The day starts early, 7 or 8 with him in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building near Constitution Ave and C Street. He sits at a finely polished cherry wood desk in a high-backed soft black swivel chair working diligently on constituent requests and legislative priorities. There is a buzzer in this office that lets him know when a vote takes place on the floor of the United States Senate, “the world’s most deliberative body.” Today he works on preparations for the Confirmation hearings on Judge Alberto Gonzales to Attorney General of the United States. He plans to grill Judge Gonzales on things like the Geneva Convention, which as an Air Force Judge Advocate he knows well. Also on his desk this day is Social Security reform an issue that he took on as a member of the House and won the senate seat on this issue.
Now, he confidently strides to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for the hearing, smiling and extolling his pleasant, good natured character. Of course the hearing he is attending is a Confirmation hearing on “Executive Nominations”, specifically that of Alberto Gonzales. Graham ignited an exchange with Judge Gonzales and a confrontation with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity
Grilling Gonzales
Sen. Graham: And to those who think that the Geneva Convention is a nicety or that taking torture off the table is naive and a sign of weakness, my answer to them is the following, that Secretary Powell has been in combat, and I think that you weaken yourself as a nation when you play cute and become more like your enemy instead of like who you want to be. So I am publicly going to say that the lawyers in the Secretary of State’s Office, while I may disagree with them, and while I may disagree with Secretary Powell, were advocating the best sense of who we are as a people. Now having said that, the Department of Justice memo that we are all talking about now, in my opinion, Judge Gonzales, is not a little bit wrong, but entirely wrong in its focus because it excluded another body of law called the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
And, Mr. Chairman, I have asked since October for memos from the working group by judge advocate general representatives that commented on this Department of Justice policy, and I have yet to get those memos. I have yet read those memos. They’re classified for some bizarre reason. But generally speaking those memos talk about that if you go down the road suggested, you’re making a U-turn as a nation, that you’re going to lose the moral high ground.
Judge Gonzales: I would respectfully disagree with your statement that we’re becoming more like our enemy.
Sen. Graham: Can I suggest to you that I didn’t say that we are like our enemy; that the worst thing we did, when you compare it to Saddam Hussein, was a good day there. But we are not like who we want to be and who we have been. And that’s the point I am trying to make when you start trying to look a torture statutes and you look at ways around the spirit of the law, than you’re losing the moral high ground.
The Confrontation
“That’s too damn bad!” Graham emphatically stated on the Sean Hannity radio show later in the day. Mr. Hannity had touched a nerve by criticizing Sen. Graham’s exchange with Judge Gonzales regarding the Geneva Convention. He is a military appellate judge and has a great respect for the law. “They had an honest disagreement,” according to Mr. Grisham the show’s producer, however, this “honest disagreement” caused at least one listener to e-mail Sen. Graham to register disappointment. “I listened to your remarks today & on the Sean Hannity radio program today. I must tell you that I am very disappointed in your comments & attitude today. Not only were you quite cavalier in your remarks regarding this issue (“That’s too damn bad!”) on Sean’s show.” This respondent was from Sacramento, CA.
Bipartisan Working Group
“What they’re worried about is that they’d embrace a particular plan and the other side will demagogue the hell out of it.” This prophetic statement Lindsey Graham made came true, even though the President has yet to endorse a plan.
However he feels there needs to be sacrifice for the idea to work and he is leading the way. “Why should I expect someone in this job to be braver than I want to be?” he asked in an interview. “I’m asking both parties to sacrifice their ideology for the common good.” Graham is working with a small group of Republicans and Democrats to find a bipartisan solution to the problem. “He’s playing an important role. He seems to have the guts to make a proposal,” according to Senate colleague Joe Lieberman, a Democrat.
Independent and Rambunctious
An independent, and some would say rambunctious streak showed itself early, as Graham worked to overthrow Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in 1997. In the end Gingrich survived the coup but not before Graham had the last say: “I can’t intimidating.” This caused a laugh around the room and even Gingrich managed a smile. This was not the first time Graham had drawn attention too his small stature. In response to being asked to comment on the late Strom Thurmond: “I’m 5-foot-7 and about 150 pounds. I don’t think you’ll see me rassling anybody to the floor. But people in South Carolina do like their Senators to go up there and shake it up a bit.” However, the small statured Graham lettered in wrestling when in high school.
Atlanta: 
Citizen Governor 