Category: John McCain

Stand With Arizona? Not John McCain

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Thanks to Barbara Espinosa for posting this picture:

That’s Maverick with then-Gov. Janet Napolitano at a 2004 rally against Proposition 200, which requires “individuals to provide proof of citizenship before they may register to vote or apply for public benefits in Arizona.” Prop 200 passed with 56% of the vote and yet somehow, that backstabbing crapweasel John McCain won re-election in 2004.

Attendance at Saturday’s “Stand With Arizona” rally was 7,000:

TEMPE, Ariz. — Seven-thousand people packed into Diablo Stadium in Tempe Saturday night, making sure Arizona knew there are quite a few people who said the new immigration law is just what the state needs.
It was a major event for the pro-1070 movement, a rally bringing people from across the country to Arizona. . . .
“Our economy is gonna keep building the more controversy so I say more, I’ll cause more controversy, I guarantee you in the next two months so they want to keep coming back, that’s great,” added Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Griff Jenkins of Fox News was at the Tempe rally, where he greeted a certain Arizona blogging celebrity:

Speaking of people on a first-name basis with Barbara Espinosa, guess who was on “Meet the Press” Sunday?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

J.D. HAYWORTH for U.S. SENATE

Allahpundit Now Seriously Considering Endorsement of J.D. Hayworth?

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He is shocked — shocked! — to discover that John McCain is a lying two-faced backstabbing crapweasel:

Pandering is one thing, shameless careerist pandering is something else, and then there’s John “Goddamned Fence” McCain marching along the border in a badass Navy baseball cap looking like he could choke out a coyote with his bare hands.

In response to this pathetic travesty:

To which I can only reply:

People Of AZ And CA: Pay No Attention To Utah. I Repeat. . .

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by Smitty

The top story is that Robert Bennett has been uninvited to a fourth term representing Utah as a GOP Senator. Also, it seems that he may not be allowed to try his hand at Liebermanism.

Just A Conservative Girl has the summary:

Senator Bob Bennett, 76, was given his walking papers today from the Utah GOP Convention. He was ousted on the second ballot earlier today. Bennett has been in office since 1992 even though he initially said he would only serve two terms.

Bennett has voted for mandated insurance, the wall street bailout, and is known for his earmarks. A combo that seems to be the kiss of death this election cycle. The Senator also spends little time with his constitutions and addressing their concerns. He has a war chest for his re-election that is said to be in the millions. During his last election he never ran an ad on television and yet still won with 69% of the vote. Another words, he figured he could stay in the senate as long as he wanted and to heck with the people he was there to represent.

Possibly a little bit harsh there. Let us be charitable and say Bennett did what he saw as his job, and the people of Utah re-arranged key parameters of that job for him, as is their prerogative.

Mark In Spokane makes a key point, emphasis mine:

A key thing to note about the Tea Party movement is that it isn’t necessarily friendly to Republicans, particularly establishment Republicans (like Bennett). It is friendly towards politicans who want to reform the federal government. As I keep saying, the Tea Party folks have a lot of similiarity to the Perot votes[sic] in the early and mid-1990’s.

Yes, I was one of those. You can flog me for splitting the conservative ticket in 1992, and I have two replies, both named George.

Back at the post title, what should AZ and CA glean from this? Is it possible to send RINO Johnny McCain off to work on his memoir after the 24 August primary? Does the fact that Carly Fiorina has the moneybags and is ensconced with The Right People mean that she gets the nod on 08 June to run against Boxer/Kaus?

Chris Cassone sent a link to a strongly critical essay by

Jim Riley (“Shemp” in King Obama video and King of Riley’s Farm), who very astutely summarizes what, at least I, am thinking about this debacle of another RINO at the top. And I got caught up in the Palinmania at Searchlight. It was hard not to… but rational conservative thought wins the day.

Read the whole thing, but here is the heart of Riley’s point:

How do you defeat the conservative movement? From the inside. You put up a war hero like John McCain, whose personal courage can’t be questioned but who has so little respect for our Constitution, he would have shut down the 1st Amendment 60 days before an election. You let people like Jihad-sympathizing Grover Norquist dominate gatherings like CPAC, because he can raise money, and then you send boys off to war behind leaders too timid to call Islam the enemy. You lionize a flag-waiving, gun-toting, beautiful mom, like Sarah Palin, who loves her country, but is too shallow to understand that endorsing global warming John McCain and shouting “drill, baby, drill” just do not compute. You have Fox News tell us just enough of the truth to garner our sympathies, but then you have Glen Beck calling Geert Wilders a fascist for exposing Islam, (and you watch Rupert move his headquarters to Dubai.) You ask for a limited government, but then you steer clear of the very social conservatism, the values vote, that would make limited government possible.

