The organizers of the four largest Arizona Tea Party organizations – including the Tucson Tea Party, Greater Phoenix Tea Party, Flagstaff Tea Party, and Mohave County Tea Party – issued a joint press release regarding their unified decision to decline endorsing a candidate in the Arizona Senate primary race between John McCain, J.D. Hayworth, and Jim Deakin.
“The Tea Party is a non-partisan, grassroots movement that stands for limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility. Both McCain and Hayworth’s records during their many years in Washington leave much to be desired on these issues,” said Robert Mayer, co-founder of the Tucson Tea Party. “It is their job to hold themselves up to these values and fight for our votes.”…
“It is not appropriate to make an endorsement in this race at the drop of a hat, as some other groups are doing,” said Kelly Townsend, organizer of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party. “The movement must stand for ideas, and do everything possible to provide information to people so that they can make the best personal decisions.”
A shrewd move, actually. Commenters in Headlines were speculating that this was meant as a statement that Birthers aren’t welcome in the tea party ranks, but I don’t think that’s the point. (Or rather, not the main point.) Hayworth voted for Bush’s Medicare prescription-drug bill and for the bridge to nowhere; by refusing to back him against the RINOiest RINO of them all, they’re making a statement that endorsees have to be pure in the abstract, not just purer than the alternative. Or, as Beck put it at CPAC in addressing Dick Cheney, “It’s not enough just to not suck as much as the other side.” By picking this race to lay down that marker, they’re implicitly saying they’d rather see John McCain back in the Senate than compromise their principles on a less-than-optimal challenger. Strong stuff. I wonder if Beck — and the boss emeritus — agree.
hattip to News.RightSideofLife.com
Comment by American Grand Jury:
The folks at HOTAIR push the limits of being a liberal blog some of the time. If they don’t mind being called “liberals” we don’t mind being called “birthers.”
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:50 am
It’s called voting ‘against’ someone - that is why even if Hayworth is just another RHINO, if he is the only one running against that slime ball McCain then you vote for Hayworth against McCain. It is fairly clear and logical reasoning and the so called Tea Party wannabe big-wigs simply are demonstrating their idiocy by not following it - besides, who the hell made them the Voice of the Tea Party? Many of those involved with the recent Tea Party convention are obviously moles and disinformation agitators working for their elitist masters.
HotAir.. it is simply what it calls itself: a bunch of hot air with a very bad smell. I tried very hard to like Malkin and followed her blog daily for two years or so, and when she went video I followed. But the ridicule she incorporates into much of her writing and which in small doses is often times funny and biting at the same time, merely morphed into sleaze under the guidance of that incompetent moron she put in charge. When you really look at her techniques and positions you’ll find she is exactly the same as her so called liberal adversaries. She was nothing more than a shill for Bush II - with her constant use of the BDS defense against anything that sorry elitist moron did. That is obvious but I think most people don’t realize that one of her main contributions to her elitist masters is her contribution to the myth of only 8 to 12 million illegal aliens in the country. After all she is a staunch advocate against illegal immigration, right? She wrote a book about it, right? Yes, except for the fact that in the mid 1970s the in-house figure used by the INS and the Border Patrol for illegal immigrants was 20 million. So, twenty years later she is putting forth numbers that show a 50% or so decline? I don’t think so. Where did she get her figures? Did she ever discuss this with retired INS or Border Patrol folk? No, she did not, as she has no interest in making public the real facts. She is a second rate wannabe media personality, and just like O’Reilly, Beck, and all the other frauds and hucksters out there she has an agenda.
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:04 am
bacsi, I’d like to see how FRAUDKIN and her bunch reply to this.