that John McCain was above politics as usual? =)

When one of two papers in Arizona, a paper not exactly known as the NY Times West comes out full force against you, the word “Toast” comes to mind.

Sparing the vitriol, who knows maybe JD is now a kinder gentler sort after a period in the wilderness, but the major Phoenix newspaper head line says it all. Mitchell over the bully

What did McCain do or not do to undermine JD’s run, who knows, but the Arizona Republic did a heck of a lot more to torpedo JD, well unless McCain has super powers.

That would be an interesting race to watch.

we might have won the election.

Doesn’t McCain already have a challenger in the primary next year?

And since I see names I don’t know, you can check my posting history. I live in AZ and I have never voted for McCain in a statewide election. I detest the guy.

That said, JD needed no help to lose to Harry Mitchell. By 2006 the folks in Arizona were really sick and tired of JD. There have been two consistent “reasons” tossed around for his loss to Mitchell, the Abramoff thing and his position on immigration. My take on that is 1 - hogwash and 2 - hogwash.

The guy simply comes across as a loud mouth whiner and a vicitim. When he was first elected - in ‘94 - he was welcomed by us as an “outsider” who committed to three terms and out. At the end of his third term he had become convinced that seniority was important. Oh gee. His fame, such as it was, arose from his willingness to get in front of a camera and say pretty much anything inflammatory (he started out in life as a sportscaster, so he’s naturally at home in front of a camera).

Now, for the naysayers, yes, he does have a reasonably popular radio talk show. I think it’s reasonably popular, he’s been on a while and I’ll admit I’ve never heard him. I don’t much listen to talk radio and I doubt I’d listen to JD if I did. A talk radio audience in Phoenix won’t resurrect his political career.

I doubt JD could beat my dead white cat if he was running for Maricopa County dog catcher. He’s about as well liked around here as herpes. And yes Steve, the Republic hates him. And their pretty positive compared to Tucson paper, the Arizona Star.

I obviously have no idea about the story that JD’s pandering around. Frankly, given his history here I’d be looking for a notarized letter from God attesting to the story’s veracity before I believed it. Also, at the end of the day, Even if it were true it didn’t cost JD the election. JD cost JD the election.

With respect to the upcoming election, I’ll say again, McCain is unbeatable absent a live boy or a dead girl being found in his bed. There is no Democrat who can compete against him in the general unless Janet comes back to run against him and I don’t see that happening and the Democratic Party certainly won’t throw scarce money into a race where their candidate has next to no statewide name recognition. Given that, McCain can spend literally $10MM on the primary. He’s running right now against two guys who have either no name recognition anywhere or almost none and who can’t raise enough money for a decent lunch between them. And then there’s JD. He can probably raise a little out-of-state money, he’ll raise next to none (at least not nearly enough) in-state. And he’ll get slaughtered.

We need to concentrate on Marco and Toomey, they can both win. Money, or ink, or bandwidth spent beating McCain is opportunity washed down the drain.

…but I’m starting to wonder if McCain and some other RiNO’s are on Soros’ payroll. I’m not a conspiracy theory kinda guy but what else explains the behavior of some of these people?
At least Democrats who don’t go along with the Lefties in their party are responding to their constituents who aren’t radicals like the Demo leadership. This doesn’t serve as an explanation for RiNO’s though. They are constantly seeking to hobble the conservative agenda and I’m starting to wonder whether or not some of them are being paid to throw the game. If they’ve been offered a big enough payout why would they care about selling out the public who are no more than a bunch of strangers anyway?
People like McCain don’t have firmly held principles one way or the other so there has to be something external motivating them to obstruct the conservative agenda often with ferocity.

JD is a freaking whiner. That doesn’t even approach “hardball politics” let alone “blackmail”.

I can pretty much guarantee you that the Arizona Republic needed no “leaks” from McCain’s office to either find or publish stuff they perceived as negative about JD. And, once again, it was JD’s personality and presentation that really drove the nail in his coffin in ‘06. Harry Mitchell just happened to be the recipient of timing, negative perceptions broadcast nationally and across the board about “conservatives” and actually finding one who is a jerk to run against.

I try to listen to JD as often as I can (which isn’t very often sorry to say) but this story is not at all what it is cracked up to be.. This is nothing but typical political threats. It happens all the time. If this gets your hair up, you should hear what they tell each other when they are not in writing. This was not blackmail. It is a threat to create extortion. Extortion is how politics works. JD knows that. He is a basic one serious topic person, and often gets some of that wrong, but this is not all what you think it is.