MCCAIN LABELS PRIMARY OPPONENT A ‘WASHINGTON INSIDER’…. It was bad enough when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) started criticizing others for changing their mind on immigration policy after he’d done the same thing. But for McCain to throw around accusations of being a “Washington insider” is perhaps even sillier.
Arizona Sen. John McCain launched two ads Tuesday that seek to shine a spotlight on his opponent’s past work as a lobbyist.
McCain is locked in a re-election battle with former Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth. The two ads — one for television and one for radio — paint Hayworth as a Washington insider that was voted out of office in 2006 because of his ties to lobbyists.
“Hayworth was paid thousands by a Florida corporation to lobby the very committee he used to serve on,” the television narrator says. “Outsider? A lobbyist is as inside Washington as it gets.”
Actually, McCain started working in D.C. in 1976, and has served in Congress for the last 28 years. That’s as inside Washington as it gets.
I tend to think the “Washington insider” stuff is pretty weak, no matter who’s making the charge. But for McCain to take the offensive on this is just absurd.
For that matter, if McCain thinks Hayworth’s lobbying connections are problematic, perhaps the senator can comment on the fact that he “surrounded himself with lobbyists during his failed presidential bids.”
The man’s capacity for hypocrisy is limitless.
