-
Tebowing and ‘Polarizing’
June 11, 2013 | 7 comments
-
SEQUESTER: The Horror!
March 1, 2013 | 4 comments
-
SOTU Preview: Human Props, Budget Fights, and Wedge Issues
February 12, 2013 | 0 comments
-
Hello, I Must Be Going
August 14, 2012 | 18 comments
-
Weekend Political Wrap-Up, Paul Ryan Edition
August 12, 2012 | 16 comments
The Spectacle Blog
The debate National Review has sparked by endorsing John McCain over J.D. Hayworth is worthwhile. McCain’s faults are numerous. But unlike Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Marco Rubio, Hayworth is a conservative primary challenger who went along with a lot of what was wrong with the Republican Party under Bush: the Medicare prescription drug benefit, No Child Left Behind, and the earmarks binge. There’s little evidence that he’d join the ranks of Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn in the Senate, and his opposition to TARP — which passed when he was no longer in Congress to vote for big-government conservative projects — seems a little too convenient.
On the other hand, defeating McCain would really put the Republican Party on notice that it could no longer use conservatives as doormats. It might even help conservatives recover from the damage of having McCain as the GOP presidential nominee in 2008. And on Iraq and amnesty, nobody went along with what went wrong with the party under Bush more than McCain. Unseating McCain would send such a loud message precisely because he wasn’t as systematic in his trangressions as Arlen Specter or Dede Scozzafava while also being a bigger name in the party than Charlie Crist or Bob Bennett (both of whom NR opposed, if I recall correctly).
Hayworth as a top conservative messenger is deeply unpalatable. But reining in the RINOs could be worth doing even if it must be done with an imperfect candidate. At least those are my preliminary thoughts on the subject. Right now, I’m open to persuasion either way. Here’s a piece I did on the race recently.
View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/01/mccain-vs-hayworth
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Odds and Ends
- Confessions of a Soft-Drinking Newspaperman
- Gabby Giffords Poisons the Well
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 6.18.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Eric Cartman| 7.1.10 @ 5:36PM
Can they BOTH lose? (the primary, that is)
Teflon93| 7.1.10 @ 6:09PM
But what does Dave Weigel think? That's what REALLY counts....
Dave Wiggle| 7.1.10 @ 6:16PM
Well, Buffy and I were talking the other day about WHO an Earth we would be supporting in the Arizona election and it occurred to us that neither of us would live is such a dreary place , ah ha, ah ha, ah ha. Thne I blogged about it to my gay friends and the agreed so completely, ah ha, ah ha, ah ha. And all my buds at WAPO are on board that we just don't care! Toodles!
Kyle| 7.1.10 @ 6:18PM
I don't know what is so bad about Hayworth, but I do know that if Arizona elected him, we would no longer have John McCain as the media's favorite Republican. Lindsay Graham might fill his shoes, but I don't think he would last long doing so. Nowhere does it say that the most high profile Republican Senator has to come from the State of Arizona. It would be great to end the McCain charade, although he would probably pull a Charlie Crist if he lost the primary. But at least then, he would no longer weigh down the GOP directly.
Dave Weigel| 7.1.10 @ 6:28PM
Like, omg, if Hayworth wins in Arizona, I feel like my life will be soundtracked by Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.
Red Phillips | 7.1.10 @ 6:29PM
As a non-interventionist paleocon, the only place I see McCain as better is on torture. It would be impossible to be any more irresponsibly bellicose than McCain, and Hayworth is leagues better on immigration than even a chastened McCain. So I say Hayworth all the way. I’ll have a party if McCain goes down.
Dave Weigel| 7.1.10 @ 6:31PM
You teabaggers are going to miss my awesome reporting at WaPo. You could do a lot worse than me. I soooooo don't need your negativity right now.
Matt X| 7.1.10 @ 6:43PM
I didn't think the polls had the race that close at this point? Arizona seems like my home state of South Carolina, where once a senator is elected, he never loses the seat until he retires. No matter what you think of Hayworth, he did make McCain sweat and forced him to pander to his own base.
Teflon93| 7.1.10 @ 7:19PM
McCain didn't grimace as much as he did in that campaign video telling people to "build the damn fence" when Uncle Ho's boys were trying to get him to denounce America on film.
