Bob Graham passes first test
In case you missed it, Bob Graham faced his first political challenge of his young life as a presidential candidate this week. I think he passed the test just fine.
The filibuster against Miguel Estrada’s nomination the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has been dividing the Senate for a few weeks now. The first vote to end the filibuster failed on March 9, but Graham didn’t vote at the time; he was home recovering from heart surgery. In some ways, this was the perfect “out” for him to dodge a significant partisan controversy.
A second vote on ending the filibuster came on Thursday, Graham’s second day back on the job, and all eyes were on him because he had been considered by most as “undecided” on the Estrada fight. Florida has a significant Hispanic population and the GOP was running ads throughout the state challenging lawmakers to support the judicial nominee. Graham’s fellow Senator from Florida, Bill Nelson (D), had already caved and decided to vote with the GOP to end the filibuster.
The pressure on Graham was fairly intense. He’s a presidential candidate who needs to reach out to progressive voters that want the filibuster to hold. He’s an avowed moderate who doesn’t want to appear “too liberal,” and is occasionally proud to show an independent streak. He’s also from Florida, where he’s one of only a few Democrats that Hispanic voters continue to support and respect.
Graham could have taken the easy way out and voted with the GOP while allowing the filibuster to continue. After all, the Republicans needed five votes to invoke cloture; even if they picked up Graham, they’d be four short. Graham could vote to end the filibuster, but tell the Democratic base he did so only because he knew it wouldn’t change the outcome.
To his credit, Graham stuck with the party and voted against cloture. He even made an eloquent statement on the Senate floor explaining why he was voting that way.
Rush Limbaugh, a bastion of political class and intellect, ran a statement on his website with a headline that read, “Bob Graham’s Crusade Against Hispanic Judges.”
Classic. When trash like Limbaugh launches laughable attacks against you, you can feel good knowing you did the right thing.
One of Graham’s toughest congressional critics was Rep. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) At a press conference to criticize the vote, Ros-Lehtinen said, ”It’s a sad day for Florida and Hispanics nationwide to see our great senator, who has helped all minorities, not come out for Miguel Estrada.”
The comment struck me as almost amusing. When a Republican House member from your home state is attacking you, but manages to call you a “great senator who has helped all minorities,” I’d say you’ve done all right back home in dealing with the controversy.