Lindsey Graham
From dKosopedia
Category: South Carolina Republicans
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955)is currently the senior United States Senator from South Carolina. He is a member of the Republican Party noted for his conservative views. He serves on the Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, Judiciary and Budget committees.
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Backround
Born in South Carolina, Graham graduated from the University of South Carolina at Columbia with a B.A. in 1977 and from its school of law with a J.D. in 1981, and eventually entering private practice as a lawyer.
He has been involved in the Air Force since 1982, serving in it until 1988, and later in the South Carolina Air National Guard and as an Air Force reservist. During the Gulf War I, he was recalled to active duty, serving as a Judge Advocate at McIntire Air National Guard Station in Eastover, South Carolina, where he helped brief departing pilots on the laws of war.
In 1992, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and in 1994 to the United States House of Representatives, where he quickly became powerful as a member of the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment attempt against president Bill Clinton in 1998. He opposed some articles, but vigorously supported others. In January and February of 1999, after three impeachment articles had been passed by the full house, he was one of the managers who brought the House's case to Clinton's trial in the Senate. Though the Senate did not convict Clinton, Graham became nationally known.
He was reelected to the House in 1996, 1998 and 2000. In 2002, upon the retirement of the long-serving Senator Strom Thurmond, the much younger Graham was nominated for the United States Senate in 2002 and defeated his Democratic opponent, Alex Sanders.
Though his stances are often conservative, he has gained a reputation for being a "maverick" and speaking out against or criticizing the party line, as well as being open to making compromises. This has landed him in a select group of other traditionally conservative Republicans such as Senators John McCain and Chuck Hagel who are widely acknowledged as "mavericks" for their fearlessness toward party pressure.
In 2004, Graham received a promotion to Colonel in the Air Force Reserves at a White House ceremony by President George W. Bush along with Indiana Congressman Steve Buyer, who was promoted to Colonel in the Army Reserves.
On May 23, 2005, Graham was one of the Gang of 14 senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Despite being one of the Senate's more conservative members, he worked on the deal with seven other Democrats to prevent the "nuclear option" from occurring. This has led to anger among the GOP conservative base in his home state.
Quotes
- On the Iraq War - "I think we undersold how hard the war would be, I think we oversold how easy it would be to create democracy. I think we missed by a mile how much it would cost to rebuild Iraq." (source: Bush's New Argument: It Could Be Worse, by Peter Baker, Washington Post, August 24, 2006.
- After joining Sen. John McCain on a stroll through Baghdad: "I bought five rugs for five bucks." (Source: ThinkProgress.com, April 1, 2007).
Affiliations
Contact
Lindsey Graham
Washington, D.C. Office
290 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5972
Upstate Regional Office
101 East Washington Street, Suite 220
Greenville, SC 29601
Phone: (864) 250-1417
Midlands Regional Office
508 Hampton Street, Suite 202
Columbia, SC 29201
Phone: (803) 933-0112
Pee Dee Regional Office
McMillan Federal Building
401 West Evans Street, Suite 226B
Florence, SC 29501
Phone: (843) 669-1505
Lowcountry Regional Office
530 Johnnie Dodds Boulevard, Suite 202
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Phone: (843) 849-3887
Piedmont Regional Office
140 East Main Street, Suite 110
Rock Hill, SC 29730
Phone: (803) 366-2828
Golden Corner Regional Office (part-time)
135 Eagles Nest Drive, Suite B
Seneca, SC 29678
Phone: (864) 888-3330
Email: Lindsey Graham
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