McCain vs Grijalva
by digby
Ryan Grim on the latest from Arizona:
John McCain, lacking a viable challenger in his Arizona Senate race, has picked a proxy and is waging war against a longtime thorn in his side, Rep. Raul Grijalva, by cutting an ad for and sharing office space with Grijalva’s challenger, Ruth McClung.
While polls have shown Grijalva’s race to be a tight one despite the overwhelming Democratic registration advantage in the district, Washington operatives have expressed confidence in his ability to prevail largely because McClung isn’t seen as having the type of ground operation needed to get out the vote. But McCain certainly does have one.
McCain is now “sharing office space” with McClung although all concerned insist that he isn’t improperly coordinating with her. Uh huh.
Why would McCain sully his hands with something like this? Well considering who we’re talking about here, it has to be some petty grudge:
Obama’s appointment of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to run the Homeland Security Department took the Democrat most able to beat McCain out of play, leaving the field to Rodney Glassman. McCain has repeatedly attacked Glassman, a former Grijalva aide, for his connection to the Arizona congressman. McCain’s Senate campaign funded an ad against Grijalva that is running around the clock in the seventh district, an unusual move that drew complaints from Democrats that McCain was violating his own campaign finance reform rules.
[…]
McCain may have general personal and ideological differences with Grijalva, but he also has a quite specific local objection to the congressman. McCain backers have long sought to mine for uranium near the Grand Canyon. Grijalva has stood in the way. He is on the short list to be Interior Secretary and is chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. His opposition to the mining included holding a field hearing in Arizona to explore its environmental consequences. Grijalva successfully lobbied the White House to temporarily block the mining. At Grijalva’s field hearing, Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, called the Obama move “tyranny.”
Oh Dear God I’m tired of hearing these bozos shriek about “tyranny” every time somebody objects to them raping the planet or prohibits them from scraping up every last possible dime.
McCain is no maverick, he’s just a nasty piece of work — and has been for a very long time. He’s going to help this neophyte Teabagger take out one of the best Democrats in the congress as an act of petty revenge.
You can help Grijalva with money here.
Or maybe even more importantly, with some phone banking here.
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