Graham Heckled, Jeered For Supporting Open-Tent GOP (VIDEO)

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Saturday took his case for a more diverse, open-tent Republican Party to a tough venue -- the South Carolina Republican Party convention. And the reaction to his message wasn't entirely unsurprising.

In a "fiery speech that drew jeers from the crowd," The State newspaper reported, "Graham told the crowd there was nothing wrong with any conservative, and he wanted to build an open party that could win in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, as well as South Carolina."

"You're a hypocrite!" one man yelled.

"I'm a winner, pal," Graham shot back. "Winning matters to me. If it doesn't matter to you, there's the exit sign."

"Ron Paul is not the leader of this party," Graham said, prompting a few jeers. Some people yelled, "Yes, he is!"

"I'm not going to give this party over to people who can't win," Graham finished, drawing most of the crowd to its feet.

According to The State, fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (who is far more beloved by conservatives in the state than Graham) claimed that he'd "rather have 30 senators who stand on principle than 60 who have none."

Here's a short video of one particularly heated exchange involving Graham. A longer video of Graham's speech is below.

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Comments

[kcnativnla]

This must be what it was like to watch the Whig Party's extinction.

[Pammy2]

It's fun to watch the Republicans implode!

[sposton]

Graham is right to speak of the necessity to elect Republicans elsewhere if Republicans are going to be a political factor on the national stage but it is precisely his South that has killed off all moderate Republicans from areas like North East. And they will continue doing that because the Republican party is now a regional religious party and will stay that for some time to come.

Just listen to Graham - more tax cuts, no abortion and guns. Not a sound of criticism of the gone astray Big Bidness. That tells you right there what's really behind all that demagogic stuff they peddle to naive people in their neck of the woods. They don't see that what they've become is nothing but the agent for Big Bidness but elected on the agenda of well meaning people in the South.

[nivek]

Watched the video, expected a giant white hood to descend from the ceiling any moment.

[nivek]

Angry,frightened and shrill. We may be seeing the last throes of these small, bigoted, republican creeps.

[Timtheenchanter]

That must have scared the bee-jeebus out of Miss Lindsay. Talk about somebody in need of some fresh undergarments after all of that stuff.

[dax49]

mccain's poodle seems to have lost his temper- reckon it's the on-set of rabies?

[Mike4Obama]

I was expecting cloverfield to come out from behind the curtain on that grainy, shaky video.

[452021]

Try and keep the camera steady please, the liberal holding the camera must suffer from turrets?

[Timtheenchanter]

or the liberal holding the camera was laughing hysterically.

[StatueOfLiberal]

Oh it's funny! Cause turrets is an illness! Like Parkinson's. I get it.

[WilliamProc]

T O U R E T T E ' S

Geez, peeps!

[LABC]

It is spelled tourettes, you im be cile - if you are going to insult, try to at least demonstrate the slightest ability to spell a word...

[blukazoo]

A turret is a small gun tower. Turrets is a disease. The camera man was likely shaking from the stampede of id.iots that started running the minute Miss Graham told them they were going to have to get along with "other" people if they were ever going to have a voice in our government. They'll end up with 30 senators with their beliefs and no real power. It's called cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[garymc8]

You reap what you sow.

[Billyboy321]

The "get them over there before they come over here" mantra of Bush is being followed perfectly by BO. Do you disagree? If so, why?

[Billyboy321]

If you elect a Republican President, you will get big government spending, corruption, loss of civil liberties, and war.
If you elect a Democratic President, you will get big government spending, corruption, loss of civil liberties, and war.

[garymc8]

BECAUSE THE DEM FOLLOWED THE rethug AND THATS WHAT THEY LEFT. TIME AND TIME AGAIN.

[johnr49]

There's no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Obama agrees with Bush in that regard. Obama is being confronted with the reality that it takes a damn site longer than 100 days to clear up all the crap left behind after 8 years of Bush/Cheney.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

Wow, I find myself agreeing with Jim DeMint for once, I want to see 30 Republican Senators too!

Come 2010 chances are good that we will see our hopes come to fruition.

[DJBrunner]

For the sake of the country we can only hope so.

[Shake-A-Spear]

Trouble with the today's Repugs is they keep looking forward to the past. (Will someone remind them that Reagan died a while ago.).

[ekellz]

OK, the guy holding the camera was pretty funny! Good political comedy!

[dfranz]

Many of my republican friends have disassociated themselves from the joke that has become the Republican Party. I actually feel for them. Things are a far cry from their hayday. They reminiss about the good old days when Newt Gingrich & Tom Delay were running the show. Too bad the Contract for America became the Contract on America.