XPost: az.general, az.politics   
   From: michelle@michelle.org   
      
   McCain Mutiny   
   by MAX BLUMENTHAL   
   [from the March 5, 2007 issue]   
      
   Just as the presidential nomination process begins in earnest, Senator   
   John McCain has suffered a stinging defeat in his home state. For the   
   Republican media darling declared recently by Chris Matthews to be the   
   one candidate who "deserves the presidency," it was an unlikely loss,   
   and so far it has gone unheralded by the national press corps that   
   McCain once half-jokingly called "my base." This defeat was the   
   handiwork of his presumed actual political base--a ragtag band of local   
   conservative activists led by a 65-year-old retired IBM middle manager   
   named Rob Haney.   
      
   Who is Rob Haney? He is the Republican state committeeman in Arizona's   
   District 11, McCain's home district. In the past, Haney and his fellow   
   committee members would meet from time to time to review their annual   
   budget, vote on bylaws and pass resolutions. If anyone represents   
   Arizona's Republican Party, advancing the causes of faith, family and   
   freedom, it is the folks from District 11. Yet their importance, let   
   alone their existence, seemed to matter little to their state's famous   
   and ambitious senior senator.   
      
   All that changed when Haney organized a revolt that hardly needed   
   encouragement. "People would be calling in to [state committee]   
   headquarters every week, absolutely enraged, threatening to leave the   
   party because of some comments McCain made," Haney told me. "The guy has   
   no core, his only principle is winning the presidency. He likes to call   
   his campaign the 'straight talk express.' Well, down here we call it the   
   'forked tongue express.'"   
      
   Rank-and-file Republicans are disgruntled about McCain's support for   
   campaign finance reform and gun control and his opposition to a federal   
   ban on gay marriage. Conservative anger reached a boiling point in 2004   
   when McCain led the opposition to Prop 200, a state ballot measure   
   restricting public services for undocumented immigrants. In the summer   
   of 2005, months after Prop 200 succeeded with support from nearly 70   
   percent of GOP voters, Haney introduced a resolution in District 11 to   
   censure McCain for "dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a   
   representative of the citizens of Arizona." After the resolution coasted   
   through the district, it was introduced before the GOP committee of   
   Maricopa County, Arizona's largest, encompassing Phoenix and Scottsdale   
   (once home to Barry Goldwater).   
      
   At the time, McCain and his handlers were working to burnish his   
   conservative credentials to win over wary Republican primary voters. The   
   effort began with McCain's May 2006 graduation speech at Liberty   
   University, a school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whom McCain had   
   dubbed an "agent of intolerance" during his rancorous 2000 run for the   
   presidency. His makeover continues on February 23, when he is scheduled   
   to speak before the Discovery Institute, the right-wing think tank that   
   has attempted to introduce into public school biology classes the   
   teaching of Intelligent Design.   
      
   Although Arizona is somewhat off the national radar, Haney's resolution   
   posed a threat to the McCain makeover. Apparently alarmed, the senator   
   dispatched his chief of staff to the Maricopa County Republicans'   
   meeting to warn against the resolution. At McCain's behest, Arizona's   
   other GOP senator, Jon Kyl, sent his own chief of staff as well. But   
   Haney's resolution passed by a nearly unanimous vote. "No one in the   
   party structure would dare say anything about McCain and the grassroots   
   was enraged, so I voiced their concerns," Haney said. "And McCain and   
   the party establishment came down on me hard. They said, 'You're going   
   to destroy his chances in the presidential campaign.'"   
      
   Not content to let the purely symbolic resolution stand, McCain   
   recruited a slate of candidates to oust Haney and his allies in last   
   November's state committee elections. McCain supporters formed a   
   political action committee, Grassroots Arizona PAC, to bankroll this   
   effort. Forty percent of Grassroots Arizona's funds were provided by two   
   Democratic donors from San Francisco apparently enraptured with McCain   
   and his "maverick" image, Gregory and Lisa Wendt, which added fuel to   
   the flames of Haney's revolt. McCain's slate was formidable, including   
   Fife Symington, a former Arizona governor coaxed out of retirement to   
   come to the rescue of his old friend. So worried was McCain about being   
   rebuked by his own party that he threw his own hat into the race,   
   announcing that he would run for state committeeman.   
      
   When the votes were counted, McCain and his entire slate were   
   resoundingly defeated. Despite endorsements from virtually every   
   Republican member of Arizona's Congressional delegation, Symington, who   
   had never lost a race in his life, was crushed--as was McCain. Adding   
   insult to injury, in January another key McCain ally, Republican   
   political consultant Lisa James, was defeated for state GOP committee   
   chair by Randy Pullen, a prominent McCain critic and anti-immigrant   
   activist who headed the campaign for Prop 200. James's defeat could   
   complicate McCain's presidential ground game because she was to have   
   used her position at the top of Arizona's Republican apparatus to secure   
   the state's primary for McCain.   
      
   McCain is still likely to win his home state's primary. But according to   
   Haney, the senator's failed attempt to oust his critics has galvanized   
   his conservative opponents. "If McCain had just been quiet about me   
   passing those resolutions," Haney said, "the whole issue would have   
   died. I mean, it is unheard of for anyone to care so much about district   
   committeemen."   
      
   McCain's botched revenge has solidified his reputation in Arizona's   
   Republican circles as a divisive, untrustworthy and even dangerous   
   figure. Haney hopes the general public meets this side of McCain before   
   his penchant for angry reprisals is invested with the powers of the   
   presidency. "This just shows that McCain is mentally unstable and out of   
   control and vindictive," Haney told me. "If he is determined to go   
   through that much trouble to attack a district committee chairman, what   
   does that say about his ability to handle real political problems?"   
      
   --   
   Support the troops:  Bring them home ASAP.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)