Which Lindsey?

Senator Lindsey Olin Graham. (1955-2026)

After the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham last week, folks have asked me what I thought of him.

My question in response was, "Which Lindsey?"

Writer Will Saletan has followed the public life of Senator Lindsey Graham and written several feature articles about him over the years. He recently wrote an obituary which makes the point that Lindsey had two distinct chapters in his public life, Pre-Trump and Trump.

I am happy to say that my experience with Lindsey was Pre-Trump and I had admired his public service, patriotism, loyal friendship with John McCain, and support for the rule of law. It was Senator McCain who introduced me to Senator Graham in the hallway of the Dirksen Building one cold winter's day. After a special evening at the National Archives Building in 1993, Senator McCain never failed to say hi as our paths crossed on the Hill. You can read about that evening at https://www.constancelyhoping.com/post/tapping-into-history

During Graham's campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 2015, he was Donald Trump's most outspoken critic, saying such things as "He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, " and "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."

However, when Trump won the presidency Graham broke with his friend John McCain, and became one of Trump's most important allies in the Congress. Some of us chalked that up to pragmatic politics, even though Lindsey's break with an American hero like John McCain was hard to watch. That was a head scratcher, but his promotion of Trump during the Biden presidency and his blind devotion to Trump 2.0 broke all norms of decency, decorum, and morality. Lindsey, what the hell happened?

Again, Will Saletan attempted to explain it with these words:

He (Graham) had rationalized so much corruption that he was largely desensitized to it. He had lost faith in the viability of a Trump-free Republican party. And he had convinced himself that Democratic-led government would be ruinous. Therefore, Republicans had to win the next election. And to win, they had to placate Trump.

All that was far in the future when I took my boss to see Senator Graham in 2009.

I was Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs at the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and my boss was Helaine Barnett. In spite of a life of wealth and comfort, Helaine had devoted her career to ensuring the poor receive quality legal counsel in civil litigation. She had been the head of legal aid in New York City during the dark days of 9/11, and famously marched her team back into Manhattan to work tirelessly to represent the interests of the displaced and traumatized victims.

Helaine became President of LSC in 2004 and I came to work for her in 2007 after retiring from the National Archives. For all of her many talents, she was not a natural when it came to politics and had fallen prey to LSC's natural enemies on Capitol Hill. I followed her first lobbyist into the job after personal and policy problems had brought about his demise. I made it clear in my interview that I thought their wounds were self-inflicted, but they hired me anyway.

A good deal of the job of congressional affairs in Washington is identifying, cultivating, and giving actionable direction to members of congress regarding the funding and legislative needs of your agency. I had a good track record at the National Archives and it was frustrated Hill staff who had suggested that I take the job at LSC. One of my closest allies called me to say, "John, they need you over there."

Senator Lindsey Graham had never been on committees that aligned with the interests of the Archives. When I came to LSC, that changed. He was a lawyer. What's more he had been a government lawyer and was now sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a key oversite body for LSC.

Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, and graduated from the University of South Carolina and its law school. He served on active duty in the United States Air Force from 1982 to 1989 as a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, working as a defense attorney and as the Air Force's chief prosecutor in Europe. Later serving in the South Carolina Air National Guard and the United States Air Force Reserve, he retired as a colonel in 2015. He received the Bronze Star Medal in 2014 for his legal work relating to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With that background, it was clear to me that Lindsey was a potential advocate for our cause. My hope was that his natural support for equal access to justice would overcome the usual Republican reluctance to fund non-defense federal programs. We had a strong legal aid program in South Carolina and we were planning a trip to speak to their State Bar regarding LSC.

I worked through Senator Graham's longtime chief of staff, Richard Perry to arrange our visit to the Senator's office on Capitol Hill. We had never met, but I used Mark Salter as a go between to set up this first meeting for Helaine.