Al Adab| 7.1.10 @ 7:38PM
McCain-Kennedy
McCain-Feingold
How can he explain those away to the voters of AZ?
Big Java| 7.2.10 @ 11:53AM
Pretty much sums it all up.
Joeseph| 7.4.10 @ 12:59AM
Wow AL, you certainly leave little to be desired??!! What you fail to do is explain the years upon years Mccain has done amazing things for our Nation. What you also fail to express is JD's many, many shortcomings. JD has more issues then McCain will ever have. JD has years upon years of immoral, unethical, unintelligent history that will prove to persuade the voters to vote Mccain the best of the two. JD Hayworth has Abramoff under his belt, the same individual who gave him stolen money from Indian tribes. JD does not mention that he did not give that money back until his back was against a wall legally. JD also fails to clear up why he can claim he is this consistent conservative yet his entire life he has proven otherwise. JD makes an infomercial claiming free money...oh but that was just a job for him, just fillin those pockets!!
Nate| 7.1.10 @ 8:32PM
Isn't it possible too to recognize that Hayworth is goofy and obnoxious while McCain, whatever you think of some of his positions, is a man of honor, integrity, intelligence, wit, courage, and good faith?
At one point did these become qualities to be despised?
Nick| 7.1.10 @ 8:43PM
Nate the dazi,
Have a few too many, pal?
Answer to question #1: No.
Answer to question #2: They didn't. McShame doesn't possess them. He spent too much time hanging around liberals.
Tim*| 7.2.10 @ 6:55AM
You're Goofy & Obnoxious The Late Nate.
Try McCain-Lieberman , McCain-Kennedy ,McCain-Feingold , Gang of 14 , Opposition to 2001 &2003; Tax Cuts , TARP
John Thacker| 7.2.10 @ 1:53PM
"Gang of 14 "
Ah yes, Tim, you would love it if there were no filibuster now in the Senate, wouldn't you? Just imagine the Obamacare we would have gotten then.
Don't cry that the proposed "nuclear option" was just about judges. If the GOP majority had trashed the filibuster for judges, you had damn sure believe that the Democrats would abandon it in order to pass Obamacare+.
The Gang of 14 is one thing that's saving conservatives right now.
Bill in az| 7.2.10 @ 2:45PM
...As a long time resident of Mesa, AZ, most of my fellow conservative Zonies agree, the time for dumping the McCainrino is way over due. He was a decorated Vietnam soldier and thank him for that, but he's nothing but a political whore now.
I can't imagine J.D. could be worse.
BIA
Zbigniew Mazurak| 7.2.10 @ 7:41AM
McCain is "a man of honor, integrity, intelligence, wit, courage, and good faith"? Hardly! Only in your alternate universe is he such a man!
John McCain is a man who has assaulted a person who was in a wheelchair (Jane Duke Gaylor); betrayed his wife and dumped her when he no longer needed her; made a cracked joke about President Reagan; betrayed his fellow Vietnam POWs by covering up the widely-documented failure of communist states to release ALL Americans from prisons; and was the chief perpetrator of the Keating Five scandal, which cost American taxpayers $160 bn.
McCain is an immoral, dishonest, lying, subversive, dishonorable man. He is the epitome of what is wrong with the GOP and the Beltway. The sooner he retires, the better for the Party and for America.
"Some of his positions"? We conservatives disagree with 90% of his policies.
Matt X| 7.1.10 @ 8:56PM
McCain isn't known for his intelligence or sense of humor.
Conservatives don't like McCain because he's not a conservative. You are the one trying to make it personal. You are smarmy as hell, my man.
Margie| 7.2.10 @ 12:29AM
Mr. Antle,
Hi. You said that J.D. Hayworth is an imperfect candidate. But that's the whole point isn't it? There just aren't any. I like your reasoning part better. That J.D. winning would send a strong message to the establishment GOP.. that I can agree with. But you non-interventionist types are just too "tight." I mean no disrespect when I say this. (You are non-interventionist, right?) With all due respect.
