IS THIS WHACKJOB GOING TO BEAT LINDSEY GRAHAM IN THE 2014 SOUTH CAROLINA GOP SENATE PRIMARY?

Politico reports:

A likely primary opponent of Lindsey Graham wants the South Carolina Republican senator to join John McCain in apologizing for criticizing Rand Paul’s filibuster.

State Sen. Lee Bright said he is "leaning heavily toward" making a formal announcement of his candidacy not long after the April 2 runoff for the House race to succeed Tim Scott. He is interviewing paid staff. And he's counting on those who, like him, supported Ron Paul in last year's South Carolina primary to give him a base of support....

"He deliberately went out there and cut out the legs out from under a new senator who was trying to lead," Bright told POLITICO late Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "Maybe, there was some kind of guilty conscience, the fact that he hasn't led in the right direction. Maybe that's why he did that. But it was unacceptable."

...Graham, who appeared at the conservative confab on Thursday, remains the solid favorite to survive a primary. He has more than $6 million cash on hand and remains pretty popular....

Yeah, Public Policy Polling says Graham has a 66% approval rating among South Carolina Republicans -- but when you ask them whether they'd support him against "someone more conservative," his support slips to 51% (against 40% for the unnamed conservative and 9% unsure). So I think he's vulnerable.

Bright introduced a bill in 2010 that would exempt firearms made in South Carolina from federal gun laws -- and then reintroduced it after the Sandy Hook massacre. He wants to exempt virtually all adult residents of the state from new federal gun laws because these people are deemed to be members of a state militia:

... a quartet of tea-party state senators in South Carolina introduced a bill Wednesday claiming to offer pro-gun citizens a different way around the federal rules: exempt the state's unorganized militia from federal gun regulations.

The unorganized militia consists of all able-bodied people over the age of 17 who are U.S. citizens residing in South Carolina and legally allowed to purchase a firearm, according to current state law....

The bill, sponsored by state Sens. Tom Corbin, Tom Davis, Kevin Bryant and Lee Bright, excludes members of the militia -- essentially all state citizens who are at least 18 years old -- from any federal gun rules passed after New Year’s Day....

Bright, who has been named a "Taxpayer Hero" by the Club for Growth, once introduced legislation to study the notion that South Carolina should create its own currency. He likes this sort of thing, and makes extremely funny jokes on the subject:

During the 2010 session, Bright sponsored legislation passed by the state Senate that in addition to affirming South Carolina's Second-, Ninth- and 10th-amendment rights, also targeted federal health care legislation by saying state residents are not subject to any law that interferes with patients' rights to choose their own health care provider or pay for medical services directly.

"If at first you don't secede, try again," Bright said with a laugh after the legislation passed last year.

He invited people reading his campaign Web site to sign a fetal personhood pledge. He's on the board of directors of the Palmetto Family Council, which opposes "militant homosexual advocacy." Oh, and he was the South Carolina chairman of Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign.

Lindsey, you may have met your match.