Political Punch

Who’s Gunning for Lindsey Graham?

His vote for Elena Kagan’s nomination is just the latest conservative heresy from South Carolina’s senior senator. Samuel Jacobs on the Tea Party’s preferred challenger: Love Gov. Mark Sanford.

Lindsey Graham is toast—or so say conservatives nationwide and at home in South Carolina. On Tuesday, Graham cast a vote in favor of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. His “aye” made him the first Republican lawmaker to back Kagan and marked the latest in a series of decisions that have made Graham the object of intense anger among Tea Party activists and others on the Republican Party’s right wing.