Lindsey Graham Is The Defense Industry's Man

South Carolina's senior senator, Lindsey Graham, loves the "War on Terror". He told Fox and Friends this morning that he's "glad" Verizon is turning over to the NSA phone records of average Americans:

I’m glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country...I’m a Verizon customer. I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States. I don’t think you’re talking to the terrorists. I know you’re not. I know I’m not. So we don’t have anything to worry about.

Senator Graham vehemently defends his favorite war. After learning that Rand Paul called the Verizon/NSA partnership a "an astounding assault on the Constitution", Senator Graham took to attacking libertarians:

Sen. Rand Paul, he's a libertarian, and in Rand Paul's world you have almost no defenses against terrorists...I see the threat to our nation differently.

Indeed he does. Graham continues to support nearly every federal "War on Terror" initiative--no matter how invasive--, even though the erosion of civil liberties has become a "hot topic" among conservatives. Perhaps one can better understand why he's such a strong advocate of controversial defense programs by looking at his top campaign contributors. From OpenSecrets:

4 of Graham's top 5 contributors from 2007 to 2012 have profited greatly from the senator's favorite war. SCANA is a major Department of Defense supplier. Nelson Mullins, et al. is a law firm that specializes in DoD procurement contracts. Motley Rice, LLC is a law firm that specializes in "War on Terror" litigation. And Boeing is one of the nation's largest DoD vendors.

Seth Mason, Charleston SC