Its really no wonder that the Arizona Republic has lost a good percentage of its readership after reading the latest John McCain love fest article titled “Tea Party Courter J.D. Hayworth was an active earmaker”. Although there were one or two half-positive remarks about Hayworth, this was really nothing more than a JD Hayworth slam piece, falsely depicting him as a fan of earmarks and painting McCain as some sort of fiscally conservative hero. The piece brought up old news regarding Hayworth appearing in a infomercial in 2007 advocating the use of federal grant money. JD Hayworth had already responded to McCains ‘infomercial’ attack ads during an interview with ‘Round Table Politics‘ and on his campaign website, which the AZ Republic conveniently failed to mention in the article. No where in the write-up did it state that John McCain’s own website had a section advocating the use of federal grant money. Once news broke out about the page, McCain’s campaign deleted some of the page information from the website (although you can see it on some browsers). McCain contemptuously wants you to believe that Hayworth’s activities with the company were wrong…but then deceitfully fails to publicly reveal that his own campaign had received over $10k in contributions from the owner of the company that Hayworth advertised for. Hypocrisy at its best.
Facts are funny things, mostly because people forget about them when they are not favorable for the candidate that they are supporting. Truth really is in the eye of the beholder during election season. The AZ Republic article wants you to believe that JD Hayworth played the political earmarking game while he was a Congressman and that he somehow enjoyed spending taxpayer money at the drop of a hat. Fact is that members of Congress do not have veto power over a spending bill. Its the whole bill or nothing in most cases. Anyone that knows a thing or two about spending bills knows that they are normally loaded with earmarks. Does that make it right, no, but thats how the current system works. Good Congressman know that if the overall bill is a good thing for America – that they will have to vote on it with the earmarks attached to pass. For the Arizona Republic to say that Hayworth isn’t a Tea Party worthy conservative candidate because he voted on bills that included earmarks is just ridiculous and misleading. Hayworth cannot be blamed for the entire way that Congress votes on spending bills. The article really attempts to paint John McCain as a “spending hawk” because he doesn’t attach earmarks to his bills; but then again fails to even mention that McCain voted for one of the largest bailouts in Americas history at the expense of the taxpayer. He has never once publicly apologized for the $700 billion dollars spent on TARP…which did include at least $150 Billion in earmarks; nor has he apologized for the billions of dollars that Arizona taxpayers have had to pay for the cost of illegal immigration during his years as Senator.
As the columnist, Robert Robb of the AZ Republic correctly stated, the Tea Party isn’t a single issue movement. However, Mr. Robb incorrectly implies that Hayworth is somehow seeking out Tea Party support to be perceived as a fiscal conservative. Tea Parties are seeking out Hayworth to support (not the other way around) because they know that they cannot afford another 6 years of John McCain. The Tea Parties realize that aside from the safety concerns presented at the border; illegal immigration alone costs Arizona hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in social programs, medical expenses, educational costs and incarceration expenses. The fact is that there are many reasons why the Tea Parties are seeking out JD Hayworth to support rather than John McCain, and the other Republican candidate Jim Deakin. McCains actions are typical of a long time incumbent, as he wants to control the talking points and promote his “success on earmarks”, while avoiding the many other issues like immigration, which he has failed miserably on during his tenure.
After 120 days, John McCain finally accepted a public challenge for a debate by JD Hayworth. There won’t be any hiding behind campaign attack ads on July 16th and 17th as all three candidates (McCain, Hayworth and Deakin) attend a televised debate in Phoenix and Tucson. For more information about the debate click here.
