Posted on 12/02/2008 9:13:14 AM PST by TADSLOS
Phoenix — “Senator McCain, what do you make of Arizonans who think that for the last ten years you’ve been America’s senator, and not Arizona’s senator?”
That, from a local reporter here in Phoenix, was one of the opening questions last week when John McCain held his first press conference since losing the presidential race on November 4. McCain’s purpose was to announce that he will run for reelection in 2010 and to say, in effect, “Remember me? I’m your senator.” The reporter’s question was to remind McCain that a number of people in this state aren’t entirely happy about that. “I’m very proud to have served, and I’m proud during that period to have been elected and reelected,” McCain answered. “I will be glad to point to my record as chairman of the Indian Affairs committee, and Armed Services, and all the other issues and legislative accomplishments, ranging from protecting the Grand Canyon to issues affecting our border and our economy. I’m very proud of my record.”
What a difference a month makes. Off the presidential campaign trail, with the media world focused on the Obama transition office in Chicago, McCain was standing, in front of a small background of American and Arizona flags, before perhaps 15 or 20 reporters, nearly all of them local. And he was talking about Indian affairs and the Grand Canyon. For the next two years, at least, John McCain is again the senator from Arizona.
But now that he has lost the presidency, there are some Republicans in Arizona who would like to see him lose his Senate office, too. “I’ll do anything I can to support his Republican opponent, whoever that might be,” Rob Haney — who until last week was chairman of the Republican party in Arizona’s District 11 — told me recently. Haney has been a loud and vocal critic of McCain for years, arguing that McCain is “not a conservative in any way, shape, or form.”
Haney understands that ousting McCain, who first won a House seat in 1982 and has never lost an election here, would be very, very tough. “It would be a long shot,” Haney admitted. But Haney and other anti-McCain types see some reason for hope. In the Arizona Republican primary this year — which, as part of the Super Tuesday contests, came after McCain had essentially wrapped up the nomination — McCain won just 47 percent of the vote. (Second-place finisher Mitt Romney got 35 percent.) And in the general election, McCain beat Barack Obama by a 54-45 margin — a relatively small margin in McCain’s home state.
Read more at National Review Online
Anybody still have recall petitions stashed away?
Bye bye John, don’t forget to write!
I must might give my first $$ to the repulsicans in a long while if they support an ousting of McKennedy - er McDemocrat - er, McCain.
We can only hope.
A waste of time ... Senators cannot be recalled.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I never thought I’d ever vote for a Democrat, but if that’s the only choice, I’ll vote Dem over McCain next election.
I wish.
I don’t care what the numbers are in the Senate.
This guy needs to lose.
If he tries hard enough, yes!
He’s been screwing us all up for years. GET OUT JOHN! You have a nice home life, go enjoy it! I’m 39 now, but at 72, I pray I get to be a happy Grandad, free of concerns, or maybe even a great Grandad if God will allow. What’s the matter with this old coot?
You’ve done your part for your country a long time ago, now you need to go enjoy your family LIKE EVERY OTHER AMERICAN WOULD BE DOING AT 72! ENOUGH ALREADY!
Have it on good authority that Steve Schmidt and other McCain national advisers are pleading with the “drag on the ticket” to campaign for him. They’ll even pay for the Diva’s wardrobe. -:)
good post Da Coyote,
No money from me goes to the Republican party as long as they
push RINO vermin on us, McCain, Martinez, Hagel, etc.
I wish they had a retirement limit on Senators - we need to oust alot of the old guys Byrd, Leahy, Rockefeller, McCain, etc. Kennedy will go out feet first but get replaced by another liberal...here in Arizona we have one good senator in Jon Kyl, but McCain is a RINO and I’m fed up with it.
We managed to give McCain 58% here in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, a county which didn't send a Republican to the state house since the district was created in 1969 until this year. Plus a county which Walter Mondale carried in the 1984 Reagan landslide.
I think he won big here for the same reason Oba Mao lost big: McCain had the good sense to send Sarah Palin to campaign and stay away himself. Oba Mao did not.
I hate to say this but we’d be better off with a democrat in that seat, and I am glad he is NOT president!
Don’t count on it. If McCain votes for amnesty again, and he surely will, he is dead meat in AZ. I have a second home there. I will make it my permanent residence prior to 2010 just so I can vote against the bastard.
