Senator Kit Bond

Lindsey Graham Working to Repair Rift with Tea Party

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lindsey Graham has spent the past year trying to patch things up with South Carolina's politically powerful tea party groups, but they aren't ready to forgive him just yet.

Many tea party activists in the state are still angry with Graham for telling the New York Times in July last year the movement was "unsustainable" and lacked "coherent vision."

That's just one instance in which Graham and the tea party have clashed. But Graham now seems determined to change his ways. This month, for example, he dismissed Democratic assertions that tea party Republicans in the House were to blame for Friday's downgrade in the country's credit rating because they had refused to compromise during the debate over raising the debt ceiling.

"If we'd listened to the tea party, we'd have $4 trillion reductions in debt over time and not been downgraded," Graham said on the CBS show Face The Nation. "Thank God they're here."

Graham said Tuesday he considers the tea party an agent for positive change. Tea party-backed freshmen, not veteran lawmakers, are working to reform Washington's spendthrift culture, he said after an event in Upstate.

"The tea party is the result of Washington being broken, not the cause," he said. "There are elements of the tea party that I think I can do business with."

His conciliatory moves have been noticed back home. But tea party activists aren't convinced he's sincere.

"He has come around to the fact that he can't ignore us any longer," said Karen Martin, coordinator of the Spartanburg Tea Party. "The moves he has been making to the right have nothing to do with his core convictions. There is nothing he can do or say to make amends."

Hal Nichols, a Bamberg County pastor and coordinator of the South Carolina Coalition of Tea Parties, said Graham still has time to resurrect his image with the groups before he comes up for re-election in 2014.

Graham realizes he needs the tea party to keep his job, Nichols said, but added, "he still has a lot of work to do to earn tea party trust."

The ultraconservative movement is particularly strong in South Carolina. It helped four freshmen win election to the House last year and sent a little-known state legislator named Nikki Haley to the governor's mansion.

David Woodard, a Clemson University political scientist, said last June's GOP primary results were a wake-up call for Graham. But South Carolina tea partiers have a long list of complaints against Graham, and analysts say his actions will be closely watched ahead of the 2014 election.

Legislation names new federal courthouse in honor of Bond

“Kit Bond has committed much of his life to helping Missourians both as a two-term Governor and four-term Senator, and I can’t think of a more appropriate public servant to honor in our capital city,” said Blunt, Bond’s successor. “As we look ahead to the completion of this project, I’m pleased that this courthouse will bear Senator Bond’s name in recognition and appreciation of his many years of service to Missouri.

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