A Golf Game To Remember

That must have been some golf game. On July 27, South Carolina senator Jeff Sessions declared "if Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay."

However, nine days later things began to change Roll Call reports that following a golf game with the President on August 5

He shot 76, I shot 80. But we teamed up for the first time, and we won,” (Republican senator Lindsey) Graham said. “He made a 30-footer on 17, and I have money in my pocket today I did not have before, so I am not tired of winning yet. It feels really good.”

One week later, the senior South Carolina senator advocated on Fox News Sunday a probe into the Mueller probe, which he claimed is "corrupt to the core."  Later that morning, St. Louisian, Trump critic and Eurasian Studies scholar Sara Kendzior responded to Graham's about-face on Trump (let alone on the notion of impeachment of a President), remarking

There are a few things we should remember. One, the RNC was hacked; no one knows what happened to those emails. Two, Lindsey Graham personally was hacked and nobody knows who has those emails and what they're doing with them. Three- the RNC is complicit politically, complicit financially, complicit politically in what the Trump campaign has done in terms of illicit interactions with Russia.

That was August 12, eleven days before Graham- a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Department of Justice- would go further than he did on Fox News on August 12. On Thursday, August 23 he warned

The President's entitled to having an attorney general he has faith in, somebody that is qualified for the job and I think there will come a time sooner rather than later where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice. Clearly, Attorney General Sessions doesn't have the confidence of the President.

To review:July 27, "holy hell to pay if Jeff Sessions is fired"; August 5, plays golf with Donald Trump and "it feels really good"; August 12, "These [FBI] investigations against Trump were corrupt to the core"; August 23, "a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice" will be needed.

The prescient Kendzior, who spoke before the second most senior member of the Judiciary on 8/23Committee urged the dismissal of AG Sessions, is following the money. She commented

We have tracked all of those financial ties and there’s pretty good chance that either voluntarily or involuntarily Senator Graham has gotten mixed up in the situation and cannot be an objective observer.

Kendzior knows a lot more about this sort of thing than almost any of us, and money is a powerful motivator. But so is sex, and Occam's Razor suggests that probably is at least as great a factor in the sudden marriage between President Trump and Senator Graham.

Among members of the elite, deals frequently get made on the golf course. On that recent Sunday, Donald Trump probably gave Graham a nod and a wink (not his style) or more likely, used a megaphone.   The President may have reminded Graham about those financial ties - or about the lingering rumor that Graham, representing a Bible Belt state, is gay.

Hailing from one of the most conservative states in the country, Graham has, unconvincingly, denied the rumor. Nonetheless, there is no assumption or understanding he is gay.  As any mob boss could attest, this is when blackmail is most effective. If nearly no one is likely to believe the charge- as would be the case were someone to claim that Trump is gay- blackmail would be ineffective. If an individual is out of the closet- in terms of sexuality or anything else- blackmail would be an ineffective.

Lindsey Graham's sexuality exists in that netherworld, a sort of political purgatory- speculated, but unproven. Graham contended in December 2016 that the Russians "hacked into my email account," and compromising information about either sexual preference or financial entanglement may have been found. Somewhere on the back nine, President Trump is likely to have reminded Graham of either or both of those two great motivators of human conduct: sex and money.

Were Donald Trump to fire Jeff Sessions as Attorney General (presumably after the mid-terms), the Special Counsel's investigation would become highly imperiled. Democrats must find out if and why Lindsey Graham is being blackmailed, and must not keep it to themselves. The stakes are much too high to do otherwise.

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