Many of the GOP’s most faithful, the kind who vote in primaries despite 115-degree heat, tired long ago of McCain the Maverick, the man who had crossed the aisle to work with Democrats on issues like immigration reform, global warming, and restricting campaign contributions. “Maverick” is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one. “I never considered myself a maverick,” he told me. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.” . . .
His dramatic shifts raise several questions: How much of his maverick persona over the years has been real and how much simply tactical? . . . Is the anger people sense in him anger at Obama, or the American electorate, or fate, or himself? . . .
Something about John McCain leaves people, on both left and right, feeling betrayed and disappointed. . . .
Yet catch McCain off guard—or off script—these days, and he can act authentically put-upon and self-pitying. His former champions in the press are picking on him, writing hatchet jobs, he suggests. . . . As for those pleas to bring back “the old John McCain,” it’s a familiar refrain to him, code for saying he’s unprincipled. The old John McCain, the current one insists, hasn’t gone anywhere: any changes in his positions are readily explainable tweaks rather than anything systematic or nefarious. He bristles at charges that he’s bitter.
“Ah, but the strawberries — that’s where I had them! They laughed at me and made jokes . . .”
Does anybody doubt that this man of deep grudges, reportedly flagrant infidelities, an intense mean streak, and a disdain for the actual substance of most domestic political issues would easily lend himself to caricature precisely because his own manifold flaws make him a walking caricature all on his own? . . .
It was Cornyn who, by giving the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s endorsement to Charlie Crist — 15 months before the Florida GOP primary — sparked the Not One Red Cent rebellion.
Over and over, we have seen recently that Republican “leadership” in Washington is a joke, their cowardice exceeded only by their incompetence. Pete Sessions and the National Republican Congressional Committee squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Dede Scozzafava campaign, and the NRCC’s candidate-recruitment efforts consist mainly of trying to find “self-funders” — e.g., Ben Quayle types with lots of Daddy’s money to throw around — rather than identifying real leaders with solid values, like Vernon Parker.
Mr. Steele agreed to meet with the immigration groups after they staged a brief but noisy sit-in at the R.N.C. offices on March 22.
Several advocates emerged from the closed-door session to say Mr. Steele had pledged to help find at least one more Republican sponsor for a bill being crafted by Senator Lindsey O. Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, a Democrat.
The advocates “walked away with a commitment from Steele to work with Sen. Lindsey Graham and the party’s leadership to enlist another Republican senator’s support for comprehensive and bipartisan immigration reform,” the leaders of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement said in a statement. The movement is a coalition of groups that support a path to legal status for illegal immigrants.
This kind of sellout — the GOP elite betraying the party’s conservative grassroots — occurs routinely. While I was in Arizona, I heard rumors that if John McCain’s big money isn’t enough to buy re-election, the NRSC will spend money to help McCain destroy J.D. Hayworth. It’s typical of the kind of clueless Republican “leadership” that spent $320,000 to help Arlen Specter defeat Pat Toomey in 2004 — and was prepared to do the same this year, until Specter decided he was a Democrat:
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, [wrote an April 2009 letter] to fellow Republicans asking them to support Specter.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — This probably has nothing to do with me showing up in Arizona, but still I question the timing:
[John] McCain asked the Obama administration Monday to send National Guard troops to the border after a prominent Arizona rancher was found shot to death on his own property.
“I am asking you and the administration to immediately reconsider your position and send National Guard troops to our southern border region,” McCain wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. . . .
McCain supported comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush years — legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for the more than 10 million immigrants currently living illegally in the U.S. . . .
Hmmm. Wonder why the Maverick suddenly got this Pat Buchanan impulse?
The position angered many on the right, but it’s a position he’s backed away from in the face a stiff primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth, a darling of tea party activists, has repeatedly attacked McCain as wrong on immigration.
Yeah, and we know that John McCain is sincere about his newfound border-security concerns, right? All that stuff a few years ago calling his critics hatemongering xenophobes — just kiddin’ guys, hahaha.
PHOENIX, Arizona — Chris Simcox, who founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and was previously a candidate in the GOP Senate primary, explains why he decided to switch to supporting J.D. Hayworth’s campaign:
Cochise County Sheriff’s Office deputies and detectives responded to an area northeast of Douglas on Saturday after searchers found the body of 58-year-old Robert Krentz inside his all terrain vehicle on his property. Detectives were able to determine that Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was fatally shot and his dog was wounded.
Cochise County investigators said Monday that Krentz likely was killed by an illegal immigrant, but there’s no evidence to suggest there was any confrontation that led to the shooting. . . .
Robert Krentz was known among fellow ranchers as a good Samaritan who often helped injured illegal immigrants trying to cross the boiling desert border into Arizona. But the 58-year-old was gunned down while tending to his ranch Saturday morning, and police suspect an illegal immigrant was to blame. . . .
Police say Krentz, whose family has been ranching in southern Arizona since 1907, was gunned down early Saturday morning by an illegal immigrant while out on his ATV tending to fences and water lines on the family’s 34,000-acre cattle ranch.
