DENNIS DURBAND

McCain Kicks Straight Talk & Damage Control Express into Over-Drive

August 8, 2005

U.S. Senator John McCain (RINO-Arizona) has abandoned his Republican base in the past five years. In the Summer of Discontent with McCain, we’re seeing a small group of conservatives getting mud on their shoes in an effort to clean up the mess for the state’s wayward senior senator. And now the presidential wannabe is actively engaging in damage control himself.

McCain now has higher favorable ratings from Democrats than from Republicans. He and his fellow Straight Talk & Damage Control Express “passengers” will not regain the hearts and minds of many Arizona conservatives; they are wasting their breaths. Like Darth Vader, he is too far gone in the political dark side. He has sold his political soul to the liberals in both parties.

There is not a snowball’s chance in Phoenix that McCain will win the support of the masses incensed at the border invasion and McCain’s guest worker capitulation.

McCain sits on the advisory board of Christie Whitman's band of RINO whiners, It’s My Party, Too. These radical libs oppose both the sanctity of life and marriage.

Constitutionalists have long ago written off McCain over the Constitution-crushing Campaign Finance Reform law. 

No less than four GOP affiliates have passed resolutions against McCain this summer – the Arizona Republican Assembly, Mohave County Republicans, Maricopa County Republicans and the Legislative District 11 Republicans.

The McCain “empire” is using the August Senate recess to strike back at the grassroots rebels. Last Thursday night, representatives of McCain and Senator Jon Kyl tried to strong-arm the Maricopa County GOP’s Executive Guidance Committee into backing away from its July resolution of dissatisfaction with McCain. Former Arizona Speaker of the House Jeff Groscost led the charge, claiming that the resolution did not meet Parliamentary muster and was invalid, trying to initiate a new debate and vote on the resolution and arguing that the EGC is not a policy-making organization and had no business trying to influence policy. Groscost failed to persuade the EGC to backtrack. 

Maricopa County GOP Chairman Larry Pickard came under criticism for not issuing a news release last month over the McCain resolution. He insisted he was right to not send out a press release, and that the EGC could select a new chairman if it didn't approve what he did. 

Arizona GOP Chairman Matt Salmon and Congressman John Shadegg have gone to bat for McCain, swinging from the hip to try and stifle the insurgency against McCain. Michael Steele, who works for Shadegg, confirmed that “a Washington conservative” had pressured GOPUSA to remove the names of Shadegg and Salmon from an opinion poll related to McCain.

For the most part, McCain isn’t present at these rancorous proceedings to get mud splattered on his shoes. However, he is making a rare venture into the heart of Arizona conservatism – District 22 in Gilbert – for an August 25 Q&A. He must want to be president awfully bad. 

McCain will no doubt come into that meeting room with a high-flying grin. But truth be known, he has caused incredible dissension in the ranks, and with friends like him, who needs Democrats.  

The Arizona Republicans’ year began with a call from Salmon for unity. They should have directed that message to McCain.

New Year, Same Steve May Anger

Last Friday, KTAR Radio talk show host David Leibowitz featured a debate on the Protect Marriage Arizona initiative in the 10 o’clock hour. Len Munsil, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, and Glen Stanton, marriage expert for Focus on the Family, calmly made the case for preserving marriage – under trying circumstances. Former legislator Steve May, now director the homosexual activist organization, the Arizona Human Rights Fund, and David Ragan, senior minister at the homo manic Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, offered little in the way of substantive debate, and Liebowitz mostly ducked for cover.

May, Munsil and two other men had a marriage debate on the same radio program last year. The liberal May has long been bitter toward Munsil, and he figures since he can’t beat him in debate he’ll just interrupt him and make weak accusations to try and wear out his patience. This time, May repeatedly accused Munsil of lying about the Protect Marriage Arizona initiative. Munsil and Stanton spoke in rational terms and cited research that the most stable relationships are married heterosexuals and that children do best in the homes of married biological parents.

Munsil said today that the program on KTAR was disappointing.

“Opponents of PMA refuse to engage on any relevant issue,” Munsil wrote in a CAP news alert. “Their foremost tactic seems to be to demonize us and call us liars. The facts don’t seem to matter to our opponents, and when we present facts they shout over us. We will continue to present a positive message about the importance of marriage without responding to their incivility. Our state has always provided and should continue to provide benefits to marriage between a man and a woman, because marriage between a man and a woman benefits our state.”

The homosexual activists are hard at work raising money in an attempt to defeat PMA at the ballot box in 2006. In other states where pro-marriage forces were vastly out-spent, marriage initiatives still passed by huge margins.

Supporters of homosexual marriage and those who argued last year against the Protect Arizona Now (PAN) initiative have one tactic in common. The border invasion sympathizers argued last year that PAN supporters should just forget all the statistics about the great social harms caused by illegal aliens. If the PAN supporters would only get to know the invaders, they would understand them. Well now, the homosexual activists are doing the same thing. They are saying never mind about all the social science research on the side of the conservatives; if you get to know the cohabiting homosexuals, you’ll understand them. And that apparently will make it okay to overthrow a social order practiced for thousands of years.

The lack of intellectual depth on the left is often profound.

Dennis Durband is publisher and editor of The Arizona Conservative, is also a freelance writer and webmaster and a longtime journalist. He is willing to speak at The Humanist Public University at Tucson for a slice of strawberry pie, after the address rather than a whipped cream pie like that "given" to Ann Coulter.

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