Republican: anti-Obama birthers 'crazy': The Swamp
The Swamp
Chicago Tribune

And in "a nation of believers,'' the senator suggests, Glenn Beck is a "cynic.''

Posted October 1, 2009 1:30 PM
Lindsey Graham.jpg

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the "First Draft of History'' conference at the Newseum in Washington today. (Photo by Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg).

The Swamp

by Mark Silva

Sen. Lindsey Graham , the Republican senator from South Carolina who helped Sen. John McCain of Arizona campaign for president, has a suggestion for some of the more radical elements of his own party challenging President Barack Obama:

"I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was not born in Hawaii are crazy," Graham said at a "First Draft of History'' conference sponsored by The Atlantic, The Aspen Institute and the Newseum in Washington.

He also had a word for FOX News Channel's Glenn Beck:

"Cynic.''

Graham "offered unusually blunt assessments of the fringe elements of his party and conservative media,'' the Huffington Post's Sam Stein notes.

"Only in America can you make that much money crying," Graham said today of Beck.

"Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party,'' he said. "He is aligned with cynicism and there has always been a market for cynics. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers."

Asked how he deals with fringe elements in his party, Graham said: "I go to a town hall meeting and say, 'You're crazy.' In a respectful way."

"There are people out there saying crazy things on our side of the aisle," Graham said. "There were people saying crazy things about President Bush. That's just the way it is. "

He also disputed the contention that some of the most extreme opposition to Obama is based on racial prejudice.

"How can you go from [the election]," he asked, "and then have a race problem a few months later? There are people in this party who are having a tough time reconciling having a black president.... But most of these people carrying around crazy signs would applaud Alan Keyes. They are very passionate about their politics, and if Alan Keyes spoke at their conference they go through the roof."

Graham elaborated on something his good friend McCain said earlier in the day: He is worried about "the passions of cable TV" whipping up public emotions.''

"If you get rewarded for being a jerk you are going to keep doing it," he said, before labeling "Talk radio, MoveOn.org, and the 24-hour news cycle" as the main culprits in polarizing the nation.

"Can you imagine doing D-Day with cable television?" he asked. "Can you imagine writing the Constitution -- you know, O'Reilly says Ben Franklin's giving in on something. Can you imagine having to do that in this environment?"


Digg Delicious Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo

Comments

A sane Republican?!?!


Well knock me over with a feather....
.


The efforts of Graham to reign in the crazies in the Repug base are way too late. They really think they can walk this back and have it all forgotten by the independents in time for November 2010?


Sorry, Lindsey - Crazy Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity are the face of your party now.



Wish this would make a difference. There is just to much money to made off of the sheeple. I do agree it will hurt the party and that most of these "followers" will end up voting for the Third Eye Blind Party with Palin as the bowsprit.


Beck may indeed be a cynic, but given the current political climate I think a healthy dose of cynicism is not necessarily a bad thing.


Poor Lindsey. Rush, Hannity and Beck are going to smack him down good in the next few days. Lindsey will apologize to them soon. Everyone knows that Beck and Rush run the Republican party. Look what Rush did when Mikey Steele spoke the truth. I think B-ch Slap is a good description.


Beck may indeed be a cynic, but given the current political climate I think a healthy dose of cynicism is not necessarily a bad thing.

Posted by: Disinterested Observer | October 1, 2009 3:11 PM
*************************************************
.


Yes because we all know that calling the President of the United States a 'reverse racist' given the current political climate, where the Republican party has been reduced to a very small regional party (the South), is just a healthy dose of cynicism and not necessarily a bad thing.....NOT!
.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/23/the-five-craziest-glenn-b_n_243703.html



"I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was not born in Hawaii are crazy..."
;
Interesting that he phrased it this way. A birther might respond that the issue is not necessarily was Obama born in a village in Kenya or not but whether his father being of Kenyan nationality and his mother being a teenager means that Obama is not a Natural Born Citizen. What evs, birthers are destructive and ignorant rubes.


Quick--check for your wallet. This sounds so reasonable and rational that it couldn't have come from a Republican. Or could it? Maybe, just maybe there a few sane people left in this train wreck of a party.

