According to a PPP poll released yesterday, Arizona conservaturds have a raging hate-boner for RINO John McCain, and the right god-bothering, anti-immigrant, gun-fondling primary opponent could pick the bitter old anger muffin off:
John McCain’s troubles with conservatives have him in a whole lot of trouble for reelection next year. Even among Republican primary voters just 41% approve of the job he’s doing to 50% who disapprove. Only 37% of primary voters say they generally support him for renomination, compared to 51% who say they would prefer someone ‘more conservative.’
[snip]In a lot of ways this is reminiscent of the 2012 Senate race in Indiana. Richard Lugar- like McCain- had enough popularity across party lines that he was going to be pretty safe if he got into a general election. But when conservatives rooted him out of office in the primary and Democrats had a solid candidate lined up, the Democrats picked up a surprising victory. It’s unclear who will challenge McCain in the primary and what Democrat might sign up for the general but at this early stage the conditions appear somewhat Indiana-like.
Here’s hoping the AZ GOP finds its very own Richard “Squeee! Rape Babies!” Mourdock to take down McCain. Not only would that NOT be good news for McCain, it would leave a gaping hole in the lineups of the crappy Sunday poli-hack shows and leave Lindsey al-Graham flying solo as a sad little wingman.
Gene108
I do not get what drives someone like McCain. You are rich enought to not need to work via marrying into money, you are pushing 80 and have no other chances for professional advancement (ie you ain’t gettin’ another shot at President).
Is the Senate that addictive that you keep going and going, when you could happily retire and spend time finally figuring out how many houses you own.
Culture of Truth
Does anyone know the best way to reach a BJ front pager for a Cat Bleg?
Thanks
Betty Cracker
@Culture of Truth: Email Anne Laurie using the contact box in the right column.
Bex
But isn’t Lindsay planning on being President al-Graham?
TheMightyTrowel
@Culture of Truth: email Anne Laurie. Link in top right corner of the page.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know about anyone else, but that drop-down box hasn’t worked for me since, I guess, the last site update. It neither shows nor links to anybody’s email address.
@top:
Ha!
EconWatcher
@Gene108:
Retired Senators don’t have people asking their opinion about everything, and don’t get to spout off regularly on national TV. McCain obviously likes the limelight.
debbie
@Gene108:
He lives at the intersection of Entitlement and Spite.
Ripley
@Culture of Truth: Refer to the bloghost as “Chris Christie-loving Wr0ngWayCole” – SOMEONE will show up and engage.
Alternatively there’s a Contact dropdown menu on the right side of the page….
scav
Wouldn’t that just free up more time for his time on the teeveebox? I’m not convinced much reflection or connection with reality is needed there.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Huh. It works for me, but in case it doesn’t for CoT, the email address is annelaurie[at sign]verizon[dot]net.
Chris
@Gene108:
Vengeance? A chance to get back at the uppity you-know-what-word? If nothing else, to outlast him?
Tripod
Who do we need to bomb to make this happen?
Clearly he doesn’t understand the difference between tactics and strategy.
Maybe Bill Kristol has a recommendation on a starburst inducing running mate.
Punchy
Speaking of not-good-news, y’all gaze and less-beans are in deep, deep legal trouble. I mean, it was handwritten by a old crazy person, so it must be legit.
Nylund
i would guess that losing a primary would just make McCain even more popular on the Sunday shows. He’d have extra time in his schedule and it would add to his bonafides that he’s the last true centrist or some other nonsense. Or heck, maybe they’d just give him his own show. “mansplain with McCain”
MattF
Spiteful, warmongering, born into privilege, legendary lack of judgement… What’s not to like? Sounds perfect for Arizona.
peach flavored shampoo
Isn’t McCant pushin’ 80? Why the hell would he want to run for re-election? At what point do old people say, “Dayum, I only got a few years left on this planet, why the hell do I want to keep working until the day I kick it”?
Seriously, he’s got money for travel, hookers, and blow….why keep the day job?
