The American Spectator

Alan Brooks| 8.9.10 @ 10:32AM

And now McCain will say "I don't recall back in 2000..." You know, it slipped his mind; he can't remember...

he Forgot.

Alan Brooks| 8.9.10 @ 8:48PM

just you watch, McCain will say
"2000 was a long time ago...
I don't exactly recollect the precise sequence of events involving South Carolina...
certain decisions were made...
not all to the good...
I can only [that is for sure] say in defense...

btw, please don't forget I was tortured in Vietnam... I have always served my country... minor indiscretion... politics is compromise... I wasn't aware completely... perhaps I was a tiny bit senile... Alzheimer's research has made great strides... we've got a long way to go... mistakes have been made... politics is the art of compromise... we did what we had to do... ten years is a long time... I'm older and wiser now..."

apodoca| 8.9.10 @ 11:43AM

At most, McCain can only serve one more term in the Senate. Do we want another dodderer like Byrd or Kennedy? No. Do we want someone who will say one thing to win (lie) and do another thing once he's won? No. I'm no Hayworth fan, but McCain has to go.

AngelaTC| 8.10.10 @ 11:11AM

Only one more term? His mother is still alive!

Dustin| 8.9.10 @ 11:43AM

Hayworth says "I've made my mistakes".

Wow. Perhaps I'm just jaded, but it's a real surprise to hear such an outward admission. I have stopped following this campaign because I don't really like either of these guys.

But it's clear Hayworth is relying on the right ina way Mccain isn't. He's simply far less likely to stray. Mccain had his 'mistakes' with the Keating scandal, Hayworth had his too. It's a shame, because I think it should be easy to nominate someone who doesn't make such mistakes.

But I think Hayworth is simply more representative of his state than Mccain is. RINOs in blue states are a huge shift in policy from the Ted Kennedys. And just imagine how painful for the left if would be if Mccain was not around to create another 'gang' to compromise what matters in the name of an expedient accomplishment.

Amnesty (1986) is a perfect example of why such deal makers are bad for the cause. The 'bad guys' never honor their side of the agreement. At this point, we're begging for the beltway to simply honor their side of that deal, and they want huge concessions for it.

So let's hope Hayworth wins.

dabbo| 8.9.10 @ 7:51PM

I was struck by that comment from Hayworth as well....but not in a good way. Hayworth is also a bag of damaged goods. I feel sorry for Arizona when this is all they have to choose from.

Rose| 8.9.10 @ 10:28PM

Precisely why McCain was elected in 2004 by Arizona Dims and was CENSURED UNANIMOUSLY in 2005 by Arizona's GOP Caucus!
For catering exclusively to Arizona DIMS!
http://www.azconservative.org/.....Action.htm
Arizona Republican Assembly Votes Unanimously to Censure Senator McCain

By Dennis Durband, Editor
June 11, 2005

Derek Leaberry| 8.9.10 @ 11:49AM

McCain is not fit to wipe the mud off the boots and bare feet of the Confederate soldiers he so despises.

FP| 8.9.10 @ 2:49PM

?? What?
You sound like another concern troll attempting to pin racism on anyone opposing the democrats favored republican nominee. Take your racism elsewhere, lib.

Dustin| 8.9.10 @ 12:02PM

It really is hard to state just how much damage Mccain has done to the GOP. His insane TARP behavior at the end of his presidential campaign, or the Amnesty saga, stick out in most minds, but I'm talking about a long period of chipping away at what defined the GOP and gave it credibility with conservatives. He was one of the most powerful instigators of a triangulation that mirrored Clinton's.

And if reelected, Mccain will likely serve his final term, and he will not forget that so many supported Hayworth. He is campaigning now (and as he said, he's willing to lie to win an election). When he's done campaigning, he will be unleashed from that burden of reelection, finally, and will almost surely meet his peer in an Obama administration that needs some leverage with a renewed GOP.

