Craziest Republican of the Day: Lindsey Graham

By Michael J.W. Stickings

ThinkProgress:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed back against efforts to limit the availability of assault weapons during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday by echoing the paranoia of the National Rifle Association and insisting that Americans would need access to AR-15s to protect themselves from "roaming gangs" during natural disasters.

Speaking to Attorney General Eric Holder, Graham argued that an AR-15 would have been "a better defense tool" than "a double-barrel shotgun" in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy.

Um, does Graham know anything about the damage an AR-15 can do? And he really thinks people would be better off if they, and a lot of other people, had these killing machines, these weapons of mass destruction, to defend themselves? 

Holder pointed out that it's unlikely that "New Orleans would have been better served with people with AR-15s in a post Katrina environment," which was marked by chaos, violence and looting. 

You know, between this, and his anti-Hagel nonsense, and his call for cuts to health care, and his call for more war in Afghanistan, and his fearmongering about the national debt, and so much else on top of all that, Graham's really making a name for himself on the Republican crazy front (while still trying to play the maverick bipartisan card for the Beltway media).

Then again, is it crazy to keep playing the crazy card when you're facing re-election in South Carolina and just to get through the Republican primaries you need to prove your craziness bona fides without any room for deviation from the party's base-crazy extremism?

Or is it crazy to embrace the crazy regardless?

The guy knows what he's doing, I'll give him that. But he's still fucking crazy.