At the 2010 Lake Havasu Lincoln Day Dinner, I had the pleasure of being the opening speaker before keynote speaker JD Hayworth.
Congressman Hayworth is running for the Arizona Senate seat currently held by John McCain.
(I am publicly neutral in the race. As is my custom, I do not get involved in primary fights, especially since in 49 states it is none of my d@mn business. I will support whoever wins the primary in the general election.)
I originally met Congressman Hayworth at the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis. He was hosting his radio show. Yet two years later, he was not covering an event. He was the event.
Congressman Hayworth has angered many Republicans by taking on an American hero in a contested primary. Yet this is America, and he is exercising his freedom by running. He began his remarks by balancing the dichotomy of trying to replace a man that is universally praised as an American hero.
“There is never an easy or good way to take on this issue. Men like john McCain make it possible for all of us to even have disagreements.”
“This is not personal. We have disagreements in public policy.”
“Thankfully in America, we follow the political process. We decide elections with ballots, not bullets.”
“I take polite but profound exception to some of John McCain’s political decisions.”
“I supported John McCain for President in 2000. Yet the John McCain of 2000 is not the John McCain of 2010.”
“In the Fall of 2008, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke panicked. We were given the Chicken Little notion that the sky was falling. John McCain was part of the hysteria.”
“John McCain pointed out that I voted for an earmark dealing with money for snake eradication. John McCain also voted for that earmark.”
“A half-truth is the same thing as an outright fabrication.”
“I don’t believe that John McCain meant to mislead people. Yet with five million dollars on hand, he could afford to spend some of it and hire better researchers.”
“When it came time to bail out the mortgages, John McCain was standing next to and listening to Hillary Clinton. Anybody who is listening to Hillary Clinton is not listening to the people of Arizona.”
“John McCain joined Joe Lieberman to support cap and trade.”
“This year, when running for reelection, McCain left cap and trade to Lindsay Graham and John Kerry. Well which is it?”
“Many Senators love to raise taxes. I never operated the Capitol Hill version of H & R Block.”
“It is said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. Well the power to lower taxes is the power to employ. This was understood by Calvin Coolidge, JFK, Ronald Reaga, and George W. Bush.”
“With George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, I had an active hand in writing those tax cuts.”
“McCain called the Bush reductions tax cuts for the rich. Now he wants to vote to extend them even though he voted against them.”
“We should rename the Straight Talk Express the Double Talk Express.”
“We should provide two chairs for John McCain at his next town hall in case both John McCain’s show up.”
“Governments cannot create wealth.”
“Everything we need to learn about Barack Obama can be learned from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.”
“Justice on left means taking from the productive and giving to the idle.”
“Defending our borders and sovereignty is the job of our government.”
“John McCain supports comprehensive immigration reform, or as we call it, amnesty.”
“Border security is national security.”
“There is a securtiy threat and an invasion that must be stopped.”
“I respect John and his service, but four times enhanced interrogation techniques prevented another 9/11 style attack on us.”
“McCain is an enabler to dangerous Obama policies. McCain voted to confirm Eric Holder.”
“McCain voted to close Guantanamo Bay and bring them here. Illegals are not citizens of the United STates. Enemy combatants are not citizens. They have no rights confirmed upon them.”
“You can send a message on August 24th, 2010, in the primary.”
“I am not interested in reducing the rate of growth in spending. I want to cut spending.”
“Cut taxes, and enforcement first.”
“Some will set up a straw man saying that we cannot throw twenty million people out of the country. We don’t have to. When you enforce the law, people obey the law.”
“The Governor of Sonora is complaining that too many of his citizens are coming home. This is because Maricopa Sheriff Apaia is enforcing the law.”
“Sheriff Apaia is endorsing me.”
“This election is about John McCain and the Washington, DC establishment versus we the people. I proudly stand with you.”
As a man from California, I stand with Arizona Republicans and respect their decision. John McCain is a hero, but that is not what the election is about. JD Hayworth has fundamental policy disagreements with John McCain. The voters will decide who they trust going forward.
What I will say is that I judge people in how they behave when the cameras are off and nobody is watching. JD Hayworth did something nice for me that went far beyond his call of duty.
I could not find my car after the event. It was dark, I was driving a rental, and I have no sense of direction. He and one of his high ranking staffers spent more than a few minutes helping me find it. They had other places to be, and I am not even an Arizona voter.
Nevertheless, one of them walked with me while the other one checked other areas. Between the three of us, we found it.
Regardless of how the campaign turns out, I am grateful to have met him again, and thankful for his friendship. I wish him well in life always.
eric
Look fellow Independents and moderate Republicans ( like moi ),
the name of this GAME, and politics is a game only but with serious
consequences, is winning. Get it, winning!
As with Henry Waxman, this guy doesn’t have a chance in hell of
beating McCain, so why all this fuss?
We moderates want less government than we have now, an always
strong military to protect ourselves and our interests, and a society
NOT dependent on Uncle Samuel and hundreds of billions of charity
each year (paid for by 20% of the population all you liberal news reporters who say otherwise-read LA Times articles).
The above requires a reduction in taxes and taxes paid fairly by
everyone.
