WASHINGTON A throng of reporters surrounded Sen. Lindsey Graham as he walked at his normal warp speed through the tunnels beneath the Capitol.

Thrusting recorders in his face, the journalists yelled questions at the S.C. Republican, one on top of the next before he could respond.

"What's the White House meeting on immigration about?"

"Where are you and (Sens.) Kerry and Lieberman at on climate change?"

"Are you close to a deal on KSM and Gitmo?"

As the focus in Washington moves beyond health care and lawmakers look toward the fall elections, Graham finds himself in the odd position of denying recent media portrayals of him as the indispensable man - as the lone Republican senator willing to work with President Barack Obama on high-profile issues.

Graham's engagement with the Democratic president on terrorism, energy, immigration and other key policy matters angers many conservative activists, while making Graham a regular on TV news shows and keeping his name in the headlines.

Taking a short break, Graham sat outside the Senate chamber and reflected on all the attention he's received as a key deal broker.

"I'm getting far more criticism and far more credit than I deserve," he told McClatchy Newspapers. "I'm stepping out on some pretty high-profile issues, and that always helps you emerge from the pack. Quite frankly, I don't take it that seriously."

Graham is angry with Obama over the health care fracas. In uncharacteristically harsh terms, the senator decried the "sleazy" political tactics and "despicable" parliamentary maneuvers he accused Obama and allied Democratic leaders of having used to push the landmark measure through Congress.

"The consequences of passing the bill this way will be with us for a very long time," Graham said. "The president has lost his moral authority to lead this nation to make hard decisions. He has become a partisan politician in the worst way."

Yet, Graham said he won't cease his efforts to find common ground on other pressing problems.

Priority: Close Guantanamo

Graham's experience as a military lawyer who's about to serve his 20th active-duty tour in Afghanistan and Iraq positions him well to help mold the ongoing transition in U.S. anti-terrorism policies under Obama.

Over the past few weeks, a string of major newspapers and news magazines reported that Obama and Graham are nearing a "grand deal" on anti-terrorism policies.

Under the purported accord, Graham would help secure GOP support for closing the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay and moving some of the 183 terror suspects held there to a federal prison in Illinois.

In exchange, Obama would reverse his decision to try self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court in New York, agreeing instead to use military commissions for him and other alleged plotters of the 2001 attacks.

Graham helped craft the federal law authorizing the tribunals, but he said new legislation is needed to enable the U.S. to hold terror detainees indefinitely without charges and to streamline their Supreme Court-ordered access to federal courts.

"The goal here is to develop a comprehensive plan," Graham said. "I've been for closing Guantanamo for a long time. What's changed is (the Obama administration) put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into a civilian court."

Graham said Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder made a political blunder in November when they announced that Mohammed would be transferred to New York and tried there in federal court, not far from ground zero.

That decision prompted loud criticism from across the political spectrum, including some from prominent New York Democrats.

Graham, who was re-elected to his second Senate term in 2008, rebutted recent reports that Obama is on the verge of reversing that decision. Rival factions within the administration, he said, remain at odds.

Graham stands virtually alone among Republican lawmakers in calling for closing the Guantanamo prison and backing a plan to move some detainees to the Illinois site.

He is also isolated within the Senate's GOP caucus in working with Sens. John Kerry,D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman,I-Conn., on legislation to stem global warming.

The S.C. senator views his work on terrorism and climate change as interrelated.

"I don't think we'll have energy independence in a meaningful way until we price carbon," he said.

"We're more dependent on foreign oil now than we were before Sept. 11."

Graham, Kerry and Lieberman have met recently with leaders of a dozen major industries in an effort to craft what the S.C. senator describes as a more business-friendly carbon-pricing scheme.

If Congress fails to act, Graham warns, the Environmental Protection Agency will impose draconian regulations.

Push for immigration reform

Graham has also waded back into the immigration thicket, taking on an incendiary issue for which he, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and President George W. Bush were burned by conservative activists when they pushed reform legislation in 2007.

Graham and Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, gave Obama a three-page proposal March 11 at a White House meeting.

Their outline would set up a way for the country's 12million undocumented workers to gain legal status, while fortifying U.S. borders, expanding temporary worker programs and creating a biometric Social Security card "to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs."

At a briefing just before the senators' meeting with Obama, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was up to Graham to gain support from other Republican senators.

"Sen. Graham is certainly pretty well positioned to take their temperature and see what it's going to take for them to make progress on this issue," Gibbs said.

Graham acknowledged that he is doing a balancing act in trying to engage Obama and his Democratic allies, while at the same time criticizing them on numerous policy differences.

"I hope I can work with people, but I also hope I can throw an elbow," Graham said.