Orangeburg, S.C. attorney and Afghan War veteran Bill Connor is officially the fourth person to challenge incumbent “Republican” Lindsey Graham for the U.S. Senate.
Confirming reports published on FITS last month, Connor filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on November 5.
A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Connor has run for office unsuccessfully in the past. In 2010, he lost to former S.C. Lt. Gov. Ken Ard in the GOP runoff for lieutenant governor. The following year he mounted an unsuccessful bid for chairman of the S.C. Republican Party.
Already campaigning against Graham are Charleston, S.C. businesswoman Nancy Mace, S.C. Sen. Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg) and Upstate businessman Richard Cash. Meanwhile one Democrat – Jay Stamper – has announced his candidacy, although he does not have the support of the state party (which is privately said to be supporting Graham).
Connor has made no public announcement regarding his filing. Messages sent to his cell phone were not immediately returned.
A devout social conservative (although one with some skeletons in his closet on that front), Connor presents an interesting conundrum for Graham.
“Connor is perfectly suited to attack Graham on perhaps his most glaring vulnerability – the lies he told about his military service during the early stages of his political career,” we wrote back in August.
While campaigning for Congress – and on his official website as a then-member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the mid- to late 1990s – Graham repeatedly referred to himself as “an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran.” He also repeatedly referred to himself as a “Gulf War veteran.”
Graham’s problem? He’s not a Desert Shield veteran, nor is he a Desert Storm veteran, nor is he a Gulf War veteran. While real soldiers were shipping off to fight in these engagements, Graham was a military lawyer whose closest brush with death came in preparing the wills of departing military personnel. Not only did he never see any action, he never even left South Carolina.
Asked to explain himself, Graham told The Hill it was all okay because he “never intended” to lie.
“I have not told anybody I’m a combatant,” he said. “I’m not a war hero, and never said I was. I never intended to lie. If I have lied about my military record, I’m not fit to serve in Congress.”
Which he isn’t … for any number of compelling reasons.
Anyway, while we can’t stand Connor’s sanctimonious, hypocritical brand of holier-than-thou “Republicanism,” there is no disputing his military service. He’s done multiple tours in hostile war zones – a record he never misses an opportunity to brag about.
UPDATE: Connor just posted the following message on his Facebook page …
Friends, I have a major announcement to make on Monday, but this weekend I plan to focus on military obligations (spending time with my Citadel teaching team) and spending the other time with my family. I appreciate that many calls and texts, and e-mails and will be in touch with everyone next week. In the meantime, I will make a special request for your prayers for my family. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ and I follow Him.”
32 comments
Well, we had Larry and Curly already listed as challengers, so why not a Moe?
The Three Stooges and their girlfriend. Graham is no doubt laughing his ass off.
And there’s that d-bag, Kevin Thomas.
YOU do not know Kevin Thomas. I know Kevin Thomas. And you are not only wrong, but beneath any more comment. Kevin Thomas is a great Gentleman, Senior Air Force Reserve NCO and a true Patriot.
OMG, Lindsey finally told the truth…he is NOT fit to serve in Congress. “If I have lied”…really Lindsey?
I’m really grateful he wants to serve the people of…hold on…I can’t stop laughing long enough to finish typing that.
Where do these people come from? I mean, how desperate for relevance do you have to be to hope to cruise into the US Senate, riding the wave of “momentum” you created through two failed bids for meaningless offices in-state? He’s approaching the hunger for taxpayer-subsidized ego fluffing of say, Andre Bauer. If you’re on the fence about whether SC is a corrupt backwater, the fact that Bill Connor’s name is EVER in a news source – much less in the context of running for public office- should be all the confirmation you need. I hate myself for not moving.
You can actually dispute part of his military service. When he was in law school and banging his classmate, his wife made him drop out so he would not continue to be in law school with her so his lover could finish a year ahead of time. So he took that year he had free from banging his lover and went active duty.