In short, you muddy the waters, you weaken the cure, you promote cowardice in the ranks. You make people think that the Republican party is your last best hope, that Fox News is “the only thing we’ve got,” that above all, we just need to put up someone who can win–even if, um, that person doesn’t represent our cause very well. You create heroes who aren’t really heroes, and leaders who aren’t really leaders, and then you fail to identify them for what they are — traitors. You look with contempt on a “purity test,” because that, after all, would make the conservative cause true, simple, and victorious. The enemy of the socialist, the radical environmentalist, the globalist, and the corporate monopolist is mental and moral clarity. You pretend that you want another Ronald Reagan, but if someone rises in the ranks, with Reagan’s clear moral vision, you make sure he’s defeated in the primary.

Dispassionately now, we can all agree that we’re in a bad position. The quibbling comes from thumb wrestling over evolutionary verses revolutionary change.

While I have precious little confidence in the Grungy Old Poobahs (GOP), and would not mind seeing McCain and Fiorina get the Bennett treatment, what really matters is:

  • Maximum expression in the primaries.
  • Quick reformation behind the primary victor.
  • Primary victors allowing reasonable policy modulation from all supporters, not just their initial ones.

The point of our representative democracy is that the name emerging victorious represent everyone. The overaching sin of the current administration is that its executive thinks people voted for Barack Obama, when, in fact, they voted for a President. Too much time spent at higher societal altitudes is a major input to this sort of confusion. Hopefully CA and AZ voters will help Fiorina and McCain deal with the ailment by choosing DeVore and Hayworth.

Further thoughts:

Chuck DeVore Responds To Sarah’s Endorsement Of Carly

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by Smitty

Dan Riehl was grim on the topic:

. . .on the heels of her misguided Rand Paul endorsement, now Palin backs Fiorina in California. Chuck DeVore is the conservative in the race. That’s two endorsements she shouldn’t have made, as they hurt her brand, as much as they may help the candidate. I suspect she’s now lost a large part of her original base. And she doesn’t get a pass on this one because of John McCain.

Clifton at Another Black Conservative noted Sarah’s follow-up:

Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer. That’s no RINO. That’s a winner.

For heaven’s sake, Sarah: if RINO Johnny had won in ’08, would he have been less a RINO?
Uncoverage picks up Chuck DeVore’s classy response (emphasis mine). An exerpt:

I call [Carly] a “John McCain Republican” – she talks the talk from time to time and says she’s a conservative but she has a “never with us when it counts” record just like McCain.
Don’t get me wrong, if a liberal Republican like Tom Campbell or a moderate Republican like Carly Fiorina win the primary instead of me, I will support them against Barbara Boxer.
But there’s no need to make a compromise like that.
This is not a primary election where electability needs to be a factor.
Again, let me offer the cold hard facts.
Here’s the most recent polling numbers from the independent Rasmussen poll.
Fiorina 38% – Boxer 42%
DeVore 39% – Boxer 42%
Campbell 41% – Boxer 43%
The margin of error in the poll was 4.5%.
That means Fiornia is statistically tied with Boxer.
So am I (actually one point better than Fiorina).

Remember, Carly supported McCain in 2008 rather heavily, and is clearly calling in a marker through John McCain.

On the one hand, as Reagan said at CPAC you “dance with the one that brung ya.”

On the other hand, Sarah is looking all too cozy with the insider crowd. One hopes she can find a way to recover.

I enthusiastically hope that both DeVore and Hayworth win the Republican primaries in their states. Recovering the country is going to involve load-shedding as many of the old-schoolers who have been party to the creation of the problem as possible. Whatever experience value is added by the old war horses is outweighed by their Beltway worldview.

Sorry, Carly, it’s time for Charlie.

If either or both of DeVore and Hayworth do win their primaries, will Sarah eat crow and endorse them?

Update: HotAir has quotes of the day on this topic.

