First Read: "Anyone else noticed that Lindsey Graham is more likely to sound like John McCain these days than John McCain? He, more than McCain, this year has shown a tendency to do two things McCain made famous over the last decade: buck his party (see Sonia Sotomayor vote) and talk bluntly about former President Bush."
For instance, on Meet The Press yesterday, Graham faulted Bush for being too close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai: "As the Karzai government failed, President Bush, in my view, did not push him enough. You had ambassadors on the ground, and military commanders going to Karzai, pushing him very hard on governance, and President Bush would talk to Karzai and, quite frankly, undercut the effort." Graham added: "President Obama is smart to push Karzai."
"It's a pretty damning statement for a Republican to say the previous president undercut efforts by the rest of the American team in Afghanistan, at least on the civilian/diplomatic side of things. While McCain has become a more predictable foe of this administration (check out his voting record, btw), Graham, himself close to McCain, has, at a minimum, set himself apart a bit as an unpredictable critic."
