Lindsey Graham retired as a colonel in the Air Force reserve, but by his own admission he didn't do very much.  Craig Whitlock writes in the Washington Post:

During his first decade in Congress, the Air Force promoted Graham twice even though documents in his military personnel file reveal that he did little or no work. Later, the Pentagon gave the military lawyer a job assignment in the Air Force Reserve that he highlighted in his biography for several years but never performed.

If someone in the private sector put a false history on his resume, he would be fired.  But Lindsey was promoted.

... he rarely put on his uniform. According to his personnel file, between January 1995 and January 2005 he received credit for a total of 108 hours of training — the equivalent of less than a day and a half per year.

During that span, however, the Air Force kept awarding him promotions. In 1998, he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Six years later, he was promoted to colonel by President George W. Bush.

In interviews with The Washington Post, Graham called that period the “wilderness years” of his military service. He said he struggled to find a useful niche in the Reserve and that his legislative duties left him little time to devote to his military career.

Even so, Graham said his promotions to lieutenant colonel and colonel were warranted. He said he earned them primarily based on his work as a junior officer, before he became a politician, when he served as a full-time military prosecutor and defense counsel.

This is pure sophistry.  No one is promoted to colonel in the military largely based on his performance as a junior rank.  When a soldier is promoted, it is based on the entire record, but most prominently what the soldier did in his current rank.  It's offensive that Graham would try to promote such a weak explanation.

The real problem isn't with Graham; it is with those who bought him off, and by that I mean George W. Bush and the Air Force.  Both wanted his vote, for obvious reasons, and buying him off with promotions was an easy way to do it.  Bush needed him to support his agenda, and the Air Force needed him to support its appropriations.

Aside from his misrepresentations of his work, Graham didn't do anything wrong.  Perhaps he simply wanted to serve his country.  The main problem is the appearance of Graham being bought off by the military.  I'm a big supporter of the military, but giving phony promotions to curry support is not commendable.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.