Posted on 01/21/2010 8:12:54 PM PST by rabscuttle385
Pay attention: In the afterglow of the Massachusetts Miracle, there are flickers of peril for the right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like Paul Revere’s midnight message, consider this warning “a cry of defiance, and not of fear.” Conservatives have worked hard to rebuild after Big Government Republican John McCain’s defeat. But McCain isn’t going gently into that good night.
Red Flag No. One: A reader from Arizona informed me the day after the Bay State Bombshell that he had received a robo-call from Massachusetts GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown. “He basically wanted me to vote for John McCain in November,” the reader said in his description of the automated campaign call supporting the four-term Sen. McCain’s re-election bid. “No wonder [Brown] said he hadn't had any sleep. … He was busy recording phone messages!”
Red Flag No. Two: Also in the wake of the Massachusetts special election, the nation’s most popular conservative political figure Sarah Palin announced she would be campaigning for her former running mate in Arizona in March. Palin told Facebook followers that she’s going to “ride the tide with commonsense candidates” and help “heroes and statesmen” like McCain.
Facing mounting conservative opposition in his home state and polls showing him virtually tied with possible GOP challenger and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, McCain welcomed the boost: "Sarah energized our nation and remains a leading voice in the Republican Party."
Savor the irony: After a career spent bashing the right flank of the party, McCain is now clinging to its coattails to save his incumbent hide.
And pay attention to the hidden, more troubling irony: While he runs to the right to protect his seat, McCain’s political machine is working across the country to install liberal and establishment Republicans to secure his legacy.
In Florida, McCain’s Country First Political Action Committee is supporting the Senate bid of fellow illegal alien amnesty supporter and global warming alarmist GOP Gov. Charlie Crist, whose crucial 2008 primary endorsement rescued McCain from disaster. Grassroots conservatives support former GOP state House leader Marco Rubio -- who is hitting Crist hard for lying to voters about his embrace of President Obama’s pork-laden, fraud-ridden stimulus package.
In Colorado, McCain and his meddlers infuriated the state party by anointing former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton to challenge endangered Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. She’s a milquetoast public official who has served on a lot of task forces and GOP clubs -- and who happens to be the sister-in-law of big Beltway insider Charlie Black. An estimated 40 percent of her coffers are filled with out-of-state money (and much of that is flowing from the Beltway).
The mini-McCain of Colorado claims to oppose “special interests,” but has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from D.C. lobbyists at McCain’s behest -- stifling the candidacies of strong conservative rivals led by grassroots-supported Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, an amnesty opponent whose aggressive illegal-immigration prosecutions have earned him the rage of the far left and big-business right. A recent Rasmussen poll showed Buck and GOP candidate Tom Wiens beating Bennet -- despite the huge cash and crony advantage of frontrunner and blank-slate Norton.
In California, McCain’s PAC supports former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina -- a celebrity name with deep pockets of her own, massive media exposure and a checkered business record. Fiorina served as the economic adviser to McCain, who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bailout, a $300 billion mortgage bailout and the first $85 billion AIG bailout. As GOP rival and grassroots-supported Chuck DeVore’s camp notes, Fiorina has also vacillated publicly over the Obama stimulus. With taxpayer “friends” like this, who needs Democrats?
With all due respect to McCain’s noble war service, it’s time to head to the pasture. As the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, he was wrong on the constitutionality of the free-speech-stifling McCain-Feingold campaign finance regulations. He was wrong to side with the junk-science global warming activists in pushing onerous carbon caps on America. He was on the wrong side of every Chicken Little-driven bailout. He was wrong in opposing enhanced CIA interrogation methods that have saved countless American lives and averted jihadi plots. And he was spectacularly wrong in teaming with the open-borders lobby to push a dangerous illegal alien amnesty.
Tea Party activists are rightly outraged by Palin’s decision to campaign for McCain, whose entrenched incumbency and progressive views are anathema to the movement. At least she has an excuse: She’s caught between a loyalty rock and a partisan hard place. The conservative base has no such obligations -- and it is imperative that they get in the game (as they did in Massachusetts) before it’s too late. The movement to restore limited government in Washington has come too far, against all odds, to succumb to McCain Regression Syndrome now.
“McCain is not a liberal.”
