Is Lindsey Graham a Crook, or Just A Liar?
Robert A. Levine
Good old boy Lindsey from South Carolina has been trying to get Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State and a staunch Republican all of his life, to change votes in the presidential election to help Trump switch from the losing column to the winning column. Graham denies any effort to aid Trump in overturning the election, but didn’t realize that Raffernsperger had a witness to the conversation on the line when Graham phoned him. So not only was Graham trying to do something illegal, he also lied about it.
Graham pressured the Georgia Secretary of State to throw out ballots that were questionable for different reasons, mostly questionable signatures. Because of Biden’s victory in the state, Raffensperger has been asked to resign by some of his fellow Republicans including Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both running for reelection as Georgia Republican Senators. They claim he has failed the people of Georgia by not running a fair election. Congressman Doug Collins called Raffensperger a liar and Trump labelled him a RINO- Republican in name only- in one of his tweets. The Republican members of Congress from Georgia have also excoriated Raffensperger for not helping Trump and the Secretary of State has received scant support from Republican state officials. They all wanted him to falsify results to aid Trump. He has refused to resign or do anything that would illegally change the vote count. Raffensperger can be considered a hero who did the right thing to protect our democracy against corrupt members of his party.
This internal battle between Georgia Republicans would probably not be so significant except for the fact that there is a runoff for the two Georgia Senate seats between Democrats Ossoff and Warnock, vs Republicans Loeffler and Perdue. If the Democrats win both races, they will control the Senate as well as the House and the presidency. The Senate would be split 50-50 which means that deciding votes would go to vice-President Kamala Harris. The Republicans have even brought in political guru Karl Rove to run the race and generate more money.
How will this dust-up between Republicans affect voting in early January? Will GOP voters be more reluctant to go to the polls with Trump and major Republican figures saying the voting is rigged and can’t be trusted? Will any Republicans be disgusted by Trump’s attempts to win the election illegally with help from other party figures when it is clear that Biden was the winner? Will more Republicans go to the polls to keep the Democrats from controlling the Senate? Right now, the GOP is throwing huge amounts of cash into the Senate campaigns, but the outcome of the two races remains uncertain. The Georgia GOP is not even sure whether they would like Trump to come to Georgia to campaign, whether he would help or be a burden. But Georgia will be on many minds until after the Senatorial runoff on January 5.
The Uninformed Voter- buy on Amazon and Barnes and Noble