Last Call For Graham, Crackers

 If I were a betting man, I'd say South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham just lost his Senate seat.

Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison will no longer debate Friday night after Harrison declined to participate unless Graham took a coronavirus test in advance and Graham denied the request.

Instead of an hour-long debate, the two candidates will each participate in separate 30-minute interviews hosted by television station WSPA in Spartanburg.

The forum will air live on channels in all the major media markets of South Carolina: WCBD in Charleston, WBTW in Myrtle Beach, WLTX in Columbia, WJBF in Aiken and WSAV in Hilton Head and Beaufort. It will also be streamed live online.

The decision put an end to tumultuous back-and-forth in the final 24 hours before the debate after Harrison issued a public demand Thursday night that Graham take a coronavirus test before they debated.

Graham cast the move as a last-ditch attempt to escape the debate by adding a new requirement after the two candidates had already agreed to the debate rules weeks ago. The senator refused to take the test, citing a note from the attending physician of Congress saying that he did not need one.

Harrison continued to press for it Friday, saying in an appearance on ABC’s The View that he considered it to be a matter of safety.

“We’re disappointed that Lindsey has failed to take a simple coronavirus test, but we appreciate our hosts were able to change the event format to make it safer for everyone,” said Harrison campaign spokesman Guy King. “Jaime will be there in Spartanburg to talk to voters.”

In a series of tweets, Graham said Harrison was just trying to avoid scrutiny.

“Mr. Harrison is ducking the debate because the more we know about his radical policies, the less likely he is to win,” Graham said. “It’s not about medicine, its politics.”

I mean all Graham had to do was take the test, because Graham's FUCKING BEEN IN CONTACT WITH DONALD TRUMP WHO HAS COVID-19. 

Ahem. 

Sorry. That was probably uncalled for, and it yes, Graham is correct that Harrison's public request for Graham to be tested was obviously (at least in part) bait for Graham to take. 

Look, clearly Harrison was goading Graham into blowing his cool and trying to throw Graham off his game before a debate performance in by what all accounts is neck-and-neck contest. For all his ludicrous faults and stupid hypocrisy, Lindsey Graham is a seasoned career politician and should have expected this and dealt with it appropriately. 

Yes, he'd have to say "Look I took the test, I'm negative" but then the two of them would hash it out on the debate stage. Harrison almost certainly would have been gracious enough to thank Graham at the debate for agreeing to the test and the two of them could have played "Well Bless Your Heart" on TV for a while like Southern politicians have been doing for decades. I grew up in NC, I expect at least some genteel behavior in my villains in matters such as this, even if it is the cake scene between Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained.

What I wasn't expecting was that Graham would be so completely unnerved by this enough that he refused the request, handing Harrison the night, the debate, the argument, and most likely the Senate seat to boot, especially after Trump's similarly ridiculous behavior in the last ten days has all but cost him the race against Joe Biden.

But you see, that's worth it for Graham, because if he tests positive?

Graham is chair of the Senate Judiciary with the Amy Coney Barrett nomination. No Graham, because he tests positive, no hearing before the election.  Of course, he could be ill and he's literally risking his life by not knowing if he has COVID-19 or worse, he's hiding a positive test.

Worse still, if Graham is infected, he's risking the lives of everyone he comes in contact with, including his GOP colleagues.

I guess that's my fault. American exceptionalism was always a myth, and that applies to our villains as well as our heroes. Our historic bad guys, like Trump and Graham? 

Just petty little crybabies at heart. Sad, depressingly pathetic mortal fools.

Time to put them and the rest of the GOP in the ol' dustbin of history.