The sad fact is that he'll probably be flogged and cast out by the wing nuts who run the party.


I think I'm going to cry.

I was certain that all sanity had been drained from the Republican party over the past 8 years. And then...this!

Someone...hold me. I'm scared.


Finally Dobbson, Beck, others called out by a Repub, but I gotta agree with former R; The Pubs are dead in 10, in spite of the Dem. foul ups regarding healthcare reform. And by that I mean, no single payer and probably no public option.
If only the Dems had stayed true to their convictions we woulda had real progress.


The Beck wing of the Republican party need to exploit some new, real issues like:
1. Cats are the Devil
2. Red headed women with birther marks in the wrong spot are witches.


The birthers, the tea baggers, the screamers, and the deathers continued extreme minority presence will become tiresome to mainstream America, if it has not already done so. To all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true, if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up. I heard Orly Taitz, is selling a tape (I think it’s called “Money, Lies and Video tape”). She is from Orange County, CA, now I know what the mean when they say “behind the Orange Curtain”, when they talk about Orange County, the captial of Conspiracy Theories. You know Obama has a passport, he travel abroad before he was a Senator, but I guess they were in on it. In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”. I heard that she now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC).


Hey Lindsey, at least the Becks, Limbaughs and Hannitys of this country know what a kettle of rotting fish smells like and have the cajones to ask the hard questions. Career politicians like you, Lindsey Graham, are the problem, not the solution.


Obama is the Heartbeat of America. The only politician who is not a scam.

If You Have Health Insurance, the Obama Plan:

* Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

* Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.

* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.

* Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don't go broke when they get sick.

* Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money.

* Protects Medicare for seniors.

* Eliminates the "donut-hole" gap in coverage for prescription drugs.


We are all adults here, and as adults we know there are consequences for are actions, so if you do not agree with his policies, you can a) do nothing, b) support him, c) not support him, d) protest and picket, its your choice, live the dream! As for Orly Taitz, to this point she has not been successful because she does not have any proof, documentation supporting her claims except her wild rants. I would not bet the farm on this one. She has a mail-order-degree get someone with real credentials (Harvard, Yale Law School) not a crazy Russian immigrant with dual US/ Israel citizenship (where are her allegiances?). Have you even thought of who is paying for all these legal filings, her travel and all her wigs? Sorry she has no juice because she does not have any proof, documentation supporting her claims except her wild rants. I heard they are now playing the victim card as well. Please, feel sorry for us the “Birth Certificate” that we built our entire case around and that we have been dancing around turn out to be a big “Fake”. Her material might work on “Fake News” but not in a Court of the United States.


Lindy looks like he's losing weight.

He's thinking of running for President.


Every so often one of these Republicans lose their tin foil hat and utter a sane statement.


Who the heck cares where Obama was born. Is it really all that important. I think so far so good taking into consideration the shambles Bush left our country in. Obama seems to be truthful he is not tryingto scam anyone. If he got the power of the people behind him rather than slot of ridiculous ranting on where he was born we might make some real progress. Obama is the Heartbeat of America and the first President I truely believe that can make this a better country.


Birthers, Rush and Beck get a lot of attention in the media, but their influence isn't very impressive. They get ordinary schmucks to lose their marbles shouting down U.S. House members and that's a lot easier to fill airtime when you're the news editor for a cable channel with no budget for real reporters. The birthers movement is really "fear of a black planet" and thankfully there are not enough racists in this country to turn an election. People have become addicted to "breaking news" on the 24 hour news cycle ... but at the end of the day, you still need a political organization to get votes.


Post a comment

(Anonymous comments will not be posted. Comments aren't posted immediately. They're screened for relevance to the topic, obscenity, spam and over-the-top personal attacks. We can't always get them up as soon as we'd like so please be patient. Thanks for visiting The Swamp.)

Please enter the letter "f" in the field below:

Barack Obama
Want to see more photos? Click here

Play "Budget Hero"

Play Budget Hero

Latest polls

News, but funnier

Cartoon

Walt Handelsman

Cartoon

The Lowe- Down

Cartoon

Joe Fournier

Cartoon

Editorial cartoons

Quizzes

Rahm Emanuel

Know the real Rahm?

McCain

Presidential trivia