I was going to avoid any meaty comment on the passing of Lindsey Graham, because for the most part my thunder has been stolen by people who chose their words wisely, while still others dug into their keyboards in the immediate aftermath of his death Sunday and beat me to the punch.
Then I started reading what two of our most venerable news organizations were saying about the South Carolina Senator’s passing, and I simply cannot let it go without comment.
Before holding them to account (again), I want this clear about Graham, who died at the young age of 71:
If he wasn't the worst, most dulpicitous Republican to ever disgrace Washington, he was right near the top, because unlike so many infested with the killer MAGA disease, he knew better. We know this because over and over again during the past decade or so HE TOLD US he knew better.
There was never a better example of this than his evergreen tweet from 2016.
It is my hope that this tweet will define his legacy.
I found it interesting that while searching for this brush with the truth, that he never deleted it. I wonder if that is because every now and then when trapped in a quiet room and forced to deal with only himself, Lindsey would look back longingly at what he used to be instead of the coward he had become.
Graham debased himself in front of a lewd liar and racist, who attacked our country, so that both of these broken men could stay in power. Because staying in power was what it was really about with Graham, even if he'd stumble every now and then and reveal that he really did know better.
When asked to comment following Trump’s violent attack on our country Jan. 6, 2021, a shaken Graham said this:
“All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”
Except just four months later he made it clear he wanted back in, when he lowered himself to gutter level to look into Trump’s eyes, and said this:
“Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no. I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”
Grow into WHAT, Lindsey?
In between those two competing quotes from the double-dealing Graham, he voted to acquit Trump in an impeachment trial that would have ensured that the man he warned us about in 2016 would never be able to harm us again.
So this morning, after I’d read four or five pieces on Graham’s death from writers I trust in our independent media, I held my breath and clicked into a pair of increasingly condescending publications, who in their attempt to rise above it all, have lost all touch with reality.
I am talking of course about the The Atlantic and The New York Times.
It is truly amazing how little these once-venerable publications value us, and their credibility as news organizations. There is nothing they won’t rationalize, and on Monday they had their top editorial writers spinning a straw man into gold.
I wonder why they think they can insult our intelligence like this?
It occurs to me that much like Graham himself they damn well know better, but refuse to give into their better selves because there’s profit in acting like duplicitous fools.
Here’s what the Times was going with on Monday.
Wow. Makes you wonder what they said about Hitler’s enablers, no?
Not to be outdone by the Times’ overheated syrup, here’s what The Atlanticpoured all over their readers’ heads at the very top of their front page today.
Holy hell.
The other two amigos, of course, were the late Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman.
And because it is impossible to mention Graham without mentioning Trump, it is worth remembering that before 2017, you couldn’t mention him without mentioning his friend, McCain. When McCain died in 2018, so, too, did whatever good was left inside Graham. In fact, when McCain died, so, too, did whatever good was left inside the entire Republican Party.
Lieberman is not worth remembering at all. He stood for nothing, and barely even for Al Gore, who disastrously made him his running mate in 2000.
Amid the sanctimonious whitewashing of Graham by The Atlantic and The Times, a PBS alert arrived in my inbox to save the day several hours ago. They decided to run a piece from the Associated Press, which I slapped around lovingly on Saturday, because they generally know better.
The AP piece laid out Graham’s choppy career fairly, and unlike the other two silly publications was able to break down Graham’s two-faced life in politics, and ultimate disservice to a country he so easily sold down the Potomac River.
I took heart reading the piece, because it is still important that publications that garner so many eyes publish the truth and not revisionist smog that chokes it.
We might never be able to recover from the damage people like Lindsey Graham have inflicted on America, but we can — and must — ensure they are remembered accurately.
It’s the least we can do for an America badly wounded by the likes of Trump, and his pathetic enablers like Graham.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.