WITH “REPUBLICANS” LIKE THESE …
“What does Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have in common with Democratic-leaning plaintiff lawyers, including Lisa Blue, Mikal Watts, Bob Hilliard and Wayne Fisher?”
That’s what Texas Lawyer author Miriam Rozen mused in a post that ran in her publication earlier this month.
The answer?
Easy: Those plaintiff lawyers (and others like them) appear to be trying to purchase Graham as the swing vote on the U.S. Senate judiciary committee – which is currently comprised of eleven “Republicans” and nine Democrats.
If Graham were to “flip” and vote with the Democrats, he could create a tie on the committee that would basically stop tort reform in its tracks – blocking a host of GOP bills aimed at weakening class action attorneys, limiting medical malpractice lawsuits and exposing fraud and abuse in asbestos cases.
Would he really do that? Of course he would …
Graham has been holding down the far left flank of the increasingly leftward-lurching “Republican” party for years. And getting wealthy liberal front groups to cover for him, too.
So this would be right up his alley, sadly …
Just last month, we reported on his efforts to block the rollback of regulations promulgated under the administration of Barack Obama preventing the discovery of oil and gas on federal lands.
Graham did this after telling voters in his home state just weeks earlier that was “going to vote to expand (our) ability to find oil and gas in our country so we don’t have to buy from people who hate our guts.”
So two-faced …
Graham’s latest (likely) sellout appears to be attracting attention, thankfully.
“Graham has allied himself with plaintiff attorneys who have a huge financial incentive to block bills that sailed through the House of Representatives earlier this year,” noted Daniel Fisher of Forbes.
Graham attended the trial lawyer event in Houston, Texas on April 20. It’s not immediately clear how much money his campaign raised, but hosts contributed $5,400 and sponsors donated $2,700.
In addition to whatever money he raised in Texas, Graham has raked in big bucks from South Carolina-based mass tort firms – including $33,551 from Motley Rice and $43,350 from Harrison White. Motley Rice, in particular, has been very involved in asbestos cases.
Earlier this year we were pleased to see Graham help advance a few of U.S. president Donald Trump‘s key nominees earlier this year – and we gave him rare praise for his efforts.
Unfortunately, his flip-flop on the energy issue showed us he’s back to his old ways – and his disappointing decision to rake in all of this Texas trial lawyer money would seem to indicate he’s about to “flip” again.
Let’s hope he doesn’t …
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