Posted on 06/12/2005 11:51:11 AM PDT by Spiff
By Dennis Durband, Editor
June 11, 2005
SCOTTSDALE -- No, Donald Trump, U.S. Senator John McCain has not been fired. On Saturday, the Arizona Republican Assembly (ARA) voted unanimously during its annual state convention to censure Arizona’s senior senator.
McCain has seriously alienated his conservative base in the 21st century. However, he has greatly enamored himself with liberals and he easily won re-election in November with his new liberal support base. The conservatives who make up the ARA membership have had enough of what they consider a betrayal by McCain and they took advantage of their annual resolution ritual to take action against the liberal metamorphosis of the presidential hopeful.
The censure measure will be sent to Matt Salmon, chairman of the Arizona GOP -- with hopes of a state party censure as well -- to all Republican county and legislative district chairmen and will be issued as a press release to the media. No one spoke in support of McCain during discussion of the resolution.
ARA member Bruce Barton, of Safford, authored the resolution. The reasons behind the censure focus specifically on McCain’s amnesty bill for illegal aliens, for deserting the ranks of the Republican Party by undermining Senate President Bill Frist’s recent attempt to change a filibuster cloture rule and for ignoring constitutional concerns with his campaign finance reform law.
Public opinion on the ARA censure ran favorably all week long. A non-scientific GOPUSA/Arizona poll drawing 213 responses resulted in 93.4 percent approval of the censure.
Though a motion for censure Saturday drew unanimous approval, the ARA’s senior member, Louis Stradling, of Mesa, offered up an amendment that would have added stronger language to the document. Stradling suggested an amendment to the resolution that would have charged McCain with “malfeasance.” That move failed when Barton said he agrees with the spirit of Stradling’s suggestion, but he felt the word “malfeasance” might have added a legal sticking point that ARA would be better off avoiding. After the proposed amendment failed, ARA delegates enthusiastically and without dissent approved the resolution to censure McCain.
The resolution reads as follows:
WHEREAS, Senator John McCain is presently co-sponsoring, together with his Democrat soul-mate, Senator Teddy Kennedy, a Bill to Reform the Immigration Policy of the United States promoting amnesty for illegal aliens and for their U.S. employers, thus ignoring the opinions of his constituents expressed in numerous polls and personal pleas; and
WHEREAS, Senator McCain deserted the ranks of the Republican Party and the Leadership of the U.S. Senate on the issue of limiting the filibuster of judicial nominations, some of which have been on-hold for several years, thus stalling the President’s agenda for judicial reform; and
WHEREAS, Senator McCain led the Democrat Party in “reforming” campaign finance, providing for a clear usurpation of 1st Amendment free speech rights during the last 60 days of an election campaign, and leading to an orgy of spending in the 2004 elections;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Arizona Republican Assembly (ARA) officially and publicly censures Senator John McCain for dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a representative of the citizens of Arizona; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the ARA strongly urges State Republican Party Chairman, Matt Salmon, the Arizona State Republican Party and its County and Legislative District affiliates to officially and publicly express their displeasure with Senator McCain by means of a public censure; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that copies of this Resolution be sent to the Chairman of the State Republican Party, to all Republican County and Legislative District Chairman and be issued as a Press Release to the media.
The likelihood of persuading Arizona GOP to get on board with the censure is practically nil. The state party typically takes a neutral approach to wayward Republican office holders.
Saturday's censure was just the latest incident of protest against McCain in the past four years. Last year, several people demonstrated peacefully outside McCain's Tempe office over his refusal to support the proposed federal marriage amendment. In 2001, two McCain recall movements arose against the senator. The leaders of those two organizations combined their efforts into one joint recall and then permanently suspended operations upon the events of Sept, 11, 2001. Also that year, opponents of McCain gathered for public opposition rallies in Scottsdale and Tempe.
McCain is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination again in 2008.
McCain is really at the end of it all....a bitch.
John McAin sure was a hero and a patriot in Vietnam just like Al Bundy scored 4 touchdowns in one game in High School.
I understand your point, but it is not the point of the article nor this thread. The article DOES NOT use the word traitor. I'm not even sure why you brought the word traitor up in this thread.
Still, the intent of the author is clear.
I like to see that at least some people in Arizona are speaking up. The next thing is to find a suitable primary opponent for his next campaign.
I agree with you assessment of the treason or traitor--even though the word traitor IS used in the context of being "a traitor to the party"..that kind of thing...
There are a lot of phrases and words that have been used wrongly for years, which, like you said, tends to diminish the real meaning and use of them when really necessary...
I am always upset whenever I hear a politician pronounce that there is a "separation of church/state" in the Constitution, which there isn't, but it has been said so many times that it has become "fact" in our conversations...
I agree with the use of the words....I heartily disagree with everything that John McCain is doing...
Probably because of the keywords listed: TRAITOR and BENEDICTARNOLD.
People go brain dead when to walk into that voting booth
I agree. He is not a traitor. Political hack, maybe. Traitor, absolutely not.
Can someone tell me what this censure means in practicality? Or is it just a symbolic move?
I heard Chris Matthews today gushing over the possibility of a Hillary versus McCain matchup in 2008. If it's Senator Clinton versus McCain, then Democrats have two really good options for president. I'll support a pro-choice nominee before I support Senator McCain.
True, many politicians from BOTH parties fit that bill nowadays.
McMaratiac?
Does McCain give two %*#^ on what the ARA does?
Probably not. The ARA sounds too much like a liberal acronym to me. I wonder why. I'm not saying they sound liberal, just the acronym.
John McCrazy would stab his mother in the back if it helped him. He is a traitor! End of discussion.
I could care less what JM did 40 years ago in nam.
He's a horses ass now, and that's all that matters.
When the media calls McCain a 'maverick' it means he is a conformist (liberal). When the media calls someone a reactionary, it means that person is the real outsider/maverick/reformer. Like any good Marxists, the liberal media has warped and reversed the meaning of many words for their own ends.
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