It was the late, great journalist Norman Mailer who once observed, “The desire for success lubricates secret prostitutions in the soul.”

Which brings us to South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Once the hero of the conservative movement for his courageous stand against the libidinal Bill Clinton in the House impeachment proceedings of 1998, Lindsey has since evanesced into a mere shadow of his once-stalwart self. Or, for that matter, of any other wannabe leader with scarcely a thimbleful of testosterone flowing through his anemic system.

Today, Graham is little more than the ever-eager turn-to guy whenever the hard left needs a squishy sycophant to carry its water through the corridors of Congress. As evidenced most recently by his teaming up with liberal totem John Kerry to co-author a New York Times op-ed endorsing the highly controversial, disastrously costly cap-and-trade legislation.

As the green web site Grist.com breathlessly enthused:

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of this joint declaration. It ensures that the Senate bill will be bipartisan. It demonstrates that there is a pathway to 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. And it establishes comprehensive energy and climate legislation as the next item on the Senate agenda after health care reform, meaning there is a very real shot at Senate passage prior to Copenhagen.”

In short, in one fell stroke, Graham betrayed scores of his Senate colleagues and tens of millions of Americans who know that the cap-and-trade bill will paralyze American industry and cost the average household as much as $3000 a year.

Carter Clews is the Executive Editor of ALG News.