Now That It's Official

(pic from Fearguth at Bildungblog)

I've posted a couple of rants about him before, but it's now official: J.D. 'the eggplant" Hayworth is mounting a primary challenge to St. Sleazy McCain:

J.D. Hayworth, a former Arizona congressman and radio host, is scheduled to formally announce Monday that's he's challenging Republican John McCain for his U.S. Senate seat.

Hayworth, who served for six terms in the House before losing his 2006 re-election bid, stepped down last month as host of his conservative talk radio program in Phoenix. While he says he respects McCain's service, he says McCain's been in Washington too long and isn't conservative enough.

"We all love and think the world of John and John's place in history is secure," the 51-year old Hayworth told CNN correspondent Casey Wian on Friday. "But John no longer represents the common sense conservative philosophy that most Arizonans share."

Hayworth's Web page bills him as "The Consistent Conservative," challenging McCain on health care reform, the national debt and illegal immigration. And a Hayworth press release from Friday mentions that McCain "voted for the massive bank bailout bill in 2008, which included $150 billion in earmarks."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/15/mccain-challenger-launches-bid-to-unseat-arizona-senator/?fbid=RSvrtqeJq-B

I refer to J.D. as "the eggplant" because he is, in my estimation, dumber than an eggplant (although I can't find any reliable IQ estimates for an actual eggplant, I'm fairly confident in my opinion). I had to suffer through having him as my congress critter up to the redistricting in 2000, and have met him. He was over-achieving in his previous career as a TV news sports reader, and was grossly incompetent while in congress.

Let me be clear here: I really, really dislike St. Sleazy McCain. But I fear that Hayworth would be much worse. I've heard the argument that a lack of seniority would minimize J.D.'s impact, but it's a risk to let him have any impact.

Here's a very simple example: On his radio show, "the eggplant" has advocated deporting "all Latinos, legal or illegal"...here in Arizona...which was originally part of Mexico. "Latinos should get deported, all of them , legal or not , any jose or maria should leave... The blacks are guilty , and are using the system , they dont work , they use tax money for a living... All muslims are terrorists" etc., etc., etc. (in short, he's beyond Lush Rimbaugh extreme).

Do we really prefer an idiotic racist blowhard, or a corrupt cranky senile war 'hero'? That is a hell of a bad set of choices. And, sadly, there's no sign of a democrat who has a realistic chance of defeating either one.