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The Spectacle Blog
Phil Klein is as level-headed a guy as I know, so I was disappointed to see him savage Hayworth below. Maybe things are different for those who, unlike me and Brian Faughnan, weren't right on scene in the 1990s when Hayworth was a stalwart, energetic, and effective conservative in the House -- and a heckuva lot of fun to be around, too.
To take Phil's arguments to the degree they fail to be persuasive:
1) It is, I have always thought, obscene to blame a politician for accepting campaign donations from somebody later found to have been corrupt, UNLESS and ONLY UNLESS it can be shown that somehow the politician's record seemed to suspiciously (even if legally) track the donations. Almost every Republican from 1983 on could be blamed for accepting some sort of help, directly or indirectly, from Jack Abramoff, because Abramoff was a respected Republican activist long before he started appearing in any way sleazy. I myself have a photograph of Ronald Reagan in the White House on Reagan's 72nd birthday in 1983, with 450 cheering college students looking on (I was one of them), about to cut his birthday cake -- and the hand and arm in the photo that are connected to the cake knife being handed to Reagan are the hand and arm of Jack Abramoff, who was then head of the national College Republicans.That doesn't make Reagan corrupt, does it? Blaming Hayworth for being the leading recipient of funds LINKED to Abramoff (not funds FROM Abramoff) is as cheap a shot as it would be to still blame John McCain for writing letters on behalf of Charles Keating, even though McCain was otherwise innocent of any actual wrongdoing related to Keating. In short, even bringing up the Abramoff issue, lacking other evidence of related sleaziness by Hayworth (there isn't any, and Hayworth was investigated and not charged with anything, not even an ethics slap on the wrist), is to take a cheap shot at Hayworth that is beneath Phil's usual high-minded standards.
2) The "free money" video doesn't bother me. It was free money. If I've paid taxes, I'm all for trying to get back any of those taxes I possibly can. I don't see conservatives blasting J.C. Watts for doing the EXACT SAME THING, the same sales pitch.
3) ACU ratings for one or two sessions of Congress may be dismissable because they involve just a sample of votes -- albeit carefully selected, important votes. But ACU ratings over a whole career are VERY valuable guides, because, just like any sample, the bigger and longer the sample the more accurately it reflects real trends. An ACU career rating of, say, 80, might not be a clear indicator of bedrock conservatism. But an ACU rating over 12 years of 98 (!!!) is as solid an indicator of consistent conservatism as can be found anywhere.
4) On the "birther" thing, I bow to nobody in my insistence that it is an irrelevant issue constitutionally and that the contemporaneous birth notice in the Hawaii paper is utterly dispositive. In short, it is unimportant in terms of Obama's qualifications. Focus on it is silly and demeaning (sorry, readers who believe otherwise). However, that did not stop me from saying, right here in these pages, that Obama should still produce it. (I can't seem to find the blog post in which I did so, but there were other good reasons to question why the Obamites were so reluctant to produce the actual document.) That doesn't make me a birther, nor does Hayworth's statement make him one if he has clarified what he meant -- which he did.
Look, nobody is claiming that Hayworth is a paragon of conservative virtue. I AM claiming that his "gut instincts" are conservative and that his OVERALL record clearly backs up that judgment, even while I am disappointed that he voted for the Medicare prescription drug bill, etc. As I said, he did not do enough to resist the bad lead of the Bushies, with Rove and company putting pressure on him. But there is such a huge difference between being being led in the wrong direction by somebody basically on your team, as Hayworth sometimes did, vs. LEADING in the wrong direction with delighted malice aforethought, and deliberately giving verbal and substantive aid and comfort to the adversary (political), both of which McCain did. J.D. Hayworth voted with the ACU 97.56 percent of the time. That's a larger percentage of the time than Peter supported Jesus, fergoshsakes. Everybody strays. But Hayworth's CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS default positions were conservative. McCain's default positions on everything but defense and earmarks are to suck up to the establishment media and/or to make himself look like a martyr even if the only cause actually being martyred is the cause of constitutional government while the actual beneficiary of the martyrdom is McCain's perceived political advancement.
