Is Lindsey Graham an idiot?
Philip Klein of National Review thinks so. In fact, his latest column is called Lindsey Graham is an idiot.  Klein bases his assessment on the fact that Graham is now back on board the bipartisan infrastructure deal. Graham had jumped off when Joe Biden said he would only sign the bipartisan bill in tandem with a multi-trillion dollar Democrats-only reconciliation bill containing the rest of his liberal wish list. At that point, Graham declared that Biden had made him look like a f idiot.  Because its still clear that Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi view the bipartisan bill and the Dems reconciliation bill as a package, its understandable that Klein calls Graham an idiot. Ive made many derogatory comments about Graham over the years, but Ive never considered him unintelligent. I still dont. Its difficult for anyone on the outside to know just how the infrastructure-plus saga will play out in a bipartisan scenario and how it would play out without Republican buy-in. My sense is that the legislative result will be basically the same whether its the product of two bills  a bipartisan deal plus reconciliation  or just one reconciliation bill. In either case, it will come down to what Joe Manchin wants. Similarly, my guess is that the political fallout will be more or less the same in either scenario. Its conceivable that Manchin will force Democrats to take a somewhat smaller total package to reward Republicans for their bipartisanship. On the other hand, its conceivable that, to keep the price tag of a reconciliation bill down, he would take a somewhat smaller total package if Republicans forced him to do the whole thing through reconciliation. At the most, though, were talking about marginal differences, I suspect. My preference, nonetheless, is for making the Democrat go it alone. But thats mainly because of my distaste, on aesthetic grounds, for bipartisanship.