Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who considers himself something of a maverick, was just another Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, offering John Roberts softballs and lashing out at justices he doesn’t like.
“Well, there are all kind of hearts. There are bleeding hearts and there are hard hearts. And if I wanted to judge Justice Ginsburg on her heart, I might take a hard-hearted view of her and say she’s a bleeding heart. She represents the ACLU. She wants the age of consent to be 12. She believes there’s a constitutional right to prostitution. What kind of heart is that?”
This week, Graham wants us all to rise above petty bickering.
Graham tried to provide a counterpoint to the bitterness. He urged his fellow senators not to question the motives of their opponents, and he called on President Bush to name a second nominee “who loves the law more than they love politics.”
“Liberals and conservatives come and go, but the rule of law is bigger than all of our philosophies,” Graham said.
What a difference a week makes. Graham’s ridiculous smear of Justice Ginsburg was not only unusually ugly for a man who pretends to have stature — Graham was so proud of his attack, he posted it on his website — the affront was also based entirely on a lie. Ginsburg never endorsed lowering the age of consent to 12 and never backed a constitutional right to prostitution (a point that even Orrin Hatch has conceded).
And now, Graham wants us all to put politics aside and forget about “our philosophies”? I’d say Graham is about a week too late.