Helaine Barnett was all about meticulous preparation and approached every external meeting as if she was going to court. We always went through multiple drafts of talking points in search of the perfect words to convey our purpose. What she never quite understood was that Capitol Hill was all about relationships and small talk was often more effective that talking points. Yes, your message and your "ask" were important, but the bread that you wrapped the meat in was just as important. Did they like you was right up there with did they understand you.

I had profiled Lindsey for Helaine as whip smart, funny, somewhat unpredictable, and at his core a JAG Corps attorney. We were moving into territory where we had a 40% chance of success.

When we arrived for our appointment, Richard Perry led us into the Senator's office with the apology that the Senator was coming off the floor and would be along in just a minute. He had just finished his apology when Senator Graham burst through the back door, suit jacket over his shoulder, and his own apology on his lips. After the ceremonial hand shake and the reminder from Richard that Senator McCain had introduced us, we assumed our positions in the room.

Graham hung up his jacket on a nearby coat rack, and sat down at the right end of a long leather sofa. Richard sat at the other end, and Helaine and I took two large chairs on the opposite side of a newspaper-strewn coffee table.

Helaine always betrayed her nerves in these settings by sitting on the edge of her chair, ramrod straight, with her hands folded in her lap. Graham was a good reader of people and I immediately sensed a lion and prey atmosphere in the room.

The ice-breaker I had suggested to Helaine was our upcoming trip to Columbia to speak to the State Bar Association. As she was delivering her opening line, Graham took a pillow off the couch, put it behind his head, and stretched his feet out on the coffee table. Having established that he was at home and we weren't, he asked, "So Helaine, what are you gonna tell 'em?"

Helaine looked at Graham, now literally closing his eyes, and then at me like a deer in the headlights.

Silence dropped over the room.

You see, I had not yet written Helaine's speech for the Bar presentation, and in her literal mind, she did not yet know precisely what she was going to tell them. In spite of the fact that our ongoing message was resting in her lap, not in the form of a speech, but in her talking points, she was frozen.

After an awkward moment (probably seconds, but seemed way longer) she stammered, "Well my speech isn't prepared."

Graham opened one eye and turned his head towards me.

"Well John, what are you gonna tell Helaine to tell 'em."

Richard broke into a big smile at his boss's move. As a staffer he knew that in meetings like this, while we have written the entire script, we are to be seen and not heard. But now all three other people in the room, my boss included were looking at me.

What I said next isn't really important but suffice it to say it was very close to the talking points that we had written, re-written, and rehearsed over the previous two days. After a couple of lead points, I turned to Helaine and gave her a wide-eyed prompt to continue where I had left off. She kicked it into gear and to a close-eyed recumbent Senator, delivered her remaining talking points. Most importantly she asked that he reach out to Republican Senators Cochrane and Shelby to express his support for LSC request for increased funding. It was at that point that I made eye contact with Richard Perry. If Graham gave the nod, it would be Richard contacting the Cochrane and Shelby appropriations staffs to express his senator's interest. He smiled and gave me a wink.

When Helaine had concluded her remarks, Senator Graham opened his eyes, took the pillow from behind his head, and placed his feet back on the floor. He sat up straight and turned towards Helaine with the question, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

That was an opening to press the ask and see if we could get a verbal high sign from the Senator. Helaine didn't, but Graham concluded the meeting by mentioning the names of some of our Legal Aid of South Carolina folks and saying that he certainly understood the necessity for equal legal representation before the courts.

With the support of Senator Graham, Senator Cochrane, Senator Mikulski, and others, we reached the high water mark of LSC funding that year with $420 million. That was on the eve of the Tea Party Election that swept an army of Republicans into office who not only did not support legal aid for the poor, but saw little role for the Federal Government in anything but national defense.

With a realistic assessment of the odds, I hired my successor, folded my tent, and retreated from the field of battle.

In my retirement, the passing of the heroes and villains of my Washington years rekindle memories. Some, like Lindsey Graham wore uniforms for both of those teams and the memories are complicated.