Sen. Lindsey Graham is considering a run for the White House. Official Washington says the South Carolina Republican actually is running for secretary of defense. But could his eyes be on Foggy Bottom instead?

The idea behind the straight-talking Ssoutherner's would-be presidential campaign, analysts and aides say during idle chitchat, is to raise his national profile. Since his native South Caro­lina is an early GOP primary state, a strong showing in the Palmetto State could turn Graham into more of a household name.

Almost no one is giving Graham a shot at the Republican nomination. For good reason. A recent CNN poll asked likely voters to pick from a menu of possible GOP candidates and then name the one they would support for the party's 2016 nomination.

How many chose Graham? One percent.

So what is he up to? Washington's chattering class believes the Air Force Reserve colonel and longtime Armed Services Committee member wants to show the American people — and the eventual GOP nominee — that he's got what it takes to be defense secretary under a Republican president.

But the more he speaks about foreign policy and national security issues, one wonders if Graham has his eyes on another senior post: secretary of state.

Far-fetched? Consider his March 23 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He told a luncheon crowd that he hopes a potential nuclear deal with Iran does not "break a relationship between the Congress and the United Nations itself."

What's more, Graham called foreign aid "a tool to enhance our national security." He went so far as to call those aide dollars "every bit as effective, if not more so, than kinetic tools," almost immediately doubling down by calling kinetic tools — meaning military tools — "a smaller piece of the puzzle."

It's all enough to make a longtime Graham watcher plop down under a Palmetto tree with a sweet tea, in need of a moment to ponder this new Lindsey — Candidate Graham. Diplomat Graham. Secretary of State Graham?

Defense News reporter John Bennett at Gannett Government Media in Springfield, Va., on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. (Mike Morones/Staff)

Defense News reporter John Bennett at Gannett Government Media in Springfield, Va., on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. (Mike Morones/Staff)

Photo Credit: Mike Morones

Graham says he isn't interested, telling CongressWatch that no Cabinet post has "any allure to me."

But some of his Senate Republican colleagues say he'd be a good pick to run US foreign affairs.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Graham "could be president," adding about the top diplomat post: "He could get that without running for president."

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has seen a dozen Senate-confirmed secretaries of state in his 38-year career, said of Graham: "He could hold a whole variety of positions — he has the intelligence, he has the good appearance, he's articulate ... so he can be almost anything."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has started calling Graham "my illegitimate son," says Graham predicted almost every move Russia has made in Ukraine.

But Graham's hawkish past may prove to be an anchor too heavy.

"My concern with him, in general, if you follow his comments the last 10 years, he would have gotten us into many wars," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said in a brief interview. "So I have a feeling that this leaning toward going to war, that's not someone for the job."

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