Lindsey Graham's final phone call was to the President of the United States, and he didn't use it to chat about the weather or ask for a dinner reservation. He had just landed from Ukraine, was running on fumes, and wanted to talk about the SAVE America Act. As USA Journal reported, the late senator was pushing the election security bill right up until the moment he died, because apparently Lindsey Graham did not believe in the concept of "off the clock."
Now Senator Mike Lee is making the case that the best way to honor Graham's legacy is to actually do the thing Graham wanted done. Lee said on Fox News Sunday: "One of the best ways we could honor Lindsey Graham's legacy would be to take this up and pass it this month." This is a rare instance of a politician appearing on a Sunday show and saying something that requires actual follow through instead of just filling airtime between commercials for medication with twelve minutes of side effects.
The SAVE America Act itself is about as straightforward as legislation gets. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot. That is the entire bill. Two things. Most countries on planet Earth already require both. Polling consistently shows roughly 80% of Americans support these measures regardless of party. You could put this on a napkin and still have room for a grocery list.
The problem, as always, is the Senate. Republicans hold 53 seats but have spent months unable to wrangle 51 votes for legislation that their own voters overwhelmingly want. Lee has outlined several paths to passage, including attaching it to a must pass vehicle, holding a full floor debate, or threading parts through budget reconciliation. All viable options. All requiring the Senate to do something other than give speeches about how much they want to do something.
Here is where the math gets uncomfortable. With Graham gone, the GOP just lost a guaranteed yes vote on this bill. South Carolina will hold a special election to fill his seat, but until then the already thin margin got thinner. This is the legislative equivalent of being down a starter in the fourth quarter. You can either pick up the pace or sit on the bench and talk about how great the missing player was.
Graham flew to Kyiv ten times during an active war. The man made phone calls about voter ID legislation while presumably falling asleep standing up in an airport somewhere. He was not a person who found "we'll get to it eventually" to be an acceptable answer.
The Senate now has a choice. They can honor Graham with floor speeches and a moment of silence, which cost nothing and change nothing, or they can pass the bill he co-sponsored and championed until his last day alive. One of those options fits on a memorial plaque. The other one actually becomes law. It would be nice, just this once, if the Senate chose the option that requires doing their jobs.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