Heck, I was gonna stay out of this race and not comment. But I can't stand seeing good men treated badly. Hayworth is a good man.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/02/re-hayworth-and-phils-logical
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Special Feature
Better that we become a nation of choosers rather than beggars. Our symposium on choice from the May, 2012 issue:
FLASHBACK TO: 1984
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The Fairness Delusion
The speech our President should make.
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Media Smears: One Man’s Experiences
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Chuck Colson vs. The Fundamentalists
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The Reagan Doctrine
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The Woman Problem
Farcical feminism is a decades-old phenomenon, as George Will's essay from 1970 reminds us.
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Matt X| 7.2.10 @ 3:57PM
Chestbumps for Quin. It's good to see some conservatives not accepting McCain's depiction of Hayworth without question.
Kyle| 7.2.10 @ 4:03PM
Right on. While you're at it, don't give Klein too much credit. He's under 30; the jury is still out in regards to his bonafides. There is plenty of time for him to go wobbly.
Matt X| 7.2.10 @ 4:06PM
Have I been too harsh on Klein? Be honest....I think I may have gone a tad bit overboard....McCain does get me "all worked up". Teh heh.
Teflon93| 7.2.10 @ 4:29PM
Keep this up, Quinn, and you won't be invited to the cocktail parties at Dave Weigel's place Klein, McCain, and Antle are bucking for.
Dave Weigel| 7.2.10 @ 4:44PM
Teflon,
Jealous wingnuts like you just jealous of my success and my good looks.
Teflon93| 7.3.10 @ 10:44AM
Loved your work in "Hot Shots!".
Say hi to Ginger Lynn for me.
Mama Weigel| 7.2.10 @ 5:10PM
Dave, come up out of the basement and take the garbage out.
Shane Nicholas| 7.2.10 @ 5:11PM
Question. Did J.D. get Quin some "FREE MONEY", because Quin sure is wasting a lot of time on bloviating hack.
Tom Maynard| 7.2.10 @ 5:14PM
Hope you REAL conservatives enjoy J.D.'s delusional victory party where he declares his campaign a great success because he brought TRUE conservative issues to the fore. And, lost be double digits ...
Matt X| 7.2.10 @ 5:36PM
I don't think anybody here thinks J.D is going to win. McCain is an institituion it seems, much like Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd.
Still, consider the fact that McCain is pandering like crazy to conservatives right now, and all it took was a "buffoon" like J.D. Hayworth?
Matt X| 7.2.10 @ 5:39PM
It should also be noted that the people that hate Hayworth generally all hate Palin, and Palin endorsed McCain. Win or lose, I wouldn't doubt if McCain snipes at Palin in the future though, so I hope she wasn't hoping her endorsement would obtain his loyalty.
Matt X| 7.2.10 @ 5:48PM
McCain can be called Free Money McCain.
From Mark Levin's facebook page:
Meanwhile, McCain and his operatives have spent millions digging up dirt on Hayworth — not corruption, not unethical activity, but dirt that will show him to be a hypocrite. Now, this is funny. McCain is flipping and flopping all over the place, but we are to be moved by Hayworth’s appearance in that infomercial where he is pushing free federal grants. Until yesterday, McCain’s official website was informing visitors how to secure all kinds of government grants and contracts and loans. I posted it on this site. Now they’ve apparently hidden it somewhere on his website’s back pages.
SoCon| 7.3.10 @ 4:02AM
I detest John McCain more than ever. It pisses me off that he wouldn't lay a glove on Obama but eviscerates Hayworth.
What a contemptible man.
Teflon93| 7.3.10 @ 10:45AM
McCain has never been loyal to the conservative cause and only infrequently loyal to the GOP.
He is Arlen Specter with a tan.
darcy| 7.3.10 @ 2:18PM
He's Arlen Specter with white hair and a phony grin.
Grzmlyk| 7.6.10 @ 10:12AM
And he ain't too sharp, either.
Yeah, he was a POW and endured much in those days, and that makes him a hero within the rubric of the American mythos. Ok.
But, outside of that, McCain is and always has been a tawdry, unexceptional, unthoughtful political hack who spends most of his time preening and burnishing his "maverick" mantle (though these days he realizes he's gotten all the mileage out of that canard he will ever get).