Don Quixote rides again! Hopefully not on a horse, though, in view of the extra pounds he’s packed on since he ran for Lite Gov. It appears that if Connor is elected to the Senate, the real looser could be Duke’s BBQ, not Lindsay Graham. Seriously, if he gains any more weight, he might want to run for Mayor of Toronto. They like ’em beefy up there, crack smoker or not. Bedeya bedeya bedeya, thats all Folks!
Who is the gender-bender gazing at him?
Bill Conner……….you will get the VAPORS ….from Nancy Mace…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_lEBr3jiA4
We wonder what position you will be rewarded with in DC…?
All these candidates will split the anti-Graham effort and Lindsey gets the nod again.
Talk to anyone who deployed with Conner. Although a ranger, he inflated his value in Afghanistan. For example, any insinuation that he was a valued assistant to Prince Harry is a lie. His ego makes him a dangerous leader and a political disaster once his lies are uncovered. Ive also heard he’s a bully, especially to his wife. In my opinion, a WORM!
Anyone who served with him refers to him as a REMF. As in his last election bid, no one who served under him will speak for him.
His “combat” service was a joke. He helicoptered in, caught the supply convoy back to base, fired his .45 into the air, and a master sergeant told him to sit down and STFU.
Obviously you were with him? Only problem with your story is that we haven’t carried .45s in about 20 years.
The comment section on this page is quite lively with Connor references-
https://www.fitsnews.com/2010/06/16/affair-rumors-hit-sc-lieutenant-governors-race/
If Graham was called to active duty during a time of war, he would be considered a veteran of that war wherever he served. However, he would not be a veteran of foreign wars unless he served in the actual theater of operations.
And he did – give it a rest. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/14/lindsey-graham-serves-mil_n_150865.html
Go after Senator Graham on the issues – warmongering, supporting stupid expenditures, just being a political pinhead in general but get off his record. It’s marginal, but he actually has worn a uniform in a combat zone which is more than 99% of the US population can say.
Egomaniac: A person whose ego exceeds both his intelligence and his capacity to see beyond his own personal interests. Dictionaries of the future will define “egomaniac” with a photograph of George W. Bush in a flight suit.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egomaniac
Looks like the Republicans may need to trade up for a bigger clown car.
First it was the 2012 Republican primary for president, that fit quite a number of clowns. Then SC had its own clown car for SC-1, and they managed to squeeze even more clowns in. Just how big of a clown car are you asking for?!
Clown Humvee is honor of Iron Man’s service? Clown short bus? Clown chartered bus? Maybe we can talk Palin into driving it I would pay to see that.
she’s too busy these days dating Jesus in her new book
The question now becomes, “Who will be in the runoff election?”
Lindsey Graham : “If I have lied about my military record, I’m not fit to serve in Congress.”
TBG stands behind um… totally agrees with Senator Graham on this.
Damn “Essentially Bill” is blowing up. Mix in a treadmill, dude. I assume with that waistline he’s done banging women that aren’t his wife…
I have not told anybody I’m a combatant
———
great. Another bush.
Hmmmm. Someone positive to vote FOR, rather than just an agent of negativeness.. Still waiting for Cash to go positive.
What a wacko. Bill Clownnnor!
Pandering his bloated claims for hero worship.
But, just like Katherine “sweet toes,” he is a political fraud and a waste.
That’s right knuckleheads…keep piling into that clown car. Drive it around a little, catch you a little spotlight. Get your name in the paper. Eventually you’ll all come crawling out of that back seat the same; as losers. If Sugarbritches was ever going to get whacked this was his year, but not by this crew.
Excuse me for interrupting, but his middle name is “MELLARD” ?—-and he is a “V” (the fifth)?
Wonder if he is receiving any VA benefits for disability, or anything else. Because, you see, being a Republican and taking bennies from the guvmint would make him a, well, typical of those govmint haters, those, um, Republicans !
rtwell he is not a bully and he is not lying. Now if he was lying he would have been busted in his Lt.gov campaign in 2010 you nitwit