That combination will be powerful and very damaging to the country and the party. I do not want to see Mccain win this election, to say the least. He has always feared the voters, but he won't anymore, at perhaps the worst time as the GOP struggles to reform against the dems and its own beltway establishment.

bluecollarbytes| 8.9.10 @ 10:36PM

McCain's legacy is unfinished. It's safe to assume if he's reelected, he will find common ground with Obama, Reid, and maybe even the ghost of Teddy Kennedy. There's also payback a commin against those conservatives who could just not stomach a Pres. McCain.

Carlos M| 8.9.10 @ 2:42PM

Anyone but McCain. You can't be a Liberal when it comes to taxes and amnesty and represent Arizonans. It's difficult to criticize a war hero, and I honor the man for what he did, but not for what he's been doing or wants to do. It seems almost impossible to besmirch his legacy, but he's close to doing that, and that's a sign that we've put up with McCain too long. Don't let this man continue to sell-out his constituents and other Americans. I now cherish his deeds more than I do the man who did them, because there's a serious disconnect between the two for me now. John McCain's career has been downhill since his time in the military, and while his sacrifice was great and honorable, his politics aren't.

GaryP| 8.9.10 @ 11:15PM

"It's difficult to criticize a war hero."
Why? In business as in the rest of life its not what you did in the past, its what is believed you can do in the future that determines your value. McCain got into the senate based on his war hero status. That is a huge reward. The elections today need to be determined on his senate record. For him to continue to run on a war hero status just diminishes the man.

George| 8.9.10 @ 4:52PM

What's funny is that Hayworth says that he's made his mistakes, and then he... points out McCain talking about making a mistake. OK, then. Now what?

Al Adab| 8.9.10 @ 4:58PM

Someone ask the Senator to explain away McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold. He cannot. Whatever he says- and his campaign is the most despicable ever- it is time he retired no matter the replacement. It cannot be a worse choice. The point is to be rid of the man we followed to defeat, not reward him for an inept, or in this instance abominable, campaign.

Is anyone in Arizona listening? Will they really re-elect Reid in Nevada? Is there any Hope if this happens?

Cold Warrior| 8.9.10 @ 10:10PM

J.D. Hayworth, to his credit, urges all conservatives to get INSIDE the GOP in sufficient numbers to, effectively, take it over. By getting INSIDE the GOP in sufficient numbers, conservatives could then vote at the local and county GOP committee levels to ENDORSE candidates like J.D. Hayworth and others running against incumbent RINOs in the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections. We did that in Maricopa County to endorse the lone conservative in the race for County Attorney (what we call the District Attorney). We had exactly 60 per cent of the votes, what our bylaws call for, to get that endorsement. But, we probably did not have 60 per cent to endorse J.D. Hayworth over McCain. Why? Because over HALF of the precinct committeeman slots are vacant in Maricopa County, even thought we have 698,587 registered Republicans. And, therefore, not enough conservatives get elected to the leadership positions.

There’s 6,241 precinct committeeman slots, but only about 2,960 are filled. There HAS to be at least 3,300 conservatives among those 695,000 Republicans who are NOT DOING ANYTHING right now INSIDE the Party. Why aren't they INSIDE the Party? Lack of knowledge? Apathy?

Probably both.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to recruit them:

http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

2,960 is some improvement from 2008, when we only had 1,989 filled precinct committeeman slots.

It’s easy to become a PC and it is THE way to take back our Party and, then, our government.

We conservatives need to UNITE and ORGANIZE inside the Republican Party — HALF the PC slots are vacant, on average, in EVERY state. The Party is there for the taking if conservatives will just INVADE IT.

Are you a precinct committeeman? If not, why not? I hope and pray, if at all possible, you'll try to become one if you aren't one already. We need you!

Become one NOW so you can say, “I became a Republican Party precinct committeeman before it was cool.”

For Liberty,
Cold Warrior

Rose| 8.9.10 @ 10:17PM

Hayworth is worlds' less damaged that John McCain.