McCain must daily thank God for the Hanoi Hilton, America's pronouncing him a martyr and a crass, stupid political class system that elevates inconsequential non-entitites like him to an elite sphere for the rest of their lives (see Gore, Al, or Kerry, John for similar examples of the Peter Principle at work).
If not for McCain's suffering, he'd be toiling in the bowels of a DMV somewhere where his greatest responsbility would be handing out the proper forms.
Lest we forget, among the many reasons we are saddled with a petulant, ignorant, puerile boy president is the fact that John McCain was the GOP nominee, which illustrates just how low the Republican Party has fallen.
While the self-flattering American voter ("look ma, no racisim!") deserves much blame for Obama's ascendance, the fact that the alternative was a dim, vain, foolish, intellectual dwarf contributed mightily.
PS - I do tire of conservatives urinating on birthers. I'm not keen on purusing the issue because Obama's presidency is a fait accompli, and our culture will not allow us to get that toothpaste back in the tube.
But that doesn't mean there's not something very, very fishy on Obama's birth issue - in fact, I think the birthers are right - and Obama's "transparent" opacity is all the more concerning because we know almost nothing else about his "record," such as it is.
And it's becoming clearer every day that Obama's no Christian; his sympathies lie with the Islamicists.
But hey, let's continue to pretend he's just a lousy president and not an enemy of everything this country once stood for.
After all, we don't want to rattle the teacups in the salons of the Republican Party.
John - TMF| 7.2.10 @ 5:56PM
Newspaperman with a newspaper fetish.
1. JD Hayworth is a better candidate than Johnny Mac. The grumpy old foul mouthed semi-reliable Republican McCain would have been a much better occupant for 1600 PA Ave. Mostly things in life are relative.
2. Just to stir the pot, the newspaper notices of the Chosen one's alleged birth in Hawaii are proof of Grandpa filling out a form, signing it, and sending it into the Iolani Palace.. Nothing more. My old man's appointment to West Point was from the territory of Hawaii. It took years to unscramble offical records about his life there, Hawaii was barely a state in the early 1960's and many Hawaiians were still born at home. A birth certificate could have been applied for with a couple of "witnesses" signing the document stating that the One was born at home. Of course no one unrelated had to actuall witness the feat.
No one knows where the doof was born, or even when. He won't produce the actual CERTIFICATE that states it.
Even I have a Certificate and a CERTIFICATION from Colorado. The letter that accompanied the Certification and the two copies of the actual "long form" CERTIFICATE stated that neither was legal without the other since the CERTIFICATE was permanenetly on file with the county in Colorado in which I was born, and a seal could only be affixed to the CERTIFICATION.
Obambi could have been born in a trash bin behind Frank Marshall Davis's Bar/Brothel months before an official Birth Certificate application was sent in stating just about anything.
No one publishing the registration need have ever seen the actual document, baby, or even a proud daddy with a cigar.
Just noting the reality. Obambi isn't who he says that he is.
r/TMF
randy| 7.3.10 @ 10:18AM
right on Quin!
Oldefarte| 7.3.10 @ 1:29PM
Quin is CORRECTAMUNDO, once again. I think both McCain and Hayworth are honorable men [and again, McCain deserves everyone's respect and admiration for his military devotion and patriotism (as does his father and grandfather)]. That said, Quin's point hits the bullseye in that McCain INITIATED/CONSTRUCTED/PROMOTED his immigration reform with Teddy Boy [whose political motives were purely/typically narcissistic since amnesty would politically benefit the Democrat Party candidates solely, since their constituents would vote to obtain the forthcoming governmental benefits that Democrats provide] and same was defeated/destroyed by the outrage coming from citizens/taxpayers of this country. McCain thereafter did a 180 and is now fighting for his political life due to his crawling into political bed with Kennedy/Democrats. Additionally, he should have politically gone after and exposed THE CHOSEN ONE for the fraud that he is and always has been, but he chose to do the gentlemanly thing and help the Democrats sweep his history under the rug. Again, it's time for McCain to retire, and let a conservative like Hayworth take over!!!!!
Bobby| 7.3.10 @ 2:26PM
John McCain as a Senator is worth the exact same amount as his "good friend" Senator Lindsey Graham.......... NOTHING.