ETA: Wow, Gene scooped me on Comment #1. Maybe I should read the comments before posting…
Emily68
Arizona has a closed primary? If it’s an open primary, then all his Lugar-like popularity across party lines could save him.
pamelabrown53
@peach flavored shampoo:
McCain has said in the past that he won’t retire because his father and grandfather died upon their retirements.
J R in WV
Bad news for John McCain is good news for the rest of the world. I can’t stand the guy. Everything about him is phony. He wasn’t a war hero, he was a totally incompetent pilot who would have been thrown out if both his father and grandfather hadn’t been well-respected admirals.
He was a major contributor to the tragic fiasco on the elderly USS Forrestal when the flight deck was awash in burning jet fuel McCain dropped his munitions load into the burning fuel. SOP called for just getting the hell out of his plane so the enlisted heros could push it off into the sea before the bombs started going off.
Then after McCain dropped his bomb load, he got out of the plane and ran below decks, instead of taking charge of a fire-fighting team, or grabbing a firehose, or doing anything constructive to fight the fire.
Then McCain took advantage of his acquaintance with reporters, and flew back to Saigon with R. W. Apple, who had cadged a ride out to the still smoking aircraft carrier to report on the tragedy, “for a little R&R!” he said in his autobiography. So while the crew was attempting to bring about some order on the tragically stricken carrier, McCain was pounding back drinks on the mainland. What a hero!
And as he ages, he gets worse, calling his (path to wealth) wife a c**t in front of news media. Despicable in every way, even worse than Newt Gingrich!
Davebo
He could always take up flying again.
Cephalus Max
@scav: Exactly. I’m convinced the Villager show bookers would just keep booking him.
rikyrah
Can’t stand him. Don’t care if he loses
Davebo
@J R in WV:
I’m no McCain fan at all but that is a major distortion of what actually happened on the Forrestal.
Fair Economist
Anything to get that doddering warmonger off the Sunday shows. His popularity there shows how desperate they are to get us into yet more wars, beyond the outrageous conservative bias.
John Dillinger
Why are presuming they won’t have defeated Senatorial candidate McCain on the Sunday gasbag shows? They didn’t skip a beat in having defeated presidential candidate McCain, did they? And it’s not like he’s going be staying in AZ with his wife.
dmsilev
@rikyrah: See, I can’t agree with that. I, for one, will celebrate if he loses.
OzarkHillbilly
@J R in WV: Not a pilot, much less a naval aviator so I am incompetent to critique McCain’s abilities as a pilot, however, common sense dictates me to correct 2 things you said.
Incompetent pilots are incapable of landing fighters on aircraft carriers, one of the hardest things a pilot can do.
Somebody already WAS in charge of the fire fighting team, somebody who knew what they were doing. McCain did exactly as he should have and got the F out of the way.
Bobby B.
He IS big. It’s the Sunday shows that got small.
Davebo
@OzarkHillbilly:
Actually, as any sailor who served in Naval Aviation after the Forrestal fiasco can tell you, no one really knew what they were doing fighting the fires on Forrestal.
It was a fiasco but it did lead to better training that has, thankfully, prevented such fiasco’s from happening again for the most part.
As for McCain. If not for his father we wouldn’t have been allowed to fly a COD delivering mail.
Germy Shoemangler
@debbie:
Best description I’ve ever read about McCain. And yet he’s treated like the wise elder statesman by the Sunday morning network shows.
I need a cleanser after reading about McCain. Here are several cats using one paw to repel inferior life forms. Worked for me:
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/06/cats-using-one-paw-to-repel-in.html#more-385844
Pee Cee
@debbie:
Shorter: He’s driven by enspitelement. Which is what drives an awful lot of old, white conservatives.
Barry
” Not only would that NOT be good news for McCain, it would leave a gaping hole in the lineups of the crappy Sunday poli-hack shows…”
No, that’d free him up for appearing 24/7.
Which would be better than him wielding actual power, but we’ll never be free of that man’s image.
Culture of Truth
@TheMightyTrowel: Okay thanks
Howard Beale IV
@J R in WV:
And let’s not forget that’s he’s the last remaining vestige of the Keating Five and this doofus is still in office.
