The New Maverick in the Village

In a way it's true, now that McCain has leapt headfirst into cracked teapot politics, he is kind of the heir to the Maverick title at the moment. And while I'm no fan of Lindsey Graham or his politics, this long profile in the NYT magazine presented him in a way that does make him seem almost likeable. I was especially fond of this vignette:

On four occasions, Graham met with Tea Party groups. The first, in his Senate office, was “very, very contentious,” he recalled. During a later meeting, in Charleston, Graham said he challenged them: “ ‘What do you want to do? You take back your country — and do what with it?’ . . . Everybody went from being kind of hostile to just dead silent.”

And I have to admit, this endeared him to me a lot.

The row house on Capitol Hill that Graham purchased in 1998 is sparsely adorned, says a friend, “with early college-reject furniture” that was in fact left behind by the previous owner. It took months for Graham to realize that someone had stolen a TV of his, since it was in his kitchen, which he never uses.

I still don't have "grown-up" furniture and while I have been spending a bit more time in my kitchen than he does lately, I can so relate. I've never used more than two burners on my stove for decades and I've been in this new place for six months now. When I moved in I broke out two pots, a frying pan and a colander. The rest of my cooking utensils are still packed.

Anyway, it's an interesting piece. Worth a read in full.

[ So embarrassing to have to ask. Please help if you can]