A member of GOP Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth's campaign staff apparently thinks Senator John McCain -- Hayworth's opponent in the Republican primary -- "turned [his] back" on his Navy colleagues.
Shane Wikfors, Hayworth's campaign field director, takes a jab at McCain on Twitter, attacking his service to the United States Navy, where McCain served as a naval aviator during the Vietnam War.
"Some people ask me why my animosity is so personal with John McCain. Navy colleagues don't turn their backs one one another. McCain did," Wikfors tweets.
Check it out below.
John McCain spent more than five years as a POW in a North Vietnamese prison, where he was tortured and beaten. McCain even volunteered to stay locked up despite being given the option to leave by his North Vietnamese captors because he didn't feel it was right to leave men behind.
Wikfors tells New Times the "tweet" might be misunderstood and that his comments are based on his personal experiences with McCain.
"I am a U.S. Navy veteran. When I asked John McCain for help in 1994 as a political candidate, he refused -- probably because he shunned social conservatives like myself," Wikfor says. "I've reached out several times in the past, especially on taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research, offering him expertise and political help on the issue, only to be ignored."
We didn't realize that by merely being in the Navy, McCain is obligated to use his power to help anyone else who's ever set foot on a boat. Seems extreme right-winger Wikfor's got himself a standard case of sour grapes.
Switching gears to another forum for cyber-expression, Wikfor, who despite his animosity toward McCain, is a "fan" of McCain's on Facebook.
Wikfor says his cyber-support of McCain is just an example of him toeing the party line.
"I was very critical of John McCain prior to him receiving the GOP nomination, but like a good Republican, worked to help him in the 2008 General Election while holding my nose," he says. "His placement of Sarah Palin in the ticket made the GOP ticket more palatable."
If Sarah Palin could make something more palatable for this guy, J.D. Hayworth's over-the-top conservative agenda's obviously a delicacy to him.
