Has Lindsey Graham gone crazy?

[leftyladyfrommo]

Maybe all the pressure got to him.

He is a mess.

[DFW]

1. I have several theories as to what's up with him

None of them are really very complimentary, so I'll just keep them to myself until there is more concrete evidence for one or the other.

[Chemisse]

2. I read...

he was under investigation for campaign funding violations in his home state, but I can not confirm the validity of the information.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I read that, too. nt

[njhoneybadger]

3. Yah, pressure of being blackmailed

As my dear old dad used to say "he looks as nervous as a whore in church"
Seriously it seems like there is an invisible man standing next to him with a gun to his head.

[shanny]

4. I think Steve Schmidt nailed it

when he called him an emasculated ? Something who just needed to attach himself to the nearest strongman....it was McCain, now it's Rump. (It was in a couple of tweets. Searches are hard on my phone but you can probably find them).

But yeah it sure seems to be doing a number on his head (hitching your sidecar to a lunatic has its downside). Or maybe he was always this crazy. He certainly has always been weak.

[Funtatlaguy]

10. Schmidt uses his words carefully. Emasculated was purposely used.

[shanny]

16. I noticed that too.

[duforsure]

5. He already was

Just hid it well from everyone.

[MrScorpio]

6. He's bucking to be Trump's new AG

Once Beauregard is canned

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. I think Beauregard is smarter than both of them.

God. what a nest of vipers.

[Socal31]

9. I could feel the tide shift when he went on his rant.

I went back and read the transcript as well, and I think his theatrics over-shadowed the actual content. It was no dog whistle. Whatever it was, it was even louder than a bullhorn.

[Funtatlaguy]

11. Quite theatrical it was indeed. Was worried he'd get the va-puhs.

[Wounded Bear]

12. Lindsay's always been a worm...

[tavernier]

13. Yes

[dalton99a]

14. "What beautiful fairways you have, Mr. President. What a virile tee shot."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/opinion/sunday/lindsey-graham-brett-kavanaugh.html

Graham’s closest ally and constant companion in the Senate, a man he claimed to revere beyond measure, was John McCain. And Trump, at the beginning of his campaign, bizarrely and grotesquely mocked McCain’s long, brutal years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. Trump’s belittling of McCain never ceased, and Graham took proper offense — for a while. Then Trump became president, started inviting Graham to play golf and Graham parted ways with his nerve and his spine. What beautiful fairways you have, Mr. President. What a virile tee shot.

That’s the sad part I mentioned. And this is the absolutely pathetic twist: McCain, battling brain cancer, stopped spending much time in Washington, and as his health deteriorated, Graham’s ardor and cheerleading for Trump intensified. McCain, you see, wasn’t just Graham’s friend. He was his road to greater relevance. And Trump presented a veritable expressway. So Graham switched vehicles and directions, and pressed the pedal to the metal.

He went from defending Jeff Sessions to pushing him toward the exit, from sounding the alarm about Russia to hyperventilating about the Justice Department and the F.B.I., from calling Trump a “kook” to savaging the media for portraying him as one, from wanting to put Trump on a bed of nails to fluffing his pillows and smoothing his duvet. At times he gushes so much that he makes Rudy Giuliani look withholding.

Shocker of shockers: He now has a nearly open line to the president and the president in turn calls him. White House reporters routinely mention this and him. He has all the TV time that he could ever want. On Thursday he got a prime spot at The Atlantic Festival in Washington, where he was interviewed by the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. On Friday he got a big profile in the Style section of The Washington Post.

[elocs]

15. What is meant by "gone crazy"? Is it meant in the clinical sense?

Because I have a goddaughter who has paranoid schizophrenia and she has been called "crazy" yet she is mentally ill with a disease and cannot help herself.
We give politicians a pass by putting such labels on them or diagnosing them with a mental illness or personality disorder.

Perhaps Graham is worried about being outed on something. Trump is another case. He is a man who grew up with a sense of entitlement who is self-centered and cruel and lacks empathy. This is who he is and who he chooses to be and I don't see the point of clinically diagnosing him with any mental illness or personality disorder which would not be his fault. We don't blame a schizophrenic for hearing voices or somebody being treated for depression for trying to kill themselves.
But we need to carefully consider the use of the word "crazy" in regards to people we don't like or don't like what they do or say just as we would with using the word "retard".

[OilemFirchen]

17. Pretty sure that there is no clinical use of "crazy" anymore. (n/t)

[JHB]

18. "Gone"? Implying recently?