem". Perhaps to illustrate, he surreptitiously funded a revolution with proceeds from the illegal sale of arms (to our friends in Iran).
And maybe one needs to go further back, to a break-in and "I am not a crook".
Ethics seem not to run deep in Republican blood. Yes, mention Clinton. Seduction by an intern is hardly up to illegal funding of a revolution, or breaking in to files of the opposition.
6
My sophomore H.S. English teacher, who had a Ph.D. from Columbia told our class that the use of swear words is a strong indication of a weak vocabulary. There are real words in the English language that convey everything a swear word does with insulting the audience. Trump never learned this and apparently Frank Bruni hasn't either. I cut and pasted this article into an email and sent it to a few friends, but only after I edited Bruni's foul language that I don' t need and my friends don't need to get the message. Trump can offend 10 people in a private meeting, but Bruni does not need to offend 2 million readers of the Times. We are actually more sensitive than Trump's typical audience.
1
The language used is a fundamental piece of the story. To change the language would be journalistic malpractice and a disservice to readers not sharing your delicate sensibilities.
Might I suggest you buy yourself a fainting couch? And some pearls to clutch, while you're at it? The only naughty bad words used in this article were Donnie Two-Scoops own. But I am glad you gallantly saved your friends virgin eyeballs from such un-ladylike language.
1
Oh puh'leeze. The Times readers can hack it.
It's perhaps better to save some of your outrage for the source of all this.
Graham must have a very crippled self-image. Some time ago, he said the attempted GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act was terrible; then he voted for it. He had snide and snarky things to say about Trump before the nomination, then plays golf with Trump and can’t praise him highly enough.
13
People usually do what they want to do.
Clearly Congressional Republicans like Graham want to play Trump's games, no matter how they degrade themselves in the process.
Do they realize how the rest of the world sees them? I wonder.
Trump has never hidden what he was. Those who deal with him can't pretend that they didn't know what they were getting into.
They know. And they're playing his games by his rules anyway, stripping away any pretense of integrity and dignity that they ever had.
People generally do what they want to do. And what the Republicans want to do is crippling our democracy.
15
Obviously Trump obviously can't do the job, He is not capable of fulfilling the dignified office of President. Who then is? Who is intelligent and mature enough to step outside the bondage of self-serving, party politics and lead America into a world of economic viability for all? Who has the will to confront the on-going challenges of climate change?
6
Enough with the schadenfreude. Yes, Lindsey Graham deserves the opprobrium that he receives along with the rest of the GOP who have enabled Donald Trump.
But that guilty pleasure won’t help the Dreamers, El Salvadorans, Haitians, and other victims of Trump’s immigration actions. Nor does it work to keep the government funded and open for business. Moreover, it won’t turn on a single light in Puerto Rico. And while we’re here, it won’t reverse the fossil-fueled poisoning of our planet. And one more thing, it won’t help the people whose pockets just got picked by the GOP tax law. The list just gets longer every week.
The fact that Trump can swing his political frenemies over the fire, giving them a kiss at one end of the pendulum and then roasting them on the other should not be the issue. It should not even be AN issue. Trump and his minions are doing real damage to those of us in the cheap seats who don’t care who is up or down inside the Beltway.
This is not a game. Real people are getting hurt. Our only hope is a grim one that the resulting pain will reap a bitter harvest for the GOP. They have sold their souls.
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