Lindsey Graham digs an even deeper hole for himself

| 9:09 am EDT September 29, 2018
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It keeps getting partially drowned out by the seventeen other major political scandals that are playing out at the same time, but the ongoing saga of Lindsey Graham is one of the most confounding scandals of its time. Since when does a long-respected United States Senator suddenly wake up with an entirely different personality, different political views, and different personal allegiances, even as his temperament goes cartoonishly off the rails? Now Graham has gone and made it even worse.

As Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was putting on a maniacal performance on Friday which included screaming, yelling, crying, and everything in between, Lindsey Graham launched into such an unhinged meltdown that even Kavanaugh seemed taken aback by it. Graham’s histrionic attacks on Kavanaugh’s sexual assault accusers were just plain ugly. But then Graham decided that it would be a good idea to go on the Sean Hannity show and announce that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has a “problem.”

Here’s what Lindsey Graham said on-air: “Miss Ford has got a problem, and destroying Judge Kavanaugh’s life won’t fix her problem, and if we legitimize this problem, God help us all.” That’s right, he said “Miss Ford.” But what’s he trying to get at by insisting that she has a “problem”? You’re free to interpret it however you like, but a whole lot of observers on social media took it to mean that he was accusing her of some kind of psychological or mental problem. At the least, it was an inexcusably reckless word choice. At worst, it was a baseless and horrible accusation about a victim.

There are those who believe Lindsey Graham is simply trying to convince Donald Trump to name him Attorney General. But that makes little sense. Graham is ruining his reputation, friendships, legacy, and future political prospects. Why would he do all this just for a brief temp job in an administration that probably won’t exist in six months? Graham has long admitted that his emails were hacked during the 2016 election. Either he’s being blackmailed into acting this deranged, or he’s simply snapped.