A Japanese-American lawmaker took offense Wednesday after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham likened the Democrats' drive on health care to a Japanese suicide attack in World War II. Graham, in a radio interview in his home state of South Carolina, lashed out at the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, over her efforts to bring Democrats in line to approve health care reform, a top priority for President Barack Obama. 'Nancy Pelosi, I think, has got them all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here,' Graham said. Representative Mike Honda, who spent part of his childhood interned due to his Japanese origin, asked Graham to 'show respect for our fellow Americans.' 'I am disheartened that Senator Graham chose to use racially tinged rhetoric to express his opposition to health care reform,' said Honda, who heads the Asian- American caucus in Congress. 'There is a way to engage in healthy debate without alienating Asian-Americans, who are an important part of this democracy and health care reform,' he said in remarks that he partially posted on Twitter. Honda, a Democrat from California, is a strong proponent of the bill which aims to extend coverage to at least 31 million uninsured Americans and end abusive practices by insurance companies. Graham replied that he was making a broader point -- that he believed there was already too much government involvement in health care. 'My comments really reflect the fanaticism of the Democratic leadership. And I don't know whether (it was) sake or moonshine, but no sober person would do this,' he said. 'What I would ask the congressman to do is stop this process (so that) all Americans, Japanese-Americans included, do not need to lose their choice in health care,' Graham told Fox News. The explanation did not assuage Honda, who hit back that health care reform would in fact open up choices for Americans by 'putting the health care industry in its place.' 'For the senator to add 'moonshiners' to an already unsavory sake and suicide statement does a disservice to the underlying issue,' Honda said. 'I question who has, in fact -- to use the senator's words -- lost their political mind.' The row comes a year after another Republican senator, Charles Grassley, upset some Asian-Americans by suggesting that executives of bailed-out insurer AIG should commit suicide after accepting millions of dollars in bonuses. 'In the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology,' Grassley had told a radio station in his home state of Iowa. He later said his remarks were 'exaggerated.' 