Henry Waxman represents moderate to wealthy people on the Westside.
He is ( and has to be), strongly pro-Israel. He should be representing their interests..in fact he is screwing them royally through high taxes,
and repairing the world (before US). It’s called Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew
saying.
However, I would ask him, why didn’t he protest and loudly the letter signed by 54 of his peers in the House to Obama, to put pressure on
little Israel to end it’s boycott of Hamastan (Gaza Strip) and ease the
annoyances otherwise to them?
For those uninformed, Israel relinquished the Strip to Hamas…several
years ago, at great expense. It gave up hundreds of manufacturing plants
which sold to the EU; and dismantled 22 towns and villages ( there since
1967). This was initiated by the hated Sharon..(now in a coma), to
foster peace. It was an expensive goodwill gesture.
It got 12,000 rockets fired by militant groups as a thank you..creating
a aweful atmosphere of fear in Southern Israeli communities. The rockets were cheaply made Kassams and not guided by any means. Now,
Hamas fires Grads (Katuyshas) and is getting Fajr Rockets from Iran.
They are more lethal, and can reach much farther into Israel.
To avoid Hamas building a mighty military machine and protecting
it’s army, Israel has placed a boycott on certain goods..like cement.
It does allow fuel, medicine, clothing, food, etc. Customarily
it stops attempts to brake the blockade by extremist groups (foreign),
It also hits launch sites (Kassam) using drones to guide it’s helicopters and sometimes planes.
Egypt, also has a border with Gaza. and is building (finally) a steel
fence, 52 feet high, to stop the smuggling of arms from the Sinai into the Strip. Often times, the Hamas thugs try to thwart the project, just
as there have been violent incidents at the crossings into Israel from
Hamastan (The Strip).
Hamas is a terrorist group ( defined by US) whose goals are multiple.
They do provide some humanitarian care to the Pales…but their
main objective is to “waste” every Jew in Israel, while destroying that Jewish state. Fatwas against Diaspora Jews (outside Israel) are commonplace.
Instead of using the plants vacated and settlement infrastructure.,
they tore down the plants..AND ripped the settlements apart..stealing
what they could and leaving no synagogue unaffected. Jews typically do not tear down the entire place of worship, but do take away the holy
scrolls, prayer books, etc.
But this war is not only in the M.E. I read today that the NYTimes editor based in Jerusalem may be removed as his son is in the Israeli army.
If that were applied to ALL NYTimes reporters..I would say fine.
But it’s not. This is the result of a website which uses the name
Intifada activism. ( Do I have to say more?).
I have written the liberal NYTimes my disgust at this latest
move by them..just the tip of the liberal iceberg to hurt US
and our allies.
Looks like Jane Harman may have more to worry about than
just her (non) involvement in the Weissman-Rosen caper (they gave classified into given to them by a civil servant, to Israeli agents,
AIPAC (their employer until fired) and a prominent US intelligence
person. The Justice Dept indicted them…but a judge later dismissed
the entire, what was a sting. ( Lobbyists typically get info from
US government personnel, no big deal ).
I happen to like and admire John McCain. I voted for him and Palin
(the most excoriated female in modern times).
I contribute to his campaign.
I hope and pray Henry Waxman loses..and also his
partner in the socilization of America, Barbara Boxer.
Hey guys, she is vulnerable now.
Just maybe, we can get a Scott Brown as OUR, Calif. Senator.
I can dream. And why not, California has the highest rate of
unemployment in the country, the worst deficit and a school system
which has become in shambles.
Or as a relative said, ….(lives back East), “California has more
services than any other state”. Duh!
Hey Dan, if you didn’t have that stupid propoerty tax caop, maybe your school system wouldn’t be such a mess. This is typical conservatism lunacy – you want everything under the sun but you never want to pay for it, unless it’s for a useless military empire.
It’s hard for me to put into words appropriate for this site what I think of JD Hayworth. I think he’s about the worst person to ever run for any office. How anybody takes this guy seriously in completely beyond me. Even his simplistic talking points are are idiotic.
““In the Fall of 2008, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke panicked. We were given the Chicken Little notion that the sky was falling. John McCain was part of the hysteria.”
This is the sleaziest rewriting of history I’ve seen since the last time Ahmedinejad denied the Holocaust. So, this is Hayward’s position: there was no financial meltdown, no mortage crisis, no recession… it was all just a figment of our “panicked” imaginations. This isn’t just mental denial – this is just plain outright sleaziness of the lowest order. And this despicibale sleaziness from a man who represents a state that was an epicenter of the mortgage debacle, which was at the center of this whole collapse. Either he’s actually functionally retarded and simply is being told this sleazy nonsense and believes it, or he is the number one sleaziest poltician in the Western Hemisphere.
We’re talking about peoples real lives here: there homes, their investments, their retirements, their jobs, their standard of living… and this sleazy, sleazy, sleazy excuse for a human being wants to simply deny that there even was an economic disaster. The man should be tarred and feathered.
I won’t even get into the rest of his speech because I’ll get so nasty Eric will never let me post here again. Suffice to say, if the people of Arizona put this horrific monster in the Senate, they should hang their heads in shame. They would be officially the stupidest people in America.
JMJ