John McCain was unanimously censured by the Arizona GOP Caucus in 2005 for catering exclusively to Arizona DIMS.

Get rid of McCain while you can.

Next term improve on Hayworth if you can, easier after one term than after the DIM machine McCain has now helping him.

Remember - those EXPERATION DATES on the Bush tax cuts belong EXCLUSIVELY to John McCain and Fred Thompson, an afterthought of STOPPING the Tax Cuts landslide immediately after the Bush inauguration for McCain to prove he was The Boss of Congress to pass McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform --- when he ALLOWED the Tax Cut bill to come back to the Floor, HE attached the EXPIRATION DATES saying the DIMS would never let it go through without them - AS LEADER OF THE GANG OF 7.
And with Fred Thompson's bull dog help.

Some you guys need to do your homework on McCain. Remember him promising Mexico in Spanish on UNIVISION all 2008, into LATE Oct. 2008 that he would sign SHAMNESTY by January 31, 2009?
HOW can you even CONSIDER voting McCain?
It was Gang of 14 by the time he stopped to campaign for President as a so-called "Conservative".
Dec.15, 2007 - weeks before first Primaries, he promised MANDATORY CLASSES for all Americans and ALL MILITARY for anti-torture sensitivity training against torture of terrorists, and against waterboarding - on Fox News.

So much more.

You cannot be pro-American Constitution and vote for McCain!

Rose| 8.9.10 @ 11:05PM

Now I come to think of it, someone like Ann Coulter had a column out that gave the evidence that an investigation into John McCain's 2000 Accusations against George Bush in SC in the Primary there were LIES, that Bush didn't do what McCain claimed he did, but that in fact, McCain bald-faced lied about Bush, and that phone bank records showed no such incident of what McCain accused Bush of at all.

Bush instantly opened all his records to investigation - and McCain steadfastly REFUSED to EVER open his records to that investigation.

Cannot find that article - had it saved on computer that crashed last year - found Ann Coulter: http://anncoulter.com/cgi-loca.....rticle=233

Rose| 8.9.10 @ 11:09PM

http://anncoulter.com/cgi-loca.....rticle=231

To the contrary, in 2001, McCain said he was voting against Bush's tax cuts based on the idiotic talking point of the Democrats. "I cannot in good conscience," McCain said, "support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief."

McCain started and fanned the vicious anti-Bush myth that, before the 2000 South Carolina primary, the Bush campaign made phone calls to voters calling McCain a "liar, cheat and a fraud" and accusing him of having an illegitimate black child.

On the thin reed of a hearsay account, McCain immediately blamed the calls on Bush. "I'm calling on my good friend George Bush," McCain said, "to stop this now. He comes from a better family. He knows better than this."

Bush denied that his campaign had anything to do with the alleged calls and, in a stunningly magnanimous act, ordered his campaign to release the script of the calls being made in South Carolina.

Bush asked McCain to do the same for his calls implying that Bush was an anti-Catholic bigot, but McCain refused. Instead, McCain responded with a campaign commercial calling Bush a liar on the order of Bill Clinton:

Kevin O'Connell| 8.10.10 @ 6:36AM

I've got my overseas ballot on the way and I can't wait to vote against this disgrace.

Mike Rogers| 8.10.10 @ 9:55AM

I could not support either of them.
I supported McCain for president because he was the last man standing, and because he picked Palin to add a bit of real conservatism to the ticket.
Hayward has done as much to destroy himself as McCain has, and does not deserve to win.
If these two clowns will stop duking it out, and as long as Obama is president, one last term for McCain is probably the lesser evil than a Democrat, which will be the sure result if they destroy each other.
Meanwhile, not content with attempted amnesty, not content with being the Liberals' favorite Republican, McCain continues to endorse unworthy candidates across the country. What a legacy!

Idahoser| 8.10.10 @ 1:16PM

Given a choice of two evils, remove the one with the seniority.