Bert | 7.3.10 @ 2:27PM
Odd , I wish McCain would have conducted his non stop astroturf and smears campaign on Barry like he doing to JD amd GW Bush ! I guess is shows who JOhnny really feels is a threat , conservatism whic threatens his gang at the Liberal elites in DC cocktail party circles. After fooling the poor AZ voters again, Johnny will be going back to being good friends to La Raza, Global warming hoax scammers, and Soros and Dem party run media. Gee then Johnny , Klein, and Weigal can all share their stories about suckering those stupid little people /voters/ readers from the GOP side over cocktails at a Sally Quinn event !
adi| 7.4.10 @ 1:13AM
everyone have different character. So do you.. Happy enjoy..!
Mimi| 7.4.10 @ 8:32AM
The essential ingredient to ANY forthcoming election NOW is: DO WE WANT TO BE FREE or CONTROLLED ? Also who can best deliver FREEDOM? Does Elena Kagan appear to want to impose control, or is she a liberty advocate? Watch how Sen. McCain votes on her appointment to SCOTUS . It will be telling! In fact all Republican Senators should pull a NO-SHOW or filabust. J.D. is ...young, energetic, true conservative and SHOWS that he GETS -IT! I have always loved John McCain but he did not go after the "O" with truth and VIGOR, and thus left me with grave disappointment. John can still serve America retired! And loud mouth for FREEDOM, JD.....Will serve us well in the Senate!!!
Spicy Joker| 7.4.10 @ 12:05PM
Both McPain and Hayworthless stink. McPain is a RINO who will revert to his RINO ways as soon as he is re-elected. Hayworthless is a big-mouthed, big-spending, big-waisted hypocrite.
Nobama| 7.4.10 @ 2:03PM
Hayworth's not fat anymore.
Quartermaster| 7.4.10 @ 9:21PM
oldefarte, Juan McCain used to be an honorable man. That ended with the Keating 5 mess which showed he had "grown" as so many do when they get to the district of corruption.
Quin,
Klein is not a level headed individual. When he went after John Demjanjuk, after he was released by an Israeli Court because they were convinced they didn't have the right man, he showed he was a Vile man (yeah, with a capital "V"). Bush admin prosecutors showed that Bush wasn't much to write home about either.
Eliza| 7.4.10 @ 10:32PM
I agree with you on both counts.
LauraHollis| 7.4.10 @ 10:26PM
As an attorney, I cannot understand why so many conservatives seem completely clueless about the whole birth certificate thing. So here goes one more time:
1. The computer generated form is NOT a BIRTH CERTIFICATE. No hospital is listed. There is no signature of an attending physician. Anyone who LIVED in Hawaii could come to the state office, demonstrate that they had given birth to a child, and they got what Obama has produced. Because it was issued on the requesting parent's information only, it was NOT an accepted form of "official" identification - EVEN IN HAWAII - for things like passports, etc.
2. The newspaper announcement is hardly "dispositive." What is being disputed here? That Obama was BORN? The announcement said that a baby boy was born to X and Y, who live at Z address. That announcement only proves that Obama's parents (a) had a baby boy, and (b) claimed to have a Hawaii address. And if that is enough to convey citizenship, then fine. But that does not prove that Obama was BORN in Hawaii, if that matters.
3. As Obama himself is an attorney, he knows the "best evidence" rule - that litigants must produce the ORIGINAL documentation, if it exists, with rare exceptions. So, why spend over a million dollars just to keep from turning over what you claim you have?
I don't claim Obama was born someplace else. He may very well have been born in Hawaii. What I am saying is that the two documents (certification and newspaper announcements) do not prove that he was born in Hawaii.
My suspicion? I think that the birth certificate issue is REALLY tied up with information in Obama's academic records, and that that's why he won't release ANY of them.
SoCon| 7.4.10 @ 10:44PM
Laura, you're most likely correct, but what would you suggest we do about it?
I've read Obama's backers (Soros) paid a law firm over a million dollars to secrete Obama's records.
Obama's ascendancy has been planned for a long time, and the Progressives planned meticulously.
I think many of us believe you, we just don't know what to do about it.
Any ideas?