By Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) abandoned his effort to push a climate and energy bill Saturday, saying he would continue only if Democratic leaders promise to relinquish plans to bring up immigration legislation first.

Graham’s departure likely dooms any chance of passing a climate bill this year. He is the sole Republican working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a compromise proposal that they had planned to unveil Monday. [Read more →]

By Katie Connolly and Weston Kosova of NEWSWEEK

In a great old episode of The West Wing, the president’s chief of staff, Leo McGarry, is schmoozing up a politician the White House wants to win over. After their chat, McGarry puts the ultimate power move on the pol: he casually ushers the dazzled man into the Oval Office, where the president is waiting to greet him like a dear friend.

The allure of the Oval Office drop-in isn’t lost on Rahm Emanuel, the real-life White House chief of staff. Not long after Barack Obama took office, Emanuel staged a McGarry maneuver of his own. Hoping to make good on his campaign promise of a kinder Washington, Obama was looking for influential Republicans he could team up with. There weren’t many obvious choices in the House. But there was one in the Senate: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Emanuel invited Graham to the White House for a one-on-one about national-security issues (the senator is a former military prosecutor who sits on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees). After their chat, Rahm ushered Graham into the Oval Office, where Obama was waiting to greet him like a dear friend. [Read more →]

Government healthcare didn’t go over so well…so now they’re gonna try making every US worker carry a microchipped government ID card.

Sen. Lindsey Grahamnesty has been working for six months with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on an “immigration reform” framework. Their plan, which hasn’t been introduced yet, includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (a.k.a. “amnesty”) and proposes “tough new safeguards,” including a biometric national ID card for workers.

Graham and Schumer are meeting Thursday (3/11) at 3PM with Obama to discuss their plan.

WSJ: ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan
Politico: Graham to Obama: ‘Time to Step It Up’

By Clark Brooks of greenvilleonline.com

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said today that keeping Guantanamo Bay open puts U.S. troops in greater danger and he is working on a plan to help President Barack Obama replace it with a new prison that will project a better public image.

In a bipartisan compromise effort that almost seems old school in today’s contentious Washington, the president in return is considering Graham’s proposal to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators in a military tribunal rather than in civilian court. [Read more →]

Article written by Tom Borelli of Townhall.com.

By advocating for a renewable energy bill on the eve of the demise of the man-made global warming theory and for its legislative offspring, economy killing cap-and-trade legislation, progressive Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is simultaneously seeking to bail out GE and to rescue Obama’s energy policy.

Graham is working with GE lobbyists to draft the ‘‘Clean Energy Act of 2009’’ – legislation to establish a federal mandate requiring that an increasing amount of electricity must be derived from so-called “clean energy” sources over the coming decades.

Specifically, the draft bill demands that 20 percent of electricity come from “clean energy” sources by 2020 and 50 percent by 2050.

Coincidentally or otherwise, Graham’s definition of clean energy matches GE’s business strategy in clean coal technology and renewable and nuclear energy. [Read more →]