Truth be told, McCain is a progressive! He’s an exposed wolf in sheep’s clothing. Put me in that “bitter fringe”, “purity” category too, I’ll be keeping an eye on ALL of them. Scott Brown is pro-abortion, I didn’t support him either. If the “conservative movement”, of which you speak, includes progressives, I want no part of it.
“Sarah is supporting him [McCain]...”
Of course she is, that’s why I don’t support her! McShamnesty/Palin, what’s the difference?
As governor she could have fillibustered, and fought it. I know she was cornered, but the point is no candidate is perfect. And right now we don’t why DeMint gave his intitial support to Myth. I suspect it was due to his at the time being a fiscal conservative. Ask me to pick between Myth and Juan is like asking me which gun I want to shoot myself.
With Mc Cain, you might as well go ahead and vote for the Democrat because that is the side Mc Cain will be on, paricularly on issues that really hurt us.
You are the one who called McCain a traitor not I. I may have my disagreements with the man but I would never call him such a vile word as “traitor”. Yet you either threw away your vote on a write-in or you voted for a man whom you consider a traitor. Since you refuse to clarify your vote, I still do not know which.
Issues like abortion and the War on Terror?
I still can’t believe there are freepers who still support McCain. This is truly bizare.
Let us not forget he was going to OFFICIALLY switch parties in 2004 and run as Kerry’s VP. Yet one more indication of his treachery that it would even be legitimately considered as a possibility. That makes it all the clearer why he didn’t try to seriously contest Zero. His actions speak volumes as to whose side he is truly on.
I agree. The 1919 Blacksox looked more competitive.
McCain did everything he could to destroy the conservative movement. He needs to be replaced.
That is not quite the way it goes. Many of us would have stayed home on election day if Sarah Palin had NOT been on the ticket. SOME of us understood that McCain deliberately chose Palin because he THOUGHT she was a sure loser. He WANTED to pick Joe Lieberman and was ticked off because even his psycophants told him they would leave if he did.
He chose who he thought was the worst possible running mate and got the surprise of his worthless life.
Palin “owes” him squat. And she WILL hurt herself with Conservatives by campaigning for him.
JD has a warchest already. He is stalling on his announcement, but it can’t be for much longer. If Sarah was smart, she would stay OUT of Arizona until AFTER the primaries and let the voters of AZ choose their candidate first.
If she campaigns hard and seriously for McCain, she loses a ton of goodwill Conservatives have lavished on her.
You posted it, I responded to it. You’re the one that has no problem supporting a traitor to our country, madam. A backstabbing weasel and execrable individual. Despite many attempts by FReepers of INFINITE patience and wisdom trying to enlighten you, you still persist on being an obstinate when it comes to the truth and the facts of the record. Why is that ? Why do you vociferously and angrily oppose the Republican party nominating a Conservative in word and in deed ? You claim to stand for Conservative positions, but I submit you, madam, are a fraud, because if you stood for any of them, you’d favor the removal of McCain from office. I also notice you continually refuse to address his loyalty to Zero and the help he has continued to render him. That speaks even more volumes about yourself.
Your tagline is insulting.
Before we go any further, are you a Ron Paul supporter? The reason I ask is you bring up the issue of going to war without a formal declaration. That sounds like something Paul supporters bring up to bash Bush.
Can everyone imagine the media UPROAR and negative reporting on both Sarah & McCain if Sarah had said ‘NO’ to John McCain? I don’t care for McCain at all but the fact of the matter is the lamestream media (which make no mistake still speaks to a wide swath of Americans) would have had a field day with that slap to McCain by Sarah and the conversation at the water cooler would switch from the victory in Massachussets to the ‘discord in the Republican Party’ and the media would have made Sarah - especially - look bad.
Sarah is not a candidate-saint nor is she perfect in every way. Why is every move she makes met with such unforgiving scrutiny?
Yep...just what I was thinking as I saw John Kerry rush to be photographed as one of the first to shake Scott Brown’s hand....McCain-Kerry 2012 is on the McCain Agenda for sure! And he’s gonna try to USE Gov. Palin to get there! He’ll promise her Sec’y of State or sumpin!
I can forgive her, but trust me, I will look at her differently and with more scrutiny as time goes on. The press will have many field days at Sarah’s expense regardless of what she does, so that argument just doesn’t hold water for the woman who “battled corruption in her OWN party.”
McCain is as bad, or worse, as they come and is unworthy of ANY Conservative support.
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