Reached by phone early Tuesday at his family’s ranch, Andy Krentz, Krentz’s oldest son, said his father was a churchgoing man who routinely went out of his way to help those in need.
“My father was a very good family man,” Krentz told FoxNews.com. “He supported his kids, supported his family. He went out of his way to help anybody we could without regarding to who they were. It didn’t matter who they were.” . . .
The Hayworth campaign issued this e-mail statement:
JD Hayworth offers his prayers and condolences to the wife, family and friends of Cochise County rancher Rob Krentz, who was found shot to death after calling into his brother that he was giving aid to an apparent illegal alien he found at one of his cattle watering holes.
Krentz was a third generation rancher on the border of Southeastern Arizona. Conservative blogs the Sonoran Alliance and DiggersRealm.com report that in the past the Krentz family had received threats from illegal aliens. In 2002, the family was physically threatened when one of them stumbled upon a group of 39 illegals.
Hayworth said, “We need the federal government to act now and step up its efforts to secure our borders. Border security is national security and it is time that we enforce the law. For thousands of Arizonans, border security is also quite literally a matter of personal security.”
Mr. Hayworth also supports Arizona SB1070 which empowers local law enforcement officers to identify, detain, and help deport those within the borders of Arizona illegally.
Hayworth is challenging U.S. Senator John McCain in the Arizona Republican primary August 24 2010. One of the reasons Hayworth is challenging John McCain, is because of McCain’s past sponsorship of legislation that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
Hayworth sponsored the anti-amnesty “Enforcement First Act” during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Arizona residents say their current U.S. Senator has done nothing to address the growing violence on the border, as one local source told the Tucson Weekly that John McCain “worries about getting his patent leather shoes dirty when he’s down here.”
Tonight, having delayed my return flight to D.C., I’ll be hanging out with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who knows a thing or two about immigration and law enforcement.
Doug from Reno was standing about 50 yards from the stage at Saturday’s “Showdown in Searchlight,” two hours before the official noon start of the rally featuring Sarah Palin. He was part of a huge crowd already gathering for the big first-day event of the Tea Party Express tour, and U.S. Highway 95 was backed up for more than a mile in either direction as thousands more made their way into the dusty lot a couple miles north of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown.
He was wearing a National Rifle Association cap and mirrored sunglasses, and had a sticker on his shirt promoting a conservative website, DumpReid.com. Doug held aloft a large hand-lettered sign: “Karl Marx and Mao Were Not Founding Fathers!”
So far as most major media organizations are concerned, he was just another dangerous right-wing crackpot, but most major media organizations never actually talked to Doug or others like him among the thousands of grassroots activists who showed up in Searchlight. With few exceptions, what brought reporters to Saturday’s rally was the opportunity to do what they have been doing in their Tea Party coverage for more than a year: Highlight negative “gotcha” moments to discredit the movement as a dangerous collection of hate-filled, misinformed lunatics, meanwhile asking attendees questions along the lines of, “Who do you consider to be the leader of your movement?” . . .
Please read the whole thing. Actually meeting and talking to people is so much more productive than treating them as superficial stereotypes. It’s also a lot more fun.
I’m now blogging from the Arizona home of Barbara Espinosa, whom I first met in August at the Right Online conference in Pittsburgh. When I first met Barbara, I was surprised to learn she was a blogger (see “Grandma Is an Angry Mob“) and I had no idea that she was such a well-know activist. She’s on a first-name basis with Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth and congressional candidate Vernon Parker, both of whom I’ll be interviewing later today in Phoenix.
It was the tip-jar hitters — contributors to the Shoe Leather Fund — who sent me to that Pittsburgh conference where I first met Barbara, and the tip-jar hitters have since sent me to Kentucky, New York, Florida, Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Alabama, and now to Nevada and Arizona.
Saturday in Vegas, after I got back from Searchlight, I was talking with a reporter from a major news organization who was amazed that this kind of reader-supported journalism is possible. And it’s only possible because of you — the few, the proud, the tip-jar hitters. Thanks for all you do.
BUMPED & UPDATED! SUNDAY MARCH 28: We were linked by Her Blondeness yesterday. Unfortunately, security at the Vegas event was so tight that I didn’t get to say “Hello” to her, although I did get to wave at her personal bodyguard, Floyd — shortly before two Las Vegas police officers pulled me aside and frisked me for weapons.
To explain: There was a “no media” policy at the Vegas event — absolutely no reporters allowed inside, and no audio or video recording permitted. Event organizers had not been told to make an exception for Miss Coulter’s personal friends (I scored an e-mail interview with her last week), and so I was forced to resort to pure gonzo methods. Hiding my press credentials in my pocket and tucking my notebook under my arm inside my coat, I stood in line for general admission and prayed I didn’t get searched at the gate.