darcy| 7.2.10 @ 6:56AM
Andrew McCarthy writes a terrific piece over at NRO about the multitude of McCain's political sins (terminology mine). http://article.nationalreview......thy?page=1
martin j smith| 7.2.10 @ 7:52AM
As I said in response to a related article. John McC should go largely because he ran a loosing presidential campaign and because RINONESS in very big issues. JDH from what I have hear is no bargain, change happens in stages. Stage one: Dump McC
Conservative Guy| 7.2.10 @ 7:58AM
"The debate National Review has sparked by endorsing John McCain over J.D. Hayworth is worthwhile. McCain's faults are numerous. But unlike Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Marco Rubio, Hayworth is a conservative primary challenger who went along with a lot of what was wrong with the Republican Party under Bush: the Medicare prescription drug benefit, No Child Left Behind, and the earmarks binge. There's little evidence that he'd join the ranks of Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn in the Senate, and his opposition to TARP -- which passed when he was no longer in Congress to vote for big-government conservative projects -- seems a little too convenient. "
McCain voted for these things, too. So on that score, McCain is no better than JD Hayworth.
And during the Bush era, McCain was no better on big government issues than JD Hayworth.
JD Hayworth is not a man without his faults, but McCain is worse. McCain is actually a dishonorable, lying, dishonest Big Government liberal; a strident liberal masquerading as a Republican; the epitome of the GOP's problems.
McCain was the chief author of many Big Government liberal policies, including the McCain-Feingold Act (which significantly curtailed the campaign speech and campaign finance rights of Americans and was declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS); the McCain-Lieberman Act (a cap and trade system no different from what Obama has proposed); harsh legal restrictions on interrogation methods used by the intel community against terrorists; laws that gave legal rights to terrorists; and, of course, the downright treasonous McCain-Kennedy Act, which would've legalized 20 mn criminals and subverted America into a multiculti country no longer based on American values (the very goal of multiculturalists - it's not tolerance that they want, but the toppling of America).
McCain voted (together with his liberal friends) against the Bush tax reductions (TWICE!), the HLA and the Federal Marriage Amendment, and for almost every liberal policy of the Bush era (the TARP program, the bailout of Wall Street, and so forth), as well as for many of Obama's liberal policies (e.g. Obama's 2009 defense cuts).
During the Clinton era, he voted to confirm both Ruth Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
He has argued for further liberal policies, such as nuclear disarmament, the closure of Guantanamo, and a huge guest worker program that would've opened the gates of America to further millions of low-skilled immigrants who would burden the country and its finances, all the while 14 mn Americans who don't have a high school diploma cannot find a job.
No true conservative would've EVER endorsed John McCain for a new Senate term. The NR mag has endorsed him, because it is no longer a conservative mag. It was one during the Reagan era, but it isn't any longer. These days, it's nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the most established of the established Republican politicians. During the 2008 campaign, it endorsed Mitt Romney, a Massachusetts liberal masquerading as a conservative, for the Presidency (Mitt Romney is the guy who implemented socialized medicine in Massachusetts). Nowadays, it is an integral part of the Beltway media establishment, together with Slate, the Salon, RS, etc.
John Thacker| 7.2.10 @ 1:51PM
"McCain voted for these things, too. So on that score, McCain is no better than JD Hayworth. "
Wrong, McCain voted against the prescription drug benefit, as well as the earmarks binge. As well as the transportation pork bill, and both farm bills.
Nick| 7.2.10 @ 3:16PM
Mr. Thacker,
Yes, but McShame pushed Shamnesty. And McLame-Feingold.
For these reasons alone, it is dog-track time for the senator.
John Thacker| 7.2.10 @ 1:54PM
http://www.senate.gov/legislat.....vote=00459
Roll call vote on the prescription drug benefit.
J.C.Eaton| 7.2.10 @ 11:10AM
I have met Mr. McCain briefly and judged him to be haughty, self-absorbed, and cagey. I didn't come away from the encounter with any sense of trust. His career largely reinforced my immediate impressions. He metamorphoses into a chameleon conservative when it suits him, i.e. when his personal welfare is threatened. Hayworth is probably not Henry Cabot Lodge but he is NOT the McCain. How can you ever trust that man again?
no_trust_fund_baby| 7.2.10 @ 11:09PM
I'm not rich, but I will hold my nose, and swallow another dose of tax cuts for the rich, to help elect a J. D Hayworth. But, as was the case when he ran against Obama, I will not vote for, or support, John McCain, or anything he supports. Like Bloomberg in NYC, McCain represents the arrogant, elitist mentality that so many voters like me want to discard. We want our representatives to represent us, not rule over us.