McCain Looking over his Shoulder at Hayworth Challenge

Is Sen. John McCain just a little paranoid about his upcoming re-election chances? From his own actions … it would seem so.Already in full campaign mode, McCain is running radio ads on the radio. It’s still several months until the GOP primary – and he hasn’t had a serious primary challenge since the last millennium.Here are TAC responses:

• Interesting that the co-author of McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform – unconstitutional despite what the misguided Supreme Court said – is getting his ads clearly ahead of the 60-day moratorium his law imposes on candidates.
• McCain appears to be fearful of opposition by former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who hasn’t entered the race. There has been plenty of chatter around the state that Hayworth might oppose McCain.
• McCain finally captured his home GOP Legislative District little more than a year ago after spending thousands of dollars and mobilizing his foot soldiers to defeat conservative district chairman Rob Haney.
• Haney got kicked upstairs to the chairmanship of the Maricopa County Republican Party leadership. But now McCain is making a concerted effort to gain voting control of the Executive Guidance Committee, controlled by conservatives for the past few years.
• McCain’s supporters are attempting to strong-arm the Arizona Republican Party into disallowing challengers to federal level incumbents … such as John McCain.
• McCain didn’t fight Obama half as hard in the 2008 presidential election campaign as he’s fighting his own party.

Last year, McCain made it known that he wants the entire Republican Party re-made in his offbeat, non-conservative way – even though party membership is overwhelmingly conservative, pro-life, pro-marriage. He is not one of them, but if he succeeds even nominally he’s likely to increase the likelihood that the GOP will continue to languish in obscurity as a minority party.In an era of Tea Party activism and conservative growth (more Americans call themselves conservative than any other political brand), McCain is clearly swimming upstream against a strong tide. His time has come and gone.  This is the era of Palin, Bachman, Pawlenty and Jindal. They and others represent the future of the party. McCain represents a failed past.