Welcome to the New G. O. Tea

From THE HILL:

Republican leaders were scrambling Wednesday to unify their party in the wake of a nasty GOP primary in Delaware that knocked Rep. Mike Castle (Del.), their top recruit, out of the race.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told The Hill Wednesday that he will contribute campaign funds to Christine O’Donnell, who in narrowly defeating Castle may have given Democrats an advantage in the general election.

…snip…

McConnell downplayed the notion that contentious GOP primaries have exposed disunity within his party.

Then he grimaced and puked in his Turtle Chow.

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Scam Wow!

From THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC:

A 2007 television infomercial in which former Rep. J.D. Hayworth promoted seminars for “free money grants” from the federal government has resurfaced to shake up his Republican primary challenge to incumbent Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Hayworth, who lost his seat in Congress in 2006 and now is running against McCain from the right as an anti-spending, “tea-party”-style conservative, appeared in the 30-minute infomercial to help assure viewers that hundreds of billions of dollars could be available to them.

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Brewer’s Yeesh

From USA TODAY:

Arizona‘s controversial immigration enforcement law was the target of fresh attacks Sunday as opponents, from national civil rights activists to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, vowed to take their fight to the courts as soon as this week.

Gordon, a Democrat, joined some federal lawmakers, including Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and about 3,500 protesters Sunday at the Arizona Capitol, assailing the measure signed Friday by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as a “racist and unjust” attempt at achieving an overhaul of the USA’s immigration policies.

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I bet he’ll insist he’s not really Captain Underpants either!

From the Washington Wire at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:

Sen. John McCain, who was mocked for saying recently that he never considered himself a maverick, when he had repeatedly said just that, sort of took it back on Sunday.

“What I was saying was that I have considered myself a person who is a fighter,” McCain told “Fox News Sunday.” “I wouldn’t be around today if I wasn’t a fighter. I fight for the things that I believe in, and sometimes that’s called a maverick. Sometimes that’s called a partisan. And people can draw their own conclusions.”

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Maverick? Who’s a Maverick?

From Newsweek:

Late last month, at a dusty fairground outside Tucson, John McCain stood behind the person who is, at least for the next few years, surely his most important legacy to American politics. And speaking to the adoring mob, Sarah Palin stood behind John McCain, repaying his inestimable gift to her in the most compelling possible fashion: by helping him to survive.

…snip…

Many, many years ago she’d competed in a beauty pageant, Palin declared, as women howled (and a few men growled) approvingly. McCain would surely win the talent and debate portions of any such contest, she went on, but no way would the Washington elite and “pundints” and “lame-stream media” ever crown him “Miss Congeniality”! “He’s never been a company man, he’s never been one to just ‘go with the flow,’?” she crowed. For there was at least one thing she’d learned in her years of commercial fishing in Alaska: only dead fish do that.

…snip…

Much as the crowd ate up her every word, Palin had apparently missed the real message this electoral season in Arizona: for his three decades in Congress, McCain hadn’t gone with the flow enough, at least not enough to satisfy many Arizona Republicans. Why else would his rival, former congressman J.D. Hayworth, be billing himself as “the consistent conservative”? Many of the GOP’s most faithful, the kind who vote in primaries despite 115-degree heat, tired long ago of McCain the Maverick, the man who had crossed the aisle to work with Democrats on issues like immigration reform, global warming, and restricting campaign contributions. “Maverick” is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one. “I never considered myself a maverick,” he told me. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.” Yet here was Palin, urging her fans four times in 15 minutes to send McCain the Maverick back to Washington.

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Express Yourself

From The Arizona Republic:

The “Tea Party Express” was greeted by about 1,200 to 1,500 supporters as it rolled into Phoenix on Sunday, the third stop on a three-week, cross-country tour that ends in Washington, D.C., on April 15.

Activists from across Arizona and from as far as Seattle gathered at the Arizona State Capitol complex to sing, chant and voice their distaste of taxes, health-care reform and big government.

…snip…

U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told protesters that a rancher in southern Arizona had just been found shot to death on his property near the Mexican border.

While admitting that “we do not know who perpetrated this attack,” Hayworth strongly suggested “illegal aliens” were to blame.

The federal government failed to protect that rancher, who was “one of the good guys,” Hayworth said.

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Horsefeathers!

From James Wolcott at VANITY FAIR:

Look, I have no idea why Senate candidate J. D. Hayworth would want to marry a horse […]. Perhaps he fell under the spell of a lustrous filly while vacationing at a dude ranch, which I gather are plentiful in his home state of Arizona, or struck up a conversation with Mr. Ed in a bar catering to lonely men whose wives are deep into denial, a casual chat over a bowl of peanuts that led to a spirited “hayride,” if you catch my innuendo.

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What Can Brown Do For You, Capt. Underpants?

From The Boston Globe:

PHOENIX – US Senator Scott Brown, driving past palm trees and American flags, brought his political star power to Arizona today to stump for the 2008 GOP standard-bearer, John McCain.

…snip…

McCain is locked in one of his toughest reelection fights of his career, and was hoping Brown could bolster his conservative credentials. McCain’s chief opponent in the Republican primary, former congressman and talk radio personality J.D. Hayworth, has been criticizing McCain as too liberal for Arizona.

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