Now just how fucked up is that?
NotMax
The first paragraph of the blockquote could have been lifted verbatim from similar articles six years ago.
Bobby Thomson
You really think they’ll stop inviting him to the Sunday shows? If he wants to monetize himself like Huckabee, he’ll be around a long time, win or lose.
JPL
@Howard Beale IV: tsk, tsk
IOKIYR
SenyorDave
@Gene108: I do not get what drives someone like McCain. You are rich enought to not need to work via marrying into money, you are pushing 80 and have no other chances for professional advancement (ie you ain’t gettin’ another shot at President).
Is the Senate that addictive that you keep going and going, when you could happily retire and spend time finally figuring out how many houses you own.
He will never get over losing to Obama. John McCain, war hero, 3 term sitting US Senator, foreign policy expert, lost to a neophyte. Plus, deep down he knows that he botched the most important political decision of his life when he selected Palin.
All McCain has left is bitterness and his ability to stick it to Obama, and he can only accomplish the latter by remaining in the Senate.
Were he to lose, his replacement undoubtedly would be worse (last time his primary opponent was JD Hayworth, who is an ignorant asshole even for a Republican), but I would still relish his loss. It would eat away at him almost as much as losing to Obama, and McCain deserves that sort of misery.
bemused
@Gene108:
On the surface McCain, a longtime US Senator with a lot of power, would seem to have little in common with small town city leaders and business owners who are old, white males, retired or near retirement. However, the small town old codgers exhibit similar behaviors. They love(d) their power and will go down dying before giving it up. I’ve seen them try to throw monkey wrenches into projects, events initiated in their towns by the newer, younger town leaders over and over again. They hate change and hate that things are no longer being done their way. Bitter old farts who hate that they are no longer the big fish in their ponds.
Booger
@J R in WV: Yes, John McCain destroyed more planes flown by John McCain than the VC could ever have hoped to.
Frankensteinbeck
John McCain is wildly popular with a very specific demographic, and every beltway pundit in Arizona will crawl over broken glass to vote for him.
gogol's wife
@Germy Shoemangler:
Love it!
Amir Khalid
How long did Strom Thurmond stay in the Senate? Robert Byrd? Thurmond reached his 100th birthday in office. Maybe there should be an age ceiling for (ETA: those seeking election as) US Senators. Around 80 to 85, I think.
MomSense
@Pee Cee:
I read that as enspittlement and that worked, too.
Belafon
Acutally, a better example would be Ralph Hall, my former representative. He was a Democrat when Democrats were conservative, then switched to Republican in 1994. He lost his 2014 relection campaign in the primary because he wasn’t considered conservative enough.
Suzanne
The thing is…..as much as John McCain totally sucks, and I’d love to see him lose….Arizona would only elect someone worse. Think Cruz.
shell
He already is a sad little wingman. Especially when he tries to puff himself into, as Charles Pierce calls him, Huckleberry Butchmeup.
***********
So, Miss Betty. Has that dove taken up permanent residence in your chicken coop?
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
I wonder how long Ted Cruz s going to last as a Senator. He’s got quite a rep for attacking his own party from the right. Which, I would think, will make his party’s Senate caucus a less than welcoming place for him after he’s done with his presidential run.
shell
Anchor on CNN this morning, talking about the present number of declared candidates. With a straight face, she actually said ‘How will this affect the debates? You can’t have 20 people on stage and have a real debate….’
Honey, half of these people will be gone in six months.
Germy Shoemangler
@Howard Beale IV: Very true. I’d love to see the morning tv pundits ask McCain about the keating five. Just to see the look on his face.
Barry
@Gene108: Your first paragaph answers your second – by now, all that McCain is is wrapped up in Wise Elder Senator-Statesman (and did you know that he was a POW in Vietnam?).
Odinhans
Here in Arizona if we found our “very own Richard “Squeee! Rape Babies!” Mourdock to take down McCain”, they would likely not only take down McCain but get elected to the Senate by a large margin.
catclub
@SenyorDave:
I want the first question asked to all GOP candidates to be: Why were you afraid to run in 2012 against the black guy?
