Lindsey Graham just found a whole new way to humiliate himself
I’m not even going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he misspoke. Lindsey Graham is either ignorant of the rules of how the Senate works or he is lying about the rules in order to incite performative outrage among Republicans. That’s right, I’m not going to be fair to Lindsey because he’s never fair to anyone else and I’m frankly sick of the jerk.
Graham claims he’s going to emulate the Texas Democratic legislators who walked out to prevent a quorum for a bill designed to deprive people of color of the right to vote. Graham says he’s going to do the same to prevent passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But here’s the problem. In Texas it takes two-thirds for a quorum. In the United States Senate it takes a simple majority.
Also, an insufficient quorum in the US Senate is established by someone requesting a roll call. The only way a roll call can establish an insufficient quorum is if there is one Republican there to request it, because no Democrat is going to ask for a roll call. But if one Republican is there then there’s a quorum, that is, 50 Democrats and one Republican. Because when it comes down to a vote for the infrastructure bill all 50 Democrats will be there. You see the problem.
In other words we have a paradox. Does Graham know this already? Of course he does. I was just pretending that he’s that stupid exactly the way he pretends everyone else is that stupid. His fake ignorance is every bit as counterfeit as his fake outrage, just as his fake party has fake concern for his fake constituents. Most Americans want the infrastructure bill to pass, and if the rest were given the facts instead of lies probably all Americans would want it.
Lindsey Graham is a little man. He’s one of the dwindling number of Donald Trump’s friends who isn’t in jail or on their way to jail. He stands in front of cameras and tells easily provable lies. Meanwhile President Joe Biden just passed his sixth month in office and all is well. The executive side of the government is good again. It has been drained of its toxicity and hate and greed and lies and stupidity and replaced with competence, truth and goodness. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.