There is a consideration behind Graham’s comments that is regretable for an American born into freedom.  It comes from a wing of the Republican elite that sees the illegal immigrant population as future voters.  They pander at every opportunity to the different social organizations like La Raza.  This pandering attitude is a recipe for disaster.  With the exception of Canada, our hemisphere is dominated by soft Socialist countries, all still Third World, that enable these organizations.  Our ideas are better and stronger than those of Socialist regimes in our world, because they are not bound to a social or ethinic class.  By pandering to the political and emotional sensibilities of people who do not know nor care about the American heritage, these RINOs are dooming our country to cease to exist as a beacon of liberty for the world.  Not all Latin Americans believe in Socialism, not all Latin Americans want to be taken care of by the government, and not all Latin Americans want to give the American franchise to illegal immigrants.   The great secret of our American Experiment is that it is the inner yearning of all people.  It is an idea that ignores experience or richness of history.  All people can enjoy it in their own country if they are exposed to its granduer and if their leaders give to them the engine of freedom.  Our young experiment cannot be allowed to be influenced by someone’s physical makeup or past history.  When we give the power to dispense justice, we must give it to people that will interpret the law, not empathize with either party.  If we allow such influence on our court, our experiment will fail.

Immigration:

This is an ad that ran in response to Sen. Graham’s support of President Bush’s very unpopular Immigration Reform Bill.

This is the bill that effectively provided amnesty to all illegal immigrants in the country.  Sen. Graham throughly enjoyed the spot light this gave him with Senate big wigs John McCain and Ted Kennedy, fresh from his latest vacation at Chappaquiddick.  Sen. Graham did not feel bashful in his praise of Immigration Reform on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes program when he thought he was Statesman-like. Time in the spot light allowed him to nurture those political bonds with such groups as La Raza.  Let South Carolinans NEVER FORGET his thoughts on who was standing between the poor little illegals and their rightful place at the American Tit of freedom: those Bigots!

To be fair, lets hear the warm up to the big climax!

And the climax!

But hugs with Teddy did not last long as the poll numbers started to roll in.  The Southern Avenger does a great job in detailing the abrupt turn around in Sen. Graham’s statemanship.

This post is dedicated in Memoriam to those stalwart Senators who aided and abetted the Democrats in keeping President Bush from appointing his choice for judges to the bench.  Elections have consequences, but to these Republican-in-Name-Only Senators, their collegiate camaraderie is more important than the will of the people.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Sen. Mike Dewine (R-OH)

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Sen. John Warner (R-VA)

Lets explore the history of the Gang of 14. Not a rock group or punk band, the Gang of 14 was a “bipartisan” group of senators who aimed to stop the use of the “dreaded” Republican nuclear option during the Democrat filibuster of President Bush’s judicial nominations.  A 60 vote majority is needed to call for cloture on a filibuster by Senate Rules.  However, the “Nuclear Option” is an attempt by the President of the Senate to end a filibuster by only a majority.  Republicans at that time had a 55 vote majority which could have removed the filibuster and allowed each nominee an up or down vote according to the Constitution and to tradition. Senate tradition has been to give every nomination an up or down vote.  By filibustering, the Senate Democrats gave a new artificial threshold for the nomination process, a 60 vote majority instead of a simple majority.  The subsequent “bipartisan” counter offensive to the Republican Nuclear Option ended debate and only allowed certain nominees a vote, while refusing to “advise” the rest of the President’s choices.  This Gang of 14 changed the understanding of “advise” in the Constitution’s Provisions for the Executive Branch. Even more troubling is the language at the end of the official statement which supposes some quasi-permanent agreement to institutionalize this agreement for judicial nominations.  This is an incredibly unconstitutional and dangerous precedent in Senate rules.

FUN FACTS ON THE FILIBUSTER

The record for longest filibuster is held by the oldest person to serve in the Senate,Sen.J. Strom Thurmond (D-SC), and his filibuster clocks in at 24 hours and 18 minutes.  Sen. Thurmond was filibustering in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

The corrupt, populist politician, Sen. Huey Long (D-LA), held the Senate floor once for 15 hours and 30 minutes on June 12, 1935, the second longest filibuster in Senate history.  He filibustered in order to “prevent his political enemies in Louisiana from obtaining lucrative NRA jobs”.  Sen. Huey Long was shot and killed a year later.

The arduous 57 day filibuster of the Civil rights Act of 1964 was broken by a cloture vote after a 14 hour and 13 minute filibuster by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV).  During the cloture vote, the clerk reached a slient Sen. Clair Engle (D-CA) who, suffering from brain cancer, lifted his arm to point to his eye signalling his aggrement.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 later passed by a margin of 71 to 29 due in no small measure by the efforts of the miniority party, the Republicans.