This should apply to McCain as well. In 2008 unemployment was over 8% for the first 9 months of the year. What is it now? 5.5%
Betty Cracker
@shell: The dove has flown the coop!
Beeb
@Germy Shoemangler: Thank you for the link. Loved it.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m the son of an Air Force pilot who fought in Vietnam and the son-in-law of a Navy pilot who flew with John McCain.
He was not incompetent. What he was was insubordinate, completely and totally, and nobody could really do too much about it because his daddy was King Dick Admiral of the Navy, and his grandpa had been as well! He crashed his first four planes largely by ignoring directions, instructions, warnings or criticism, and the last one (the one that earned him his trip to the Hanoi Hilton, which is a pretty brutal price to pay for being a hothead) he got shot down through deliberately disobeying orders on what and how to attack.
gelfling545
@John Dillinger:
Precisely. Look how often they have invited Gingrich & when was the last time he held office?
Bart Starr
Maybe Sarah Palin will run against him. She has a place in Scottsdale. Wouldn’t that be awkward?
Germy Shoemangler
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Thank Ceiling Cat this motherf***er never made it to the presidency.
Thank you Sarah Palin. Thank you Pres. Obama.
AZ
As an AZ native, let me say that this is the same news McCain faced in ’10; yet he’ll be reelected for two reasons. First, he tacks hard to the right in the primary; he will campaign to the right of Palin, regardless of what he says simultaneously in DC. Second, the GOP is so devoid of competency that it cannot produce a competent rival; his primary opponent will make Ted Cruz look like Walter Mondale. Yes, the GOP hates the guy, but it is unable to no reelect him. And he’ll win the general because AZ Dems haven’t been able to get their act together in a decade.
Amir Khalid
@Germy Shoemangler:
Don’t forget to thank Tina Fey, too.
SiubhanDuinne
@Howard Beale IV:
He was the only Republican among the five. I guess it really is OKIYAR.
Edit: Or what JPL said, as I would have known had I read the comments.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
The Senate of Canada (appointed, not elected) has mandatory retirement at age 75.
Keith G
@Suzanne: I agree with you there.
On occasion John McCain agrees with what either President Obama or other Democrats are up to. If McCain goes down to defeat in the primary there’s a very good chance that the next Senator from Arizona would be a hysterically antagonistic to any Democratic initiative.
Hal
I think McCain decided his job was to be a foil for Obama all the way through both terms. Hello, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided not to run since he won’t have Obama around to complain about any longer.
Fred Flintrock
@pamelabrown53: That old turd burglar needs a very long dirt nap!
Turgidson
Not so sure about that. The flunkies who host the Sunday shows would probably keep booking him as if nothing had happened, and he’ll be even more available without a day job to pretend to do.
Turgidson
@Suzanne:
The Dems would have a chance. 2016 is a presidential election and Arizona does have a handful of electable Democrats. If McCain loses, it could be to a braindead dolt like Todd Akin or Mourdock. The right Democrat, with Hillary at the top of the ticket, can definitely win that race.
Quaker in a Basement
Whatever. Just don’t mention that his hair is thinning on top.
bobbo
Please. All Grumpy has to do is another commercial with Sheriff Joe to prove his brown-people-hating bona fides, maybe throw in a little Obamacare hate for good measure, and he’ll be back in the good graces of the mouth-breathers in nothing flat.
shortstop
@Quaker in a Basement: Stuff it, you plastered-makeup trollopy cunt! (Cunty trollop?)
I would love, love, love, LOVE to watch McCain go down. Few politicians bug me as much as that spiteful, sore-losing, control-freaky, snotty-ass egoist. I want him to spend his twilight years raging about how much he’s lost.
Tree With Water
Political worms turn in the funniest ways.. I first realized how far right the GOP and its media bagmen begin to refer to McCain as “the moderate” (circa 1988). And now this..
F
For some reason, Wikipedia lists Sarah Palin as a potential candidate for the Arizona Senate seat.
Also, Gaby Giffords for Senate. Make it happen.