AP details the travails of John McCain as he launches what they call his toughest re-election challenge. Badly defeated just two years ago as the Republican presidential candidate and with his bonafides as a true conservative again being challenged, John McCain finds himself in a struggle to get even his party’s nomination for another term in the Senate. In his 2008 match-up against Obama, McCain barely carried his home state, squeaking by with a slim 9 % of the total.
Many conservatives and Tea Party activists are lining up behind Republican challenger and former congressman J.D. Hayworth, reflecting a rising tide of voter frustration with incumbent politicians. Only 40 percent of Arizonans have a favorable view of McCain’s job performance
Rasmussen Reports polling indicates a whopping 61% of Arizona Republicans think “McCain has lost touch with those in his own party.” These low numbers rival those he received during his involvement in the “Keating Five” scandal.
It’s not a pretty picture for the aging “Maverick” who has lost a significant number of his base and with poll numbers basically in the toilet.
To pump up his image, McCain has mystifyingly resorted to negative radio ads featuring a boozy-voiced babe with a hoarse whisper who sounds as though she’s about to fall off her barstool. In the ads, she questions Hayworth’s credentials and ends the spots by saying Arizona needs McCain — the true statesman — telling us “integrity matters.” As if this image of an aging chick with a cigarette hanging from her tobacco stained lips will sway voters! All that’s missing is the hacking cough.
Longtime critic and chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee (covering the greater Phoenix area.) Rob Haney has never been shy about his disdain for Arizona’s senior senator and is quoted in the article.
That link to the old Tom Fitzpatrick article detailing John McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five Scandal is especially interesting since it was written in the time period of the events and substantiates them well. How dare the McCain campaign try to link J.D. Hayworth to Jack Abramoff when McCain knows full well Hayworth was vindicated by the U.S. Department of Justice?
McCain was able to skirt his illegal actions and through high level connections and money was able to persevere and doggedly move on.
But what gall it is for him to attempt to taint Hayworth. I’ve never cared for McCain, but his own sordid dealings with Charlie Keating should be enough for him to keep his yap shut. When I hear those commercials of his with the tagline “This is John McCain and I approve this message,” I could gag.
I just read that fact packed linked article from the actual time of Mccain’s scandal ridden past. Thanks for the direction, SeenItAll.
I wasn’t living in Arizona at the time, so this is all news to me. I guess I was too young to pay attention. I’m not now! I’ve also heard those scuzzy radio ads of McCain’s. He’s got a lot of room to talk, doesn’t he? The guy is a major hypocrite!
I agree with the two commenters. This is very good information. I got a good laugh out of the description
of the female voice on the radio ads. I listen to KFYI and hear them often enough to have drawn the same conclusion! My husband read this post and joked that I could have written it because I’ve described the voice similarly. How in the world did the Mccain people this was a saleable technique? She sounds like she’s seen some rough times.
I erased KFYI from my radio & streaming computer links after what Chearchannel/McCain did TO J.D. Hayworth.
And thanks for the reminder of the Keating 5 scandal! This whole thing of McCain attempting to salvage a train wreck of a career in D.C. is almost laughable…except for the fact that the joke’s been on US for the past 24 Y E A R S ! ! !
I have to turn off my radio when I hear the ads. It is so sickening to hear the lies over and over. The good part is that it makes me even more determined to help elect J.D. I guess that means McCain is helping J.D. with his ridiculous ads.
Good point, DeAnn! That makes the McGarbage more tolerable.
It is a very small step and an even shorter time span for a person to change from a maverick to a cantankerous, malicious outcast. McCain has stepped over that threshold.
Good, now let’s all put our money where our mouth is and write JD a check. Thinking about six more years of McLame puts me in a very generous mood!
“incumbent politicians” is not the problem. How do those incumbents vote? “Throw them all out” is self defeating. Throw out McCain? Of course, and all those like him including Shadegg, Kyl, and Flake. I will gladly keep Ron Paul and the few true consitutionalists we have.
In 2008 AZ legislative races we did throw out RINO legislators and replaced them with Platform Republicans. Throw out our new solid conservative legislators? No way! Platform Republicans were already taking care of business before the 2009 Tea Parties were conceived. Tea Partiers need to recognize this and help us build, not call in the demolition crew–we would lose ground, not gain it.
McCain has resorted to female whisper campaigns previously. This is the one he used against Obama in 2008. It didn’t do much good. And either will his vicious ones against Hayworth.
Interesting that his ads against Hayworth pack a greater wallop than the ones he used against Obama in McCain’s failed presidential bid. McCain is a worried man, and well he should be. Arizona voters have a real alternative to the leftwing maverick with J.D. Hayworth in the race.
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