Lindsey Graham Contradicts Himself On Earmarks In Under A Minute

Moments after declaring that the country needs earmark reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham offered an arduous defense of his own, well, earmarking.

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, the South Carolina Republican was asked about his good friend John McCain's pork-focused critique of the omnibus spending bill that was held up in the Senate on Friday.

"We do need earmark reform," said Graham. "I wish [the president] would veto the bill, we'd get back together and come up with the earmark reform process."

Seconds later, however, Graham was reminded that he himself had inserted 37 earmarks in the legislation, including $950,000 for "a convention center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina."

After defending the transparency and necessity of such an expenditure, Graham finally finished the 180, saying of the Myrtle Beach funding: "I voted to take all earmarks out, but I will come back in the new process and put that back in."

In other words: earmarking is terrible, but I should have the ability to earmark.

To be fair, Graham -- like every other member of Congress who inserted pork into the omnibus -- had to do it publicly. Moreover, the number of earmarks has dropped significantly since Congress passed legislative changes to the process after Democrats regained control.

"Senator McCain does not object to members of Congress designating money to be spent in their state," Graham explained, "as long as it has a federal purpose, is transparent and its easy to understand what the money is going to be spent for."

Comments

[ignorantwillyharper]

Everyone's congress person is a crook and needs to be ousted, except mine. You see my congress person brings home the bacon for our state! That's the American way of thinking. The thing about this way of thinking is wrong. What needs to be done, vote everyone of them out of office...mine included.

Let us all get new crooks in office to spent our tax dollars. And that's what we'll have in office about thirty minutes after they are elected, CROOKS. It's the nature of the beast.

[Exit]

No Republican should take a earmark and no Republican Governor should take any stimulus money. After all that is what talk radio is telling them and talk radio rules them.

[shirleyfeeney]

well, living in CA with a GOP Governor, I beg to differ with you...unfortunately, we NEED the stimulus money here. My hubby's in road construction with most of his jobs being public works. We just took a near 50% pay cut due to the lack of road work going in CA. If the stimulus will help us, then I'm all for it.

The Governator took two DAYS pay from his state employees...my husband lost FOURTEEN DAYS pay. Please, get CA back to work!

[mechaquan]

Translation: We support earmarks so long as it is earmarks we support...

[kathy001]

LOL!! Perfect translation.

[pleasethinkcritically]

That's IT!!! Nice!

[OMG1109]

PER GRAHAM............"Senator McCain does not object to members of Congress designating money to be spent in their state," Graham explained, "as long as it has a federal purpose, is transparent and its easy to understand what the money is going to be spent for."

Therefore, Lindsey, then why not just simply ask what the monies are needed for rather than acting like uneducated children. Each state elected what we thought were EDUCATED people to be our voice, clearly we MADE A BIG MISTAKE!!!!

[clarryr]

My understanding is that EVERY earmark is backed by a disclosure form detailing what it is for. There are no more hidden/secret earmarks. All the posturing is purely political. If there is an issue with a particular earmark, why don't they talk to the congressman (or whitehouse) that put it in?

[WinterParkMom]

I watched this yesterday and couldn't believe my ears. He's trying to take Obama to task for letting the earmarks go thru but thinks earmarks are wrong, but will continue to put earmarks in? How does that make sense?

At least Shumer had the honesty to explain his, which I think were justified and he wasn't being a hypocrite about it.

Vote all repbubs out in 2010!!

[midbikecrisis]

Myrtle Beach already has enough convention centers...they are called Golf Courses!

[larmar]

Lindsay Graham the magic Republican....Sham-wow !

[eirrac]

Wonder why the convention center is so darn important to Sen. Graham when there are schools in his state that are crumbling right around the children. One is so bad that it made the national news. If it will help business, of course it's okay in his eyes. But if it just helps regular people and their kids, he ignores it?

[anelder]

Well silly it's because the convention center, as the golf courses, bring revenue in the form of jobs to the state.

But wait, the jobs are all low income ones, hence the tax base really doesn't grow enough to rebuild those schools and pay teachers so the money must be going elsewhere. Yup, developers, politicians, cnstrruction firms, all those owners of businesses that get contracts. And, aren't they the very ones who know just how to 'loophole' their taxes?

[ebanks84]

Just saying the word "republicans" leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. They are so abhorrent!!

[luvienne]

Republicans talk out both sides of their mouth. The days of do as I say, for them are over. The sooner they learn that the better off this country will be. It's not just about them.

[sueno]

Kinsey Graham showed the GOP's true colors-
To them this is all a game.
More than half of the earmarks go to high-ranking GOP-tards,
while they do everything possible to ruin the country.
Its ok to let the middle-class starve, but not their corporate friends
in D.C or Wall St.-

[LooktotheLeft]

He comes from S.C. It's amazing he can even articulate more than one syllable words

[learntofly]

Think before you actually post a comment like that.

[BannedFromCommenting]

Do not assume ALL S.C. people are ignorant and uneducated.. all it shows is that YOU are clearly ignorant and uneducated to make such a stereotyped analogy of all South Caroliners...and I am from WA state and know thats the wrong thing to do.

[sanaaiman]

he was just tired again with the times changing and all that...

[bbbbmer]

What a sanctimoniously pompous hypocrite this Lindsay Graham is! And just what is he looking at when he speaks??? David Gregory isn't THAT tall....

[Nyland8]

Hey ... wasn't Lindsey Graham McCain's top economic adviser? Or was that Phil Graham? Anyway, they're both crackers.

It seems to me that Graham is merely serving his constituency - like any other politician is supposed to do. And while it's true that regarding the economy he has, on numerous occasions, demonstrated himself to be among the duller knives in the drawer, at least a project like building a convention center creates jobs and stimulates the recovery. After all, who knows ... someday, when trade resumes, we may need a place to have trade shows.

8~)

[LooktotheLeft]

Economic advisor for McCain was "Phil Graham"...the guy who's responsible for busting the banks.
McCain's h*omos*exual lover is "Lindsey" Graham

[larmar]

And Oil. Phil Graham pushed through deregulation of the oil markets in a late night spending bill in December of 2000.