Lindsey Graham Yells At Elizabeth Warren In Preview Of Alternate Universe Presidential Debate

So over the weekend, the Senate miraculously avoided shutting down the entire government by passing that "Cromnibus" budget bill, hooray! The bill included all kinds of special favors to special interests, including a very special little gift for giant banks that had been written by lobbyists for Citibank and inserted into the must-pass bill at the last minute.

On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a hell of a speech against the provision, which rolls back part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Now that it's passed, too-big-to-fail banks can once again engage in risky securities trades, secure in the knowledge that if the swaps go south, the losses will be insured by taxpayers, yay. Before Warren's attempt to strip out that provision failed, though, she had some final thoughts for Citibank: “I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces."

Warren's irresponsible grandstanding on behalf of taxpayers and preventing an economic collapse was not appreciated one bit by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who took her to task Friday evening:

"If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts and bring this bill down … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem."

Graham said Democrats not supporting legislation that would fund the government through September 2015 were asking for another government shutdown. "Welcome to democracy," Graham said, arguing that lawmakers shouldn't expect to get everything they want.

"I'm sure on MSNBC you're going to be well thought of, and on the liberal version of talk radio you'll have your moment with that crowd," Graham said[.]

Yeah, Elizabeth Warren, why are you so irresponsible? You don't risk shutting down the government just because a spending bill includes a last-minute tweak that could set up another 2008-style financial meltdown. You shut down the government as part of a long-tem strategy of obstructionism, in a hopeless bid to undo Obamacare. That's how you shut down the government, dummy. You, Elizabeth Warren, are what's wrong with America.

Heaven knows, Lindsey Graham just hates that sort of brinksmanship, as he admitted during the 2013 government shutdown, when he called on Democrats to be reasonable and just kill Obamacare a little, for the good of the country:

We won’t be the last political party to overplay our hand, he said. It might happen one day on the Democratic side. And if it did, would Republicans, for the good of the country, kinda give a little? We really did go too far. We screwed up. But their response is making things worse, not better.

Happily, it's now a moot point, and we can look forward to some very responsible big-bank behavior that will surely prove Elizabeth Warren was merely a worrywart. And probable presidential candidate -- sure, why not! -- Lindsey Graham has got to be feeling pretty chuffed at how he smacked down that prissy little schoolmarm, who is very definitely not running for president herself.

[ HuffPo ]