BRACK: Saturday wedding was refreshing, spiritual

By Andy Brack |  Saturday was a nice day for a white wedding.

It was a Chamber of Commerce afternoon — clear blue skies, relatively low humidity, a breeze to keep gnats and mosquitoes away.

Six dozen people crowded into white chairs next to blooming rose bushes. They sipped wine, strawberry-infused water and craft beer as the 5 o’clock hour approached. In the background, a fountain showered in a pond making the ambient sounds of a summer shower. Blue hydrangeas flanked the couple as a Lutheran priest intoned comforting Bible readings about love and gave a short sermon about the day-to-day joys and challenges of marriage.

It was a beautiful, refreshing service.

The bride wore a white designer dress as her octogenarian Southern mother looked on with a smile in the closest seat to the ceremony. The other bride wore a bright white shirt and off-white designer eyelet pants.

Yes, it was our first gay wedding. It was reaffirming. Why? Not only did it make guests consider their own relationships, but Saturday’s wedding said volumes about our society. These two women, committed to each other for 15 years, never thought they would be able to get married in South Carolina. They didn’t want to run to another place to get hitched. They wanted to be married in their home state with their friends, just like everyone else. And Saturday, their dream came true.

Some question these unions on political or religious grounds. But, as we explained to our young daughters, committed relationships of any variety have one thing in common: love. And that love is what the bride and bride celebrated Saturday. So let’s keep things in perspective: Isn’t the crux of the teachings of spiritual masters and several religions to nurture loving relationships and spurn hate?

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Now on to politics: In the most recent political column for Statehouse Report, we wondered why our own senior U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, was running for president. The Upstate Republican has flirted with making an official announcement for weeks, saying he’s 99 percent sure he was going to do it. An announcement is expected within a week.

An Australian who follows politics wrote wondering whether Graham would get momentum if he won the state’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary next year. Yes, he would — but he’d have to win the primary, which at this point seems highly unlikely.

It’s hard to conceive of a path for Graham, who had six challengers last year in his Senate re-election bid. While he beat all in the primary with 56.4 percent of the vote, more than two in five voters were upset enough with him to vote for somebody else. That doesn’t show lots of strong support among the GOP base, some of whom were ticked off about Graham’s position on immigration and other issues close to the ultra-conservative wing of the party.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Fast forward to today. In national polls, Graham is averaging around 1 percent. An April Winthrop Poll indicates that only 7.6 percent of likely South Carolina GOP primary voters would support their home state senator in next year’s presidential primary. And while 37 percent said they would consider voting for him, 55 percent said they would not.

So just based on numbers, it’s hard to see how Graham could get the support at home to gain any momentum to win the GOP presidential nod. But why he would want to try at all? A number of theories emerge after talks with those who follow Republican politics: Maybe he wants another job (vice president, secretary of state or secretary of defense) if a Republican takes the White House. Or maybe he just wants to be a kingmaker to be able to anoint the next GOP presidential candidate and bring along key endorsements.

But a former Graham staffer says the senator would be in the race to win, not just pussyfoot around.

“He was not supposed to win the last primary without a runoff, but being a tenacious campaigner paid off,” said Bill Tuten, now a consultant in the Charleston area. “It’s another example of how he has been underestimated in the past and then over-performed. And in my opinion, he is going to join the race to win — that will be his only objective.  I honestly don’t think that he would have an interest in a cabinet position.”

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents and Statehouse Report, where a full version of his Graham column can be found here. He can be reached at: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.