Senator Lindsey Graham believes a compromise is within reach, as far as immigration and ending the government shutdown.

That is, if all the clingers in Trump’s ear can back off.

He’s got a problem with a particular clinger, actually: Stephen Miller.

Speaking on Sunday, Graham suggested that it’s Trump’s staff that are impeding progress.

 “Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere,” Graham told reporters as he headed into a closed-door negotiation with a bipartisan group of senators.

He added that “the White House staff, I think, is making it very difficult.”

Miller formerly served as a staffer for Senator (now Attorney General) Jeff Sessions, and cultivated his strict immigration views there.

It’s Miller who has crafted the White House’s immigration plan, including the call for wall funding and punishments for so-called “sanctuary cities.”

What? You thought Trump came up with those things on his own?

Graham said on Sunday that Miller has “been an outlier for years” on the issue of immigration.

Democrats have repeatedly bristled at Miller’s involvement, arguing he isn’t a constructive force in the immigration talks.

In fact, Chuck Schumer groused that the failed talks, regarding keeping the government up and running came after an agreement had been reached between he and Trump, only to have Trump get a call from Miller and then abruptly change his mind.

Miller supposedly told him that making a deal on DACA would enrage his base.

To be frank, DACA is not a spending issue and never should have been included with the talks. That’s the failing of the Democrats, for asking for too much, too soon.

How future talks go and who gives up what ground, in the long run, is going to be an interesting game of Chicken.