(Oct. 14) -- As Republicans search their ranks for a new leader, there's also a bit of competition developing for the title of party maverick.
The AP is hailing Olympia Snowe as the GOP's new female maverick -- supplanting Sarah Palin -- because the senator from Maine is the only Republican who voted for the Finance Committee's health care reform bill Tuesday.
But when it comes to going rogue, Snowe's Senate colleague from South Carolina appears to have the edge. Lindsey Graham teamed up with Democratic Sen. John Kerry for a New York Times op-ed pushing climate change legislation a few days ago. Graham's stand is winning him friends on the other side of the aisle in the Senate, as well as in the White House, according to the Times.
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Graham was a frequent campaign-trail sidekick to original maverick John McCain, another Republican renegade on global warming. Like McCain, Graham also favors immigration reform -- which detractors have taken to calling "Grahamnesty."
Many readers of The Point posted comments ripping Graham when he criticized Fox's Glenn Beck earlier this month. Elsewhere online, conservative bloggers have labeled him a "traitor," a "fake Republican" and even a "wussypants, girly-man, half-a-sissy," Huffington Post reports.
Monday, he got an in-person version of that venom at a raucous town hall meeting at Furman University. There was so much pointing and shouting that Graham had to tell everyone to "chill out." And the heckling came not only from traditional conservatives but from Tea Party activists and libertarian supporters of Ron Paul.
"We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," Graham shot back. "I'm not going to be let it be hijacked by Ron Paul."
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One Thing Leads to Another
Not that the following stories are necessarily connected, but sometimes certain headlines just catch your eye. See if you detect any patterns in these nuggets of media news.
Huffington Post: Glenn Beck Compares Fox News to Jews During Holocaust
The Daily Beast: How Fox News Outsmarted the White House
Jenn Q. Public: South Carolina: The Fox News of States
Think Progress: Limbaugh Proudly Claims to Have Spawned Glenn Beck
