Posted on 01/27/2010 5:11:42 AM PST by ManHunter
In jpl's original thread, there was a great deal of discussion about Sarah Palin and her endorsement of John McCain in the Arizona Republican senatorial primary, where he is opposed by J.D. Hayworth. Many of us are disappointed in Sarah, who stated unequivocally that she would work to elect conservatives to public office and I communicated my disappointment to SarahPac directly. Some of us understood Sarah's loyalty to McCain for selecting her as his running mate and some of us (myself included) think he canceled that debt when he declined to support her as she was/is barbecued by the media in the aftermath of the '08 election. Others, however, suggested that, rather than argue about what Sarah has done, we offer reasons to vote for J.D. Hayworth, which made a great deal of sense to me.
I am from Arizona and conservatives there have been frustrated by the Republican Party's repeated endorsement and financial support of "moderate" incumbents over frequently more popular conservatives - usually to the detriment of the party and the people of Arizona and the United States. Moreover, while serving in the Army, I was stationed in Alaska for 3 1/2 years and gained a real appreciation for the "no apologies/no regrets" libertarian brand of conservatism that is so widespread in Alaska (although I don't share all aspects of that philosophy) and I have followed politics there for 30 years. What Sarah is doing in Arizona is the approximate equivalent of what the NRC did to her in her run for governor in Alaska. Therefore, I took it as my mission to document at least some of the reasons to vote for JD Hayworth, as opposed to voting for John McCain or throwing Sarah under the bus. I met JD long before he was elected to the US House. I like him and he is a real conservative, but most of you don't know me, so my opinion of him carries little weight.
I went to the web site of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which compiles voting records and produces conservative ratings for all members of the House and Senate based on their annual and lifetime voting records. Following are the annual and lifetime conservative ratings for John McCain and J.D. Hayworth for each of the 10 years in which JD Hayworth served in the House. How better to evaluate which is the conservative?
2006 - McCain 65%, Hayworth 96%; 2005 - McCain 80%, Hayworth 100%; 2004 - McCain 72%, Hayworth 96%; 2003 - McCain 80%, Hayworth 88%; 2002 - McCain 78%, Hayworth 100%; 2001 - McCain 68%, Hayworth 100%; 2000 - McCain 81%, Hayworth 100%; 1999 - McCain 77%, Hayworth 100%; 1998 - McCain 68%, Hayworth 100%; 1997 - McCain 80%, Hayworth 96%; Lifetime - McCain 82.3%, Hayworth 97.6%
So has Scott Brown. He went on the radio yesterday and said that the only person in Washington DC who gave him the time of day was John McCain.
Scott Brown has also recorded a phone call in behalf of McCain. It is what it is.
You’ll probably be back when you compare her to the mush mouthed Repubs that she may run against,...and you’ll be welcomed back, too.
Romney? Huckabee? Anybody?
John Sidney McCain’s views on illegal aliens are so over the top and spell only disaster for this country. During 2008 he acted feeble and senile and appeared not to want to win the election. Now his daughter and wife both pose with duct tape over their mouths. The man has turned into a joke.
McCain’s record goes far beyond the 10 years referenced in my original post. He has shown an incredible degree of “pragmatism” in the past - even more so and less consistent than John F’ng Kerry (from a different perspective than Kerry, of course). His lifetime conservative ranking is well below that of most of his Republican contemporaries and 15 points below that of his fellow Arizona Senator Jon Kyl.
He has now taken a turn to the conservative? Methinks not...
Also by financially supporting JD. McCain will have BIG money behind him, including some that we gave him for the presidential run. Actually, we gave it to Sarah and McCain kept it.
McCain will have big money, the media, and "the establishment" behind him.
McCain claims he's in DC fighting for us all the time, well, if he's there fighting he's sure ineffective because we have higher deficits then ever before. Perhaps it's time to send someone else to fight who might have a chance of winning.
Is there ANY primary poll?
JD Hayworth and any other challengers from the right like Marco Rubio are doing the country a great service. A vigorous debate on issues fleshes out the best candidates on balance like Pat Toomey did in PA regarding Specter. Who cares who Palin supports in the primary? That’s her business. Let the candidates have at it and make up your own mind.
The real question is do the anti-Dem votes come together after the primary to defeat the Dem machine like Brown did to Coakley or do we stay away or scatter our votes and allow this insane government to go on with out the slightest check. 41 votes in the Senate is hardly a position of power. The Dem jackboot is on our necks. The house has to get flipped at all costs to save the country. We need all the senate votes we can get to restore some small amount of sanity to the government. We need to be smart.
