South Carolina likes its RINOs, and there's no one more RINO-y than Lindsey Graham, who's been in Congress for almost 30 years, with 20 of those years spent in the Senate.  (Currently, Graham is more interested in representing Ukraine's interests than America's.  Typical.)  What's weird, though, is that Graham has decided to stick up for Joe Biden when it comes to the classified documents Biden has squirreled away everywhere.  Is Graham being his usual awful self, or, maybe, is he being crazy like a fox?  I have no idea, but I'll throw a theory out regarding the latter possibility.

So here's Graham explaining that, no matter what Biden did, his intentions weren't bad:

RINO Snake Lindsey Graham Defending Biden

“I’ve know President Biden for a long time. I’d be shocked if there’s anything sinister here.”pic.twitter.com/OdXfFbUQxM

— The Columbia Bugle рџ‡єрџ‡ё (@ColumbiaBugle) January 24, 2023

Given the very strong possibility that Biden was using national security information to enrich his family, that strikes me as a remarkably optimistic, not to say delusional, take on the growing Biden scandal.  By contrast, aside from the fact that Trump as president could not violate national security laws, nobody reasonably believes that either Trump or Mike Pence, who is also on the list of those who can't be trusted with classified documents, was selling secrets.  (Trump, by the way, has vigorously defended Pence.)

Most of us will be inclined to say, "That's just Lindsey being Lindsey."  His fealty isn't to his state or America; it's to Congress, and, for a long time, Joe was "one of them" — the Congressmen.  Of course, Lindsey will come out with something fatuous and unhelpful when the chips are down.

Or maybe Lindsey is taking marching orders from someone much smarter than he is — namely, Donald Trump.  Before you choke on your own laughter at that suggestion, hear me out.

In mid-January, I urged Democrats to put the brakes on any plans to impeach Biden.  My reasoning was that the Democrats desperately want Biden out of the White House, and it's not because he's a liability.  He's been their good useful idiot for over two years now, and it is they who are undoubtedly behind the classified document revelations.

What I suspect is going on is that they've reached the point at which they can lay the groundwork for a chosen vice president finishing Biden's term and getting to run for president, not just once, but twice.

If a former vice president takes over midterm for a president who dies or is forced out, the calendar determines whether that onetime veep can later run for president twice or only once.  The deal is that a Veep who ascends to the Oval office less than two years before the next election can run twice; the veep who ascends more than two years before the next election can run only one more time.  Such are the nuances of the 22nd Amendment.

You'll notice that I did not say that Democrats are laying the groundwork for Kamala Harris to have two full terms as president in addition to her time finishing out Biden's term.  Everybody knows that Kamala can't win on her own and that any cheating to help her will be even more suspect than what happened in 2020.

Instead, what will almost certainly happen is that Kamala will serve as president for only the briefest time.  Then she'll step aside (no doubt in return for a good deal, such as money or a seat on the Supreme Court) in favor of a carefully selected vice president.

And who will that vice president be?  My bet is Michelle Obama.  Wayne Allyn Root thinks so, too.  Others wonder whether it will be Gavin Newsom (Nancy Pelosi's nephew) or, once again, Hillary Clinton.  Be that as it may, the Democrats want their preferred presidential candidate to have a two-year head start in the White House and then run with the incumbent advantage.

This is the last thing Trump wants.  He wants to run against Joe Biden, especially a weakened Joe Biden.  He needs Biden to stay in the White House, so he wants his allies to tamp down on the anti-Biden attacks.  Lindsey Graham may not be one of Trump's willing allies, but, in the world of political calculation, he owes Trump.  That is why he'll be at Trump's side when Trump opens his campaign in South Carolina.

Sounds Machiavellian?  Well, we've learned just how Byzantine, even Machiavellian, America's representative democracy has become.  Also, I could be totally wrong and see complex chess plays where there's nothing more than Lindsey Graham being Lindsey Graham.

Image: Lindsey Graham.  Twitter screen grab.