BRETT KAVANAUGH/GOP/HEARING/SENATE/SEX ABUSE/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Senator Lindsey Graham, the blunt-speaking South Carolina Republican, vented to reporters on Thursday [9-27-18] outside the hearing room where the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing explosive testimony about sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee. Then he went back inside and really let loose. ‘What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020,’ Mr. Graham, red-faced and dropping all pretenses of legislative comity, yelled at his Democratic colleagues. ‘This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.’ With those words, Mr. Graham all but cemented a slow-motion public political transformation over the past two years — from an anti-Trump, maverick Republican senator who often sought legislative compromise to Mr. Trump’s closest ally and most ardent defender…But after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, Mr. Graham gradually changed his tune. He was spotted playing golf with Mr. Trump and chatting on the phone with the president. He has occasionally taken issue with Mr. Trump’s tweets, but has largely supported his agenda…There were those in both parties who might have once thought that Mr. Graham would assume Mr. McCain’s mantle as the straight-talking Republican in the Senate, challenging his own party and frequently working with Democratic colleagues to reach bipartisan compromises. But Mr. Graham’s increasingly cozy relationship with Mr. Trump suggests that such expectations are misplaced.”
–Michael D. Shear, “Furious Lindsey Graham Calls Kavanaugh Hearing ‘the Most Unethical Sham’,” The New York Times online, September 27, 2018