Photo courtesy of Graham's Senate website.
As noted earlier, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is taking heat from the right-most members of his party for his stance on climate change legislation. But at an event in his home state yesterday, Graham held firm on his belief that addressing climate change “is a worthy endeavor” – even for Republicans.
“I have come to conclude that greenhouse gases and carbon pollution is not a good thing,” Graham told the crowd in Columbia, S.C. yesterday. “All the cars and trucks and plants that have been in existence since the Industrial Revolution, spewing out carbon day-in and day-out, will never convince me that’s a good thing for your children and the future of the planet.”
“Whatever political push back I get I’m willing to accept because I know what I’m trying to do makes sense to me,” Graham said. “I am convinced that reason, logic and good business sense, and good environmental policy, will trump the status quo.”
Of course, there’s been plenty of fretting over what Graham wants in return for his support for the bill (I have engaged in some of that myself). But he really has put himself out there on an issue that most in his party either actively deny is happening or otherwise just ignore. And as a thanks, he’s taking jabs from the tea partiers (who have called him a “wussypants,” “girly-man,” and “half-a-sissy”) and getting censured by Ron Paul acolytes. Not that legislators automatically get a gold star for simply believing in basic climate science, but Graham should get some credit for standing firm on climate amid the attacks from the right.
