By Laura Ingraham

It's been fascinating to see the reaction to Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of the John Brennan nomination. With the principled persuasive argument against the use of drones on American soil, he drew support from people across the political spectrum from Jon Stewart to Mitch McConnell, from the ACLU to Ted Cruz, his filibuster made for some strange bedfellows.

But of course, not everybody was happy. The usual snarksters on NBC's cable outlet bared their fang calling Paul's stance weird and crazy. But what's surprising is that two GOP senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain launched their own drone strike against Paul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We have done, I think, a disservice to a lot of Americans by making them believe that somehow they are in danger from their government. They are not.

I don't think that what happened yesterday is helpful to the American people. What we saw yesterday is going to give ammunition to those critics who say that the rules of the Senate are being abused. I hope that my colleagues on this side of the aisle will take that into consideration.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: To take this debate into the absurd is what I object to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Now, don't get me wrong. They have the right to disagree with Paul and the majority of GOP senators who stood with him. But, given that the filibuster lasted 13 hours, why didn't either of them have the moxie to debate their colleague face to face on the Senate floor? What were they afraid of? Presumably they could have done so either before or after their dinner with the president.

Were they jealous that a junior senator dominated the headlines and managed to galvanize left and right? Are they worried that they are becoming increasingly irrelevant as younger, more conservative senators step forward to heal and reenergize a demoralized GOP base?

Or do they really favor giving pretty much unlimited power to the president to order targeted killings as long as we say that we are at war with al Qaeda? If it's the latter, I think Rand Paul would be happy to have that debate face to face any day of the week.

If anyone is on the fringe here, it's McCain and Graham. Both men made a big mistake with their drive-by hits on Rand Paul. It is all but certain that Senator Graham will face a serious primary challenger in 2014. And I bet his first campaign commercial will go something like this: "I stood with Rand, while Senator Graham dined with Obama."

And that's "The Memo."

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