Word Association With Joe The Plumber Goes Unwell For John McCain @3:40

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by Smitty

Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher looks tanned and much-improved in this clip, no doubt from having spoken at enough Tea Parties.
A few soundbites:

  • “If this was a Republican movement, I wouldn’t be here.”
  • “Democrats are great people.”
  • “The GOP looks at [the Tea Parties] as a tool.”
  • “I just put my name on the ballot to join my local precinct.”

(The attempt to embed the video failed in an epic way. *waaaah*)

Update: JD Hayworth on PJTV, strongly disagreeing with Senator McCain, but in a collegial way, on pretty much everything. I realize that A Conservative Shemale isn’t a fan, but Hayworth sounds like what we need politically, and in quantity.

John McCain Gets His Queeg On

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“Bitter”? “Unprincipled”? “Self-pitying”? Gosh, it’s a shame Newsweek didn’t notice this stuff back in 1999:

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 . . .”

J.D. HAYWORTH FOR U.S. SENATE

PREVIOUSLY:

DailyKos Poll Puts McCain Over Hayworth

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by Smitty (via Lucianne)

The Daily Caller reports that a DailyKos poll puts McCain over Hayworth in the Arizona Republican Senate Primary race. The lack of detail makes the entire exercise sketchy, and the final DC quotation even moreso:

The liberal site put it this way: “The bottom line? The Democrats become competitive, if Hayworth somehow manages to score a victory in the GOP primary.”

Others, seeing McCain’s bona RINO fides, might consider the Dem’s position a win-win at the primary stage. Whoever the Dems field has to face Barbara Espinosa, to which this blog opines: it hurts to be the Dem.

UPDATE (RSM): OK, via Real Clear Politics I’ve found the DKos poll, and the numbers are:

McCain 52%, Hayworth 35%

This result is buried among a slew of hypothetical fall matchups, all of which show either Republican leading any of four possible Democrats candidates — Bruce Babbitt, Gabrielle Giffords, Rodney Glassman and Nan Stockholm Walden. The other interesting result is that 46% of those polled have an unfavorable opinion of John McCain, compared to 42% unfavorable for J.D. Hayworth.

The DKos/Research 2000 poll follows a Rasmussen Reports poll two weeks ago that showed McCain’s lead over Hayworth had eroded to 7 points (48-41) and I don’t know that the two surveys can be compared. R2000 surveyed 400 GOP primary voters, whereas Rasmussen sampled 541 and there are enough other differences in methodology that it might be apples and oranges.

The unfortunate tendency to over-interpret public polling — to grab the latest result and shout, “Eureka!” — is something that all pollsters caution against. That is especially true when you’re polling several months ahead of the election. The Arizona primary is not until Aug. 24, and the general election is not until Nov. 2, and the question of who people would vote for “if the election were held today” is a hypothetical that is not — repeat, is not — a prediction of what will actually happen on Election Day.

For more about the Hayworth campaign, you can read my American Spectator column, “Scorched Earth in Arizona.”

Stacy Should Advise His Cousin To Consider Retirement

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by Smitty

Barbara Espinosa posts some medium-devastating details about Senator McCain’s Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues:

Founded on June 26, 2001, McCain’s Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues has long served as a nerve center for the so-called “campaign finance reform” movement – a movement which has done nothing to clean up campaign finance, but has done a great deal to empower federal judges and government bureaucrats to regulate political speech, in defiance of the Bill of Rights.

Now here’s the kicker. The list of donors published on the Reform Institute’s Web site reads like a veritable Who’s Who of radical, leftwing foundations, including the Tides Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Proteus Fund and George Soros’ Open Society Institute (hat tip, Winfield Myers).

Not surprisingly, in view of the above associations, Arianna Huffington serves on the Reform Institute’s Advisory Board. Huffington has long acted as a front for George Soros’ “campaign finance reform” efforts. In 2000, she organized the so-called Shadow Conventions which provided John McCain with a bully pulpit to stump for his now-infamous McCain-Feingold Act. George Soros shouldered about one third of the cost of the Shadow Conventions.

Fortunately, they kept Senator McCain’s puppet strings from being too visible, most of the time. I still feel that the selection of Sarah Palin, and subsequent blowback, indicates that the choice was a Jeremiah Denton moment.

Senator McCain, you’ve served your country well, and I’d recommend relaxation as a future direction for you.