Alan Choate from the Las Vegas Review-Journal did the same thing, as did at least one other reporter for a major news organization whose identity I cannot reveal due to the admittedly bizarre ethical obligations of our mutual craft). However, I can reveal that I managed to get close to the stage before Ann’s speech, until one of the event volunteers told me I had to leave the “VIP” area. Drat.
When the speech started, I had my digital micro-recorder going (hidden in my hand, which I kept down by my right side) and moved as close to the stage as I could without infringing the “VIP” zone. Floyd the bodygard was at stage left with a wire in his ear, and I managed to catch his attention by waving. That was just about the time my posture and my erratic movements attracted the attention of two LVPD officers. From their vantage point, it looked from a certain angle as if I might have a gun, and I was escorted to the back of the amphitheater where I was beaten with nightsticks, pepper-sprayed and repeatedly tasered . . .
Just kidding. Although I was scared out of my wits, fearing that I would be ejected and my recorder confiscated, once I flashed my press credentials and the cops learned that the bulge in my coat wasn’t a 9mm in a shoulder holster — that I was merely a journalist, not a dangerously deranged psycho like Dylan Ratigan or Keith Olbermann — they lightened up considerably and apologized for the inconvenience.
As a matter of fact, the police never even saw the digital recorder, which I managed to hide in my pocket before they could frisk me, and the recorder was on throughtout my frightening ordeal, so that the entire incident is now preserved on digital audio. I haven’t uploaded or transcribed the audio yet, but when I do you’ll cleary hear one of the cops ask me, “Is that a digital recorder in your pocket . . . or are you just happy to see Ann Coulter?”
Grassroots Nevada is pleased to present Ann Coulter for our Saturday, March 27th event in Henderson / Las Vegas. . . .
Ms. Coulter will only be here in Henderson at the Grassroots Nevada event prior to the arrival of the Tea Party Express. The event for Las Vegas will be at the Henderson Pavilion; Gates open at 3:15 pm and show begins at 3:45 pm!
Join us for the biggest Tea Party Express national tour to date. Starting March 27, 2010 with a Mega Rally in Searchlight, NV (hometown to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) we will take this message across the nation all the way to the White House in Washington, D.C. on April 15th:
“You, the politicians in Washington, have failed We The People with your bailouts, out-of-control deficit spending, government takeovers of sectors of the economy, Cap & Trade, government-run health care, and higher taxes! If you thought we were just going to quietly go away, or that this tea party movement would be just a passing fad, you were mistaken. We’re taking our country back!”
Here’s the video:
OK, people, here we go. I’ve been planning a trip out West to cover the Senate campaigns against Harry Reid and John McCain, and this chance is too perfect to miss.
This is the kind of journalistic expedition that the Shoe Leather Fund has made possible in the past. It’s 2,341 miles to Searchlight, Nev. — 38 hours if I were to drive it non-stop — but Smitty tells me that flights to Vegas are cheap, so maybe I’ll leave the 2004 KIA Optima at home for this trip. Driving or flying, either way it looks like an extraordinarily gonzo trip.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. . . . — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. . . . Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas. … Just roll the roof back and screw it on, grease the face with white tanning butter and move out with the music at top volume, and at least a pint of ether.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
OK, the original plan had been to drive to Vegas, but that was before life got complicated and the weasels forced me to spend a whole week blogging about their sordid ObamaCare scam — about which, the less said, the better.
Among the unfortunate side effects of that disaster, however, was the catastrophic scrambling of my travel plans because I needed an extra day or two to finish up arrangements in Washington before leaving, and because the drive time from here to Nevada is 38 hours, the cross-country itinerary wouldn’t work out if I was going to be there to pick up Ali Akbar at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport for the trip to Searchlight to catch the start of the Tea Party Express III tour.
And if any of that makes sense to you, you need more drugs. That makes two of us, but don’t worry. Gonzo is a pre-existing condition and, thanks to Bart Stupak, now we can bill taxpayers for our heinous chemicals.
Never mind. Hit the tip jar, because I paid $528 for the cheapest possible round-trip to Vegas, leaving here Thursday afternoon and not returning until next Wednesday. Mrs. Other McCain is already mad enough without me getting stuck with that tab, even though I’ll be saving money by crashing on Steve Foley’s sofa in Vegas. Plus, I’ll have to pay $75 a day for a rental car so I can drive Ali to Searchlight, hang out a few hours, then turn around and drive back to Vegas in time for Ann Coulter’s appearance at the Henderson Pavillion.
After that day of insanity and whatever weirdness Foley gets me into Saturday night, then I’ve got to get up Sunday morning and drive 300 miles (20 cents per mile = $60) to meet the Tea Party Express in Phoenix, Arizona, where Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog has promised me face-time with J.D. Hayworth and Vernon Parker. So I’ll spend Sunday and Monday in Phoenix, drive another 300 miles back to Vegas on Tuesday morning, and do some more reporting on the campaign against Harry Reid before catching a red-eye back home with a 3-hour layover in Minneapolis.
Only a lunatic would attempt to cram all this into six days. So hit the tip jar, because where else are you going to find a lunatic who’s also a professional journalist?
