If you're a Republican presidential candidate, getting an on-air thumbs-up on MSNBC from both a public-radio personality and a pro-abortion-rights activist is not exactly something to brag about to prospective donors or primary voters. But, alas, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-.S.C.) found himself on the receiving end of praise from NPR's Ophira Eisenberg and EMILY's List communications director Jess McIntosh.
The context of the praise was Graham's recent interview with MSNBC's Alex Wagner, wherein he staked out a squishy centrist tack on hot-button domestic political issues, like the Supreme Court's ruling in the same-sex marriage case and the government's role in addressing climate change.
Here's the relevant transcript:
MSNBC
Now with Alex Wagner
June 30, 20154:36 p.m. Eastern
ARI MELBER, guest host: What you do make of Lindsey Graham's role he's carving out here?
OPHIRA EISENBERG: I hope it is not just the high altitude speaking in Aspen there. It sounds -- it is a breath of fresh air. I feel like he's -- I mean this guy is going, hey, CO2 emissions cause climate change. We have to start looking at that. I think that we are going to have to stick with the same-sex marriage vote and call that, I mean, this is stuff that I feel like is appealing to what the people want from the Republican Party now. I think it's exciting! Pigs are flying!
MELBER: And, Jess, I want to read also something he said on the immigration issue. He says, "Look, self deportation's in our rearview mirror. There are people running for president on the Republican side who have said some very mean things that are continuing a narrative that is killing us."
JESS McINTOSH, EMILY's List: Do you remember Lindsey Graham's announcement speech? It was like the biggest doom and gloom, ISIS is going to destroy us all. Like, I don't know what happened between that guy and this guy. But I really like this guy! I might want to vote for him. I don't know if that works for the Republican primary electorate if I'm saying that dude makes some sense. But I, I mean, he seems like somebody I would certainly like to hang out with more than anybody else in the field.
Of course there's absolutely no way McIntosh would ever vote for Graham in the general election, particularly against Hillary, but the giddiness over Graham speaks to a desire on the Left to see the GOP saddled with a "sensible" moderate that they can both stomach and cajole to stay centrist in their nightmare scenario that the Democrat loses.
Not to burst their bubble or anything, but moderately liberal National Review alumnus Josh Barro explained to Eisenberg, McIntosh, and the viewers at home how, in fact, the hawkish Lindsey Graham and the Jon Huntsman-like squishy moderate Lindsey Graham are "the same guy."
"There is a specific part of the Republican donor base that all of this together speaks to," Barro insisted, adding that there are "a lot of people who give money to the Republican Party on the East Coast" who are "either fairly socially liberal or just don't care about social issues and resent social conservatives" while at the same time being economic conservatives who oppose "disruptive economic policies like government shutdowns" and foreign policy hawks "quite eager about foreign policy adventures and wars."
