Make of this what you will. Lindsey Graham tweeted this Sunday morning.

So here’s where we play a guessing game. Is the most reasonable explanation for this:

  1. Trump told Lindsey Graham to call Mueller as a witness and vilify him;
  2. Lindsey Graham is thinking that it’s time to get off a sinking ship and do the right thing;
  3. Lindsey Graham thinks this is going to help him win reelection;
  4. Lindsey Graham is trying to give us all whiplash;
  5. Lindsey Graham is going to do something out of control and unexpected, like Howard Beal threatening to blow his brains out on TV, and this is just the warm up.

Now cast your mind back to this short exchange.

Is Graham crazy enough to want to open up with this can of worms again? Look, if there is one thing Robert Mueller is not, it is a drama queen. Graham, on the other hand, went full DQ during the Kavanaugh hearing, with screaming and exaggerated facial expressions. It was quite a display, Kavanaugh and Graham disgracing themselves publicly. Maybe Graham thinks that playing the same scene with Mueller is going to win him points. Can he be that deranged? Again, your guess is as good as mine.

Now I’ve been monitoring Trump’s Twitter feed, so you don’t have to, and as of 12:45 p.m. PDT today, crickets on this Graham topic. But, he did send this earlier in the day to “RINOs” Toomey and Romney, so he is thinking about what he calls “the Russian hoax.”

That’s a perfect note to end on. I cannot see how this is going to end well for Lindsey Graham. Maybe he knows that and just doesn’t care anymore.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Leningrad Lyndsey does nothing without Trumputin approval. There are many options as to why now. My vote is trying to get the Russia Hoax of 2016 into the news cycle to distract from the 2020 interference which is probably ramping up now.

      • He’s sacrificing his seat for something. I don’t think Graham is stupid. He’s got to know that backing Trump right now is suicidal, so if he’s doing it, it’s for some compelling reason. The sad part of this is that I’m thinking that whatever Trump has on Graham, it’s probably not as bad as Graham doing what he’s doing staying on Trump’s team. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s hard to know when speculation is all we have.

        • What follows is fantasy speculation on my part, backed by not a shred of actual evidence. But if we think of it as the worst possible scenario that Lyndsey might be in, then try to figure out how he would deal with the situation over time – we might be able to predict his actions regardless of what dirt Trump is actually holding over him.

          Lyndsey was enjoying his Saturday afternoon golf outing with Trump, finding him to be surprisingly charming and personable in a one on one setting. He was especially enjoying some after dinner drinks with the handsome young man who had come over and started flirting with him latter that evening. Lyndsey’s last drink was spiked with a drug that completely knocked him out (although he was already pretty far gone from just the alcohol at that point. So he wasn’t surprised to find himself waking up in an unfamiliar bed the following afternoon). There was so much commotion going on, a camera crew and “security” pushing them out of the room, that Lyndsey was trying to figure out where he was and what was going on when he noticed a very young – maybe 12 years old – boy being taken from his bed and escorted out of the room. The boy looked so much like the young man he had been flirting with, same clothes, same haircut, same skin color that Lyndsey couldn’t be sure if it was the same person or not. “Senator! You need to be more careful. That camera crew from the DNC got footage of you having intercourse with that boy. Fortunately , we found them before they left your room and we were able to collect all of their film. So we can keep it safe for you, but Mr. Trump wants to talk with you in an hour about how you can repay him for saving your career”.

          I repeat that the above incident came entirely from my imagination. But let’s assume that – or something similar – had taken place. What effect would it have over time. At first, Graham is traumatized and not even thinking that he might have been set up. He agrees to every bit of repayment that Trump demands because his, career, reputation and even freedom from imprisonment are at risk. Since self-loathing had already been baked deeply into his DNA, that wasn’t too hard to swallow. But over time, things begin to gnaw at Lyndsey. He sees that Trump is destroying everything that he cares about, including the Republican party. The Russian bounties on US soldiers give him reason to reconsider whether Trump might actually be an active agent of Putin’s and confirms that Putin is engaged in an active -albeit clandestine – operation against the US. He now starts to wonder if Trumps bungling of Covid-19 is not just explained by idiocy, but may reflect an effort by Putin to engage in biological warfare against most of the world, but especially the US. This may just be opportunistic on Putin’s part, but it has become clear to Graham that Trump is not merely a clear and present danger to the United States but an urgent one. And at the very bottom, there are some things that Lyndsey cares about beyond profesional survival.

          So Graham will develop a strategy in which he slowly breaks away from Trump who will be too distracted by everything flying around him to notice or have time to deal with Graham’s efforts. He will also do things that Trump goes along with, but which Graham (having a stronger grip on reality) will realize are going to backfire on Trump. right now, he is assuring Trump that they will put Mueller n the hot seat and shred his credibility. But Graham knows that this strategy will be as damaging to Trump as letting him ramble for hours every day in front of the cameras with the Corona virus task force behind him turned out to be.

