When a United States Senator dies and both Al Franken and Ted Cruz are genuinely heartbroken — at the same time, for the same man — you’re dealing with someone genuinely rare.
The tributes that poured in for Lindsey Graham over the weekend reveal something the day-to-day political combat often obscures: he was one of the most personally beloved figures in American politics. Not beloved by everyone — the leftist ghouls celebrating on social media made sure to remind us of that — but beloved by the people who actually knew him, worked with him, and occasionally fought him on the Senate floor before going to dinner with him afterward.
The thing everyone keeps mentioning, alongside his patriotism and his work ethic, is the humor. Graham was, by nearly universal agreement, the funniest man in the Senate. Al Franken — the actual professional comedian — said so explicitly. Cory Gardner remembered him telling a joke about Colorado’s marijuana problem and his Baptist constituents with the kind of deadpan delivery that only works if you’ve spent decades around people who can tell when you’re pulling their leg. His farewell to Joe Lieberman was, by accounts from everyone who witnessed it, something close to a masterpiece — laughter used as a shield for genuine grief.
That combination — wit sharp enough to cut glass wrapped around a heart that actually broke when he lost friends — is extraordinarily rare in any walk of life. It is practically extinct in American politics.
The tributes crossed every line Washington usually treats as uncrossable. Cory Booker shared a video about their work together on criminal justice reform that was, as Joe Concha noted, genuinely moving and refreshingly sincere. John Fetterman called him a foreign policy giant and said he’d always been kind, gracious, and thoughtful. Mark Warner acknowledged their many disagreements without hesitation, then said he never doubted Graham’s love of country. Kyrsten Sinema wrote that he would “hug and fight you, all within ten minutes on the floor” — and noted that the Three Amigos are back together, which is the most Graham thing anyone said all weekend.
That’s the measure of a life in public service. Not the bills alone, not the votes alone, but whether the people on the other side of every fight remember you as a human being when it’s over.
The ghouls who spent Sunday celebrating his death never met him. Never worked with him. Never sat across a table from him and discovered, to their surprise, that he was funny and warm and absolutely relentless about the things he cared about. They know a caricature. The people posting tributes knew a person.
The last known words Lindsey Graham said in public were a joke. The last call he made was about protecting American elections.
That’s a pretty good summary of who he was.
Rest in peace, Senator.
