The Crossed Pond

The county GOP covering Charleston in South Carolina has voted to censure Lindsey Graham for working with John Kerry on emissions legislation, as well as for supporting TARP and McCain’s immigration bill.

One of the whereas’:

Whereas, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham – in the name of bipartisanship – continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism.

Obviously, it’s a non-binding resolution by some pissant county chair, but it’s getting a fair bit of media play, especially in the state, and represents just more fuel on the fire burning up GOP moderates. This on the heels of a new poll showing a staggering collapse of Maine GOP support for Olympia Snowe, to the extent that Matt Yglesias posited:

“Based on this polling, a Snowe who votes for a comprehensive health care overhaul is basically not going to be viable as a GOP primary candidate. Conversely, a Snowe who votes for comprehensive health reform and switches parties would remain a very popular general election candidate with a safe seat.”

Of course, she’s not up until 2012, which gives ample time for the Obama reelection race to overshadow her and for new GOP intra-party warfare targets to emerge.

But still, it’s become clear that Hoffman wasn’t a one-off. It’ll be really interested to observe in the coming months how 2010 Republican primaries start shaping up.