Lindsey Graham's sudden death has elicited plenty of nauseating remembrances from his colleagues in the Senate, none of whom seemed to be all that ashamed to speak and write warmly about a guy whose life's work was bigotry and warmongering. But no tribute has been as bone-chilling as the one offered up last night by Atlantic staff writer Ashley Parker.
Here's how Parker decided to remember the man she used to cover while working for The New York Times:
Like anyone who’s spent any time around politics, I have many Lindsey Graham stories. This is perhaps my favorite…
I was covering Congress (Best! Beat! Ever!) for the NYT when the Mother Emanuel shooting happened in Charleston. It was summer, but I was wearing pants and a sweater that day because it was always SO freezing in the Capitol. Anyhow, news of the shooting came down, and the DC Bureau chief called me with an order: Get yourself to Charleston ASAP and glue yourself to Graham’s side. She wanted a piece on the senator grappling with the unimaginable. So I headed straight to the airport, arriving in Charleston with just my backpack and what I’d be wearing to work that day, and linked up with Graham.
He had me meet him at a restaurant, where I told him I needed to shadow him for the next 48 hours. And he looked at me, with amused distaste, and said: “You are sticky. And you are icky. If you want to shadow me, go buy some nice new clothes—maybe a dress—and take a shower, and then we’ll talk.” (He was not wrong; I was sweaty and gross).
So I drove to a local big box store, bought a dress (he seemed to have a strong preference for a dress), and spent the next few days with him, resulting in this piece (which, for reasons not worth getting into, ended up being fairly different than the original assignment).
If you've ever found yourself wondering how so many sociopathic thoughts and opinions get published every day in places like The Atlantic and The New York Times, here is at least a partial answer. These are publications where the type of person who fondly remembers being called a disgusting slob by a U.S. Senator, just hours after one of American history's most heinous crimes, can carve out a long and lucrative career.
