Senator Lindsey Graham spoke with about 150 Charleston Tea Party members Wednesday at the North Charleston City Hall. One member, Charles Early, says Graham had some good things to say, but-
Bottom line is when he said he doesn’t believe in the Constitution of the United States, I’m done. We have nothing else to talk about at that point because that sets up the parameter by which we are going to deal with things and run this country.
Overall, Senator Graham says he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting– a meeting with NO media allowed.
There’s an element of the media out there that wants to make the Tea Party people and anybody who has a strong opinion about a controversial topic look less than flattering. I think the people at the meeting were very respectful, had good questions. We had good exchanges. Sometimes they agreed, sometimes they didn’t.
These exchanges were after Graham actually kicked members of the media out, after they arrived uninvited. Early gives his thoughts:
I believe he pushed the media out and made a big deal out of it to appear to be one with us.
But, that’s not what Graham says.
A lot of people feel intimidated at big meetings, and some people don’t want to be on the front page of the newspaper or on TV asking a question or giving me a piece of their mind.
It was a piece of Graham’s mind that Early didn’t want to hear.
And so what he is basically saying: ‘We have the right to do whatever we want to do in Washington D.C. and you’re just going to have to live with it because we are smarter than the founders of this country and we see things differently from what they saw.
Early says he left with questions:
What are we following? What game are we playing? Are we in Lindsey-ville? Where are we? If there are no rules to the game, I don’t know how to play. He (Graham) said the Tea Party is a bunch of angry people and we need to turn anger into policies or whatever else.
