Graham Blasts GOP's 'Blind Ideology'

Lindsey Graham’s been on the Republican hot seat since throwing his support behind Sonia Sotomayor, but he doesn’t think much of the purity police attacking him. “I have no desire to be up here in an irrelevant status,” the senior senator from South Carolina tells Politico. “If we chase this attitude that you have to say ‘no’ to every Democratic proposal … then I don’t want to be part of the movement, because it’s a dead-end movement.”

As perhaps the only pro-Sotomayor GOP vote on the judiciary committee, Graham has attracted conservative scorn. One radio host said he’d proven “unreliable as a thinker and a leader.” But Graham says the nominee deserves his support even though he disagrees with her. Recalling the halcyon days when Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were overwhelmingly confirmed, he says, “I don’t want to politicize the judiciary any more than has been done.” (More Lindsey Graham stories.)