The next time anybody in the Republican Party decides that it would be a super idea to nominate a sitting Senator for President, I hope someone will have the good sense to kick him in the privates and toss him down a flight of stairs.
Both of Arizona's Senators, McCain and Kyl, have agreed to honor the results of any recall election and resign if it goes against them. It will not. He won with 82% of the vote last time and I would expect a rough equivalent this.
If she does, she’s toast- whether McCain wins or not.
“Anybody still have recall petitions stashed away?”
I hope so. The only thing that saved his ass was 9/11.
His recall was going on successfully. But then 9/11 happened; and it was decided he was no longer important…like a piece of dog dropping; and it was called off.
I would like to see his recall start up again.
Goldwater Jr could run for the seat...he served a couple of terms in Congress.
Not so. McCain won with 77% of the vote in 2004 and that was well before his taking the starring role in boosting amnesty. There is no way he wins again with that kind of majority and he will face a strong challenge in the primary. McCain was the only top tier candidate of either party who did not win his home state by 50% or more in the presidential primaries.
You are irrelevant. Understand that and behave accordingly.
ping.
The recall was a joke. It was going nowhere. In the election after the recall was dropped, McCain won with 82% of the vote.
Please don’t vote for a DEMONCRAT!
GEESH!
DO you want them to have TOTAL CONTROL?
As much as I am unimpressed with John, I wouldn’t vote for a baby killer and most Demoncrats are baby killers.
Knee-jerking - no brain needed
These guys get in the Senate, like the perks of that hothouse environment, and stay until they’re 98 or in some few cases, die in office. What the founders meant for a short term of public service, we get CAREER politicians who never fade away or die either it seems.
Amen, ducdriver. The Demoncraps would love for John McCain to lose his own state. Despite McCain’s faults he’s still more conservative on many issues than your typical Democrat.
Gov. Palin will have her hands full with her own political future in Alaska 2010--I imagine she'll attend to that.
McCain's views on amnesty were well developed and well known in '04. He will not have a serious primary challenge and there are no Democrats who could come even close. Pederson backed out last time to challenge Kyl who is weaker, much weaker.
Might wanna stay away from that one.
By 2010 it won't matter, thanks largely to McCain, and he'll probably get his ass handed to him in the general election thanks to a whole new batch of Arizona citizanos ready and willing to support a liberal democrat over a liberal republican- just like 2008.
So what are McCain’s chances and fundraising ability now that the Democrats who’ve backed him in the past no longer need him viable (they secured him a GOP presidential nomination which had been a long standing goal)?
The Democrats will also oppose McCain this time around because they will want every seat they can get that keeps them closer to a 60 seat majority in the Senate.
He can always dip into his wife’s beer money.
Remember 40 years ago when the Baby Boomer motto was “Never trust anyone over 30”?
Why aren’t we hearing “never trust anyone over 70”?
Barry, himself, won the Presidential in Arizona by only 5000 or so votes. He won his last Senate term by about the same margin. He then graciously told the voters that they could "...go to Hell."
Source please.
John McCain is a RINO loser, win or lose. Please go away John. Give us a break.
There is no one who can challenge McCain on the Republican or Democratic side and come close.
If the people of AZ are stupid enough to reelect McCain to the Senate, they deserve what they get.
He abrogated his responsibilities for 2+ years to run for the presidency. That indicated that he was more interested in furthering his own career than in serving in the elective position he held.
His voting record was so scant the last 2 years that his affiliations/positions could not even be charted. He missed more votes than he cast.
So, if AZ wants more of McCain, they deserve what they get. After all, SC wanted more of Graham and gave him another term in November.
True. Birds of a feather and all that...
Another example of why term limits are a good thing.
“he is dead meat in AZ”
Don’t count on it, for every votes he loses from conservatives like you, he will pick up 2 illegal votes from hispanics. Your state has been flooded with illegals.
Of course, they won’t be illegals by the time McCain and his gang of 14 gansters vote amnesty. I hate to say it, but it may be true.
Same here, but this past election I voted for a Conservative Democrat (Bob Conley) in his bid to unseat the McCain mini-me - Lindsey Graham. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was actually more difficult to vote for McCain for President. I have friends that voted third party and I think they slept better even with an Obama victory. If nothing else, I learned a lesson from the '08 election.
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