I don’t disagree with your post at all. I’m only trying to point out that this vanity thread in News/activism has very little to justify it at all if it is soley based upon ratings. There are tons of additional data out there that wasn’t touched and much of which has been presented in one or more of the numerous threads on this topic.
To some degree, it is grasping at straws. She seems the only on who can lead the conservative charge, but she is human and a politician, who may be seeking political office, and deals need to be made. Renaldus, himself, spent 1977 through 1980 building a base within the GOP.
It’s my reason for pessimism. Both parties are full of self serving corrupt individuals because, as Frank Herbert has said, power does not corrupt, it attracts corruptible individuals. Anyone seeking political office, and anyone in political office seeking to get anything done, needs to make deals with such devils.
Yes, Hayworth puts Sarah-bots in an uncomfortable position(which they deserve for such bad behavior here.) Can her ‘word’ still be a miracle from above if it is to vote for a RINO over a conservative?
As of 2007, 34 of McCain’s contemporaries in the US Senate have higher ratings than he does, which, in terms of conservatism, puts him in the bottom 15% of Republican senators. By the way, an 82.3 rating means he voted with the Democrats 17.7 percent of the time. While that alone may not be a compelling statistic, on which 17 percent of pending legislation will he vote with them in the future?
Palin has lost all credibility as a Conservative.
No she hasn’t. She isn’t any different than when she ran along side McCain last November except she is much more vocal and her words much more powerful in advancing the conservative cause. This whole story is much ado about nothing. What it really is is the destruction of all of the gains we have made thanks to the total failure of Obama. Anyone playing along is fool and letting happen what the Democrats haven’t been able to accomplish themselves. It’s call divide and conquer.
I agree. I really like Sarah and have had high hopes for her. I understand she agreed to help McCain before Hayworth announced that he is going to run. Obviously, she made a mistake in not waiting until after the primary to endorse - but she is new at these things and I'd give her a pass on that.
I cannot give her a pass if she insists on continuing this path. Like you, I am watching and giving her some time to reformulate her decision. Clearly, Hayworth is the more conservative of the two - and CLEARLY - McCain has done damage to our country in many ways. I don't feel like she owes him diddly - she worked very hard during the campaign and lifted him in the polls immensely.
She owes him nothing. She is not his puppet to come running whenever he calls. He is using her, and will throw her away when it is expedient for him to do so. She had a brilliant career ahead of her before he ever called her - she was going full-speed ahead on her own golden path. She interrupted all of that to help McCain. I feel his pathetic campaign attempts against Obama really let her down and did not do justice to the sacrifices she and her family made to help him.
She owes him nothing.
I hope she is working on this issue - it's a big one. This will leave a big black mark on her otherwise stellar career. Sarah, I love you - but I won't follow you blindly over a cliff.
Primary poll
++++++++++
I don’t think Hayworth has officially jumped in the mix nor even set up a committed, exploratory or otherwise at this time. Don’t forget this primary isn’t until Aug. 24 and the last day to file to be in the primary is May 26, so a good bit of time left yet.
“He has done a good job playing opposition to Obama in 2009”
He has not!
He should wake up every morning and take a bite out of Obama’s ass before he even pours his coffee. He should do this for the good of our nation. he should have defined himself by his opposition to the cabal of socialists.
This is what he should have been doing since November of last year. That is what I had unrealistically hoped for. Instead he has gone the way many here at FR have predicted.
McCain needs to retire. He’ll only help Obama screw up the country.
What?
Are you kidding? Do you really think the media will ever give Sarah credit for anything? They are going to pick on her no matter what she does. I hope she doesn't make ANY decisions based on what she thinks the media is going to do to her, cause if she does - she has more in common with McCain than I thought.
Anyway, what's so wrong about being accused of being a "wild-eyed conservative"?
Not bad if that means the pubs together have that high of a rating. I’d have thought it would have been lower. Someone with an 82% doesn’t bother me......... I don’t expect everyone to think/feel exactly as I do.
I think they get points for fairly routine conservative stances as well as stances on major issues. But McCain is horrible on the major issues of recent years: amnesy, cap and trade, even health care (now reaching across the aisle), and he has that idiotic notion that just doing something, or passing something is actually progress.
And his Gang of 14 involvement and other anti-conservative maneuvers don't show up in tallies of voting records.
Conservatives have recognized over the last few election cycles that they have to fight two battles: 1) most obviously, the Dims in the general election, and 2) almost as importantly, the Cinos/Rinos in the primaries.
We haven’t done a very good job in the primaries in the past, resulting in Cinos like McCain being elected. The result is Republicans who are more comfortable with Dims than they are with conservatives in their own party.
It’s now time to take the party back, and that means fighting hard in the primaries.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.