Lindsey Graham event with three surprises. 1. Senator Graham voices a strongly compassionate form of Republicanism. 2. The ABC reporter covering the event was Adam Sexton from Ashland High School and KDRV, and 3. Senator Graham slams Greg Waldon

Lindsey Graham spoke to a group of about 80 men and women at a professional group, the Financial Management Association of New Hampshire in the function room of a nice restaurant.   The event was on  Senator Graham's public schedule but the group was a private association.  However, an official of the group told me how to sign up for the event, pay the price of dinner, and join the group.

There was a camera and reporter from two news organizations, but this event was much more like a Rotary meeting with a well known guest speaker for the program than it was a campaign event by and for the candidate.  The candidate had to sit through some Association business, descriptions of the work of two of its members, but happily for Graham, one of the short presentations was about methods for comparison shopping for health care to control costs.

Surprise number 1, was the tone and content of his 40 minute talk.  He was genial, self deprecating, and told the story of his origin, living with his parents and younger sister behind a liquor store, bar, and pool hall.   His parents died when he was 22 and his sister a young teenager and Senator Graham said the some $300/month she received as a survivors benefit was essential to them.   At various points in his talk he made clear that he was not out to condemn or eliminate entitlements; they were critical to people's survival, he knew from experience, a very different tone than the Romney 47% being "takers".

Conservative Republicans would say that he is "soft" on immigration, since he spoke of the need for comprehensive reform, not of border walls.  He spoke of how to save and prolong Social Security: raise taxes and cut benefits for rich people like himself, delay the retirement age for young people, and admit straight up that this is a sacrifice for the common good, saving Social Security's solvency which would otherwise be lost.

Lindsey Graham is not trying to blow up the system, he is not anti-government, and I can see why some of his Republican critics say he is a RINO, a Republican In Name Only.   His suggestion for saving Medicare is the same as the one for Social Security.   Not to end them, but to sustain them through sacrifice for the common good, including higher taxes on people like himself, people who earn $175,000 and more.

He said that bipartisan agreements along the lines of the Simpson/Bowles agreement were the only way out of the fiscal and demographic crisis facing America.  (The Simpson/Bowles plan was the recommendation of a bi-partisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility appointed by Obama in 2011.  They came up with an idea that had some things Democrats hated (some cuts) and Republicans hated (some revenue) that was an attempt to address the upcoming fiscal crisis caused by too many old folks collecting Medicare and Social Security and not enough young workers.)

And his tone was soft, not angry. He called for "give and take".  He called for people in Washington to get to know each other, get to understand each other, to drink together and hammer out some agreements.  Even his call for greater action in the Middle East had a tone of sorrow for the need for more sacrifice from the young people most directly in harms way, rather than a tone of anger.  

Surprise number 2 was simply the odd coincidence that in the social time for the group members I made my way over to the young TV reporter.   His name seemed familiar to me, for good reason--he had been on the air at our own ABC station KDRV in Medford.   We had a nice visit.  His old friends and classmates will be happy to know he looks great and his career is doing well.  What are the chances?   Of all the campaign events, in all the towns in all the world, he's there at the same event as I am.

Surprise number 3 came from a question I asked Senator Graham when there was a long silence when he asked if there were questions.   I was struck and moved (surprise #1) by the tone of bipartisan conciliation, which seemed very different from the tone of anger and condemnation voiced by some louder voices in the Republican debates.

So my question related to the difficulty of bipartisan cooperation, because when a politician gives up something to move toward an agreement he or she becomes vulnerable to attack by the opposition for doing exactly what the opposition is urging you to do.   One cannot dare compromise if the people you are compromising with attack you for taking the new position!   My question said that President Obama, at some political peril after negotiations with House Republicans put on the table for discussion revisions downward in the Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security.  (House Republicans had been strongly advocating this, because it would lower, eventually, the costs of Social Security, helping to make it solvent for longer.)  But I said that as soon as Obama said he would consider this change my own Oregon congressman Greg Walden, who is part of the House leadership team, went public with sharp criticism of Obama, saying that Obama was stabbing seniors in the back, and that he would defend seniors from Obama.   Obama immediately withdrew the tentative offer.

I noted that my congressman got great press and credit for his 'defense of seniors", protecting them from Obama's anti-senior overture, even though it was exactly what the rest of the leadership team was urging Obama to do.  Of course, the downside was that it ended the political trust and political fair dealings that are necessary to get to compromise since it signaled that Republican leadership team either wasn't serious about their stated goal, or that they couldn't control their own members from reversing course to make political points.

Happily I tape recorded the entire talk by Senator Graham so I have a good record of what he said, and can email it to anyone who inquires (and I will try to figure out how to get it posted here.)   But Graham said he was frustrated by all the silliness in politics, said that, yes, he believed Obama was born in Hawaii, he believed Obama is not a Muslim, and that he was unhappy with a member of his party who would "demagogue" in that manner.  And regarding Walden's subverting the move toward a bi-partisan agreement on Social Security:   "If I were president and a Republican did what that gentleman did,  I would wipe the hell out of him."

Summary:   Lindsey Graham may be out of touch with the Republican electorate just now.  He is not angry; he is sad.   He isn't trying to destroy or shrink government; he is trying to make it work.  He admitted that some of his opponents get great applause when they tell audiences they will abolish the IRS.   Graham said we cannot abolish it , we need it to collect money to pay our bills. He supports compromise and cooperation and people sitting down together, maybe over a drink.

He sounds like a grown up.

Lindsey Graham

Peter Sage with reporter Adam Sexton