Posted on 02/19/2010 7:36:15 PM PST by rabscuttle385
Ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R) is grateful his primary rival, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), is getting endorsements from prominent DC conservatives. It allows Hayworth to cast the race as Beltway power versus the grassroots, he said in an interview today.
"You can expect a steady stream of the Washington establishment to endorse John McCain. So here's the way the race breaks down: It's John McCain and the Washington establishment versus we the people," Hayworth said.
"We have profound policy differences that we solve through the political process, but with all due respect, I think it's indicative of John just having been there too long," he added.
Meanwhile, Hayworth said, McCain's efforts to cast himself as the fiscal conservative in the race are misplaced, given votes in favor of bailout legislation and his support for comprehensive immigration reform.
"John McCain of all people can't really claim the mantle of the fiscal conservative," Hayworth said. Instead, McCain's record "is Obama-like."
In DC to sit on a panel at CPAC, Hayworth is optimistic about his insurgent campaign against McCain. He lost his seat in '06 to Rep. Harry Mitchell (D), and McCain's team has argued a Hayworth candidacy would put McCain's seat in jeopardy.
But Hayworth says McCain's early assault on his candidacy has led to a backlash. McCain has already launched radio ads attacking Hayworth by name -- including ads that ran on KFYI, the Phoenix radio station on which Hayworth hosted a show until last month. Hayworth called the ads "fiction."
"I think really led to a backlash. People said, 'Hey, wait a minute, there's John McCain going after a conservative. Why, he never ran this way against Barack Obama,'" Hayworth said.
"For whatever reason, team McCain is bragging about running some sort of scorched earth campaign against me," he said. "Politically, the one-word term is threatened, and I can see why since I've been out of the trail."
On Friday, McCain's campaign launched another broadside, knocking Hayworth for failing to reach a publicly-stated goal of $100K during a "money bomb," and for having to defend himself for previous ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"It is clear that Mr. Hayworth has failed to galvanize support for his campaign, just as he failed to hold his solidly Republican U.S. House seat in 2006," McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers said in a statement.
Hayworth said he is ready for attacks on his Abramoff ties, and that McCain has his own skeletons in the closet.
"I would appeal to John's deeply held sense of honor. He knows that's false, and it doesn't help him," Hayworth said. "If he insists on staying in the muck and mire, I can answer the 2 words he's been bandying about with two words of my own: Charlie Keating."
McCain was implicated in the scandal surrounding the AZ developer. He was one of 5 senators given a slap on the wrist.
I'm waiting for McCain to openly attack FR and FReepers.
Mark my words.
This is war, and J.D. is right: "It's John McCain and the Washington establishment versus we the people."
GO JD!!
Indeed, he is.
SHOUT THE TRUTH!!!
We MUST defeat McCain so that his daughter shuts the hell up!!!
Michael Medved tore a strip out of Hayworth today.
I don’t think he will do that because there is too much information about him here he doesn’t want known to the general population. If he attacks us, people who might be unaware of us will come to see why.
Michael Medved tore a strip out of Hayworth today.
PLEASE PLEASE give JD money. I knew McCain would mock him for not raising money quickly. But there’s still time. I’m seeing JD tomorrow at a dinner in Havasu City. I’ll let you know what he says.
h.
“I’m waiting for McCain to openly attack FR and FReepers.”
Don’t bite off more than you can chew, McCain...you’ll lose.
Hayworth calling McCain an insider? JD who accepted $$ from Abramov and funneled it to his wife for a sham job?
JD who pledged to term limits, but then ignored it?
Oh my. No wonder McCain is leading by 21 points.
“On Friday, McCain’s campaign launched another broadside, knocking Hayworth for failing to reach a publicly-stated goal of $100K during a “money bomb”...”
RINO FREE AMERICA NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW TO RETIRE JOHN MCCAIN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2455118/posts
WAIT a minute. He not only made it, he exceeded it. One of the guys on that thread put him over.
Last number up is $101,175.
has mac lost his mind?
Oh, wait....
That is NOT true.
Which part, JD accepting money from Abramov, putting his wife in a sham job, or him being 21 points behind.
Hell, I left out the part where he lost a republican district to Harry Mitchell.
McCain was a DC insider even before he was elected to the Senate in 1984.
I just checked the moneybomb and it was at 101180$. So much for that claim.
Sorry, I’m supporting JD. McCain is a back stabber.
Ping me when you post some info on the meeting
Thanks
After the negative campaigning blood bath that the Republican primaries are shaping up to be, why would anyone want to vote for a Republican in November?
Here are the simple facts:
Abramoff contributed a grand total of $2,250 dollars to my political efforts. ($250 in 1996, $1,000 in 1998, and $1,000 to our leadership political action committee, TEAMPAC, in 1999.)
I never met with Abramoff concerning any legislation.
He never came to my office.
He never lobbied me directly on any issue.
Once Abramoff’s troubling activities were revealed, we donated that money to charity (Hurricane Katrina relief). Simply put, we didn’t want it.
Please understand, the Indian tribes were the true targets of Abramoff, I was simply collateral damage. The tribes were his clients and they were defrauded of tens of millions of dollars. Our office offered to return their contributions to them, but tribal officials stepped up to the plate and stated for the record that they themselves had made their own determinations about who they would support with political donations.
In the meantime, we cooperated fully with the Department of Justice, and hopefully our efforts helped in the indictment and conviction of Abramoff. Of course, we will never know that for certain. What we do know is that he is currently incarcerated for defrauding the Indian tribes, conspiracy, and corruption of public officials.
These days, ‘cooperation’ is expensive. Very expensive. In our case, it involved retaining a K Street Law Firm to pore over twelve years worth of my congressional records and correspondance. Twelve years of household records is bad enough, but Congress runs on paper and e-mails, and it was literally thousands of pages and hundreds of computer records that had to be examined, evaluated, and sometimes redacted for security reasons. Then you can add the administrative costs, phone calls, and ‘face time’ the attorneys spent with the DOJ. When all was said and done, the legal bill was over a half a million dollars. And that was to ‘cooperate’ with the DOJ!
In the end, we were completely vindicated. In a letter from our attorneys, they informed us that the Department of Justice had advised us that we “are not now the target, subject or focus [of] any DOJ investigation, case or other proceeding.” Essentially, it was a complete and total vindication that we had done nothing wrong at all - which is exactly what we had been saying all along.
**************************************
Interviewer: “What about that $100,000 you supposedly paid to your wife?”
JD: “My wife Mary was an employee of TEAMPAC, and she received a monthly paycheck. Simple math takes the “oomph” out of this charge. Think of it this way: if someone is paid $20,000 annually for five years, that totals $100,000! Pretty cheap for office help. Also, these were not taxpayer funds!”
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