          • ‘Stache, I don’t think what you put forth is the least bit outlandish. I’ve always thought what tRump has on Lindsey had to do with his sexual orientation. Why else would tRump hang out with such a person, since he clearly hates gays? I really hope you are right, that Lindsey has realized he’s not only way smarter than tRump (which isn’t saying much!) but that he’s far and away a more decent human being than tRump will ever be. John McCain must have seen something in him.

          • I don’t think you should put forth a fiction. As Brian Stelter says we are already in the midst of a truth emergency. We don’t need self-described wild speculations.

  2. I think it’s #1. How effective will it be? In an exchange elsewhere it seems I don’t have the same level of confidence Mueller is the same guy he was prior to retirement as you do. I agree with you that he has always been “small c” conservative as in by-the-book in how he has conducted his business. In today’s climate that just doesn’t have the effectiveness in mass media it once might have. Especially since the GOP has spent a long time now taking shots at him that he couldn’t, and when given the chance wouldn’t return.

    When he made that statement about his report at DOJ he said he hoped he’d never again have to speak publicly on the matter. He was forced to and not only did he make it clear leading up to his testimony but in his opening statement that he would stick to the four corners of the report that’s exactly what he did. The bulk of it was spent with members from both sides getting him to confirm specific written text of the report with each side choosing passages that best reflected their own positions on Trump and Russia – and obstruction of justice. Mueller refused to go beyond and offer the least bit of opinion or emphasis.

    IF at times he will punch back at the GOP members who will surely challenge him and even openly sneer at him and his lifetime of service then it could be devastating for Trump, Graham and the rest of them. Barr? That would be his worst nightmare. Having Mueller openly state he not only disagreed with Barr’s actions after receiving the report but was furious enough to write it down and make it part of the record in the hopes it would soon become public would be a gut punch for Barr. Having someone like Mueller state that Barr has, starting with his report politicized the DOJ beyond all recognition would be huge. Unfortunately I fear the institutionalist in Mueller will keep him from going nearly as far as he could and should.

    However, even if he throws but a few punches at the GOP it will be what’s most remembered if Graham has him before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And, as I suggested earlier Mueller has some of his prosecutors sitting behind him and calls on the members to hear from them on specific questions this could turn into a real shitshow for the GOP. That last part is probably too much to hope for. But Mueller’s writing that oped suggest he’s tired of being a punching bag and has summoned up some will to re-establish his once solid legacy. Let’s hope that’s enough to blunt the inquisition Graham is coordinating with GOP members (including one of my own Senators who isn’t even a freaking lawyer!) if he actually calls Mueller to appear.

    • I think the issue here is that Mueller has defended the veracity of the investigation and how proper it’s methods were. All Graham has to put up against those facts is conspiracy theory. If Graham wants to do that, he’s going to look horrific. He’s got nothing on Mueller with respect to actual malfeasance, because there wasn’t any. So I really don’t know what he’s up to. Maybe he just wanted to humor Trump with the tweet and that’s where it will stop.

  3. It’s called stomping around the edge of the pond to muddy the water. Won’t work even if he looks like a screaming infant who’s diaper is full. Which he will.

  4. Lindsey is trying to score points with the voters. He still wants to be AG, and he can’t do that if he and Himself both lose.

    • Graham can’t be insane enough to think that Trump is going to get reelected and he’s going to be attorney general. Or, if he is that nuts, then all this makes sense. The possibility that Graham had gone insane had not occurred to me. I thought he was pulling some kind of a manipulative ploy, not that he was nuts.

  5. **Hugo Weaving as Red Skull** Lindsey is FAILING!

    Seriously, his numbers keep getting worse as the months grind on, so he’s going to try something, ANYTHING, to save himself. Oh, and anybody who thinks it could actually work, allow me to direct your attention to the EFFING PANDEMIC THAT ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE. If things were calmer, maybe it’d work. But between fresh body counts, a collapsing economy and inept to nonexistent federal leadership, who in the actual HELL is going to care?

    • So, give me what you think Graham’s logic is. He’s going to “save himself” by vilifying Mueller, because that impresses the voters of South Caroina how? They all love Trump so much that all they want to see is a Trump toady? My impression is that a lot of people in red states that voted for Trump in 2016 won’t do it again. And that’s going to affect Graham. And hanging with Trump to the bitter end is suicide. If I’m wrong about this, explain it to me. Maybe there is some method in Graham’s madness.

  6. He’s probably going to run with the idea that, becaese a Brit court found all of FIVE ‘errors’ in the Steele Dossier (out of a heck of a lot more and none of thos errors were part of the Mueller Report) that he can get people to think that the whole Report was based on an illegal investigation (completely overlooking the fact that what started it was a Trump aideboasting to an Australian diplonat that he was a conduit for the Russians and Obama didn’t have the Trump wires tapped – the Republicans werestupid enough to call the Russian Embassy (whose phones almst certainly WERE tapped)

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