Senator John McCain recently released a campaign ad for Congressional candidate Jesse Kelly, which wouldn't be a big deal if Kelly weren't endorsed by the same anti-immigration group that gave The Maverick's opponent in the GOP primary a nod -- an endorsement McCain quickly asked his opponent to disavow.
Earlier this year, you may recall, McCain was in a who's-more-of-a-conservative-nutjob showdown with former TV pitchman J.D. Hayworth. During the campaign, the anti-immigration group, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, endorsed Hayworth.
The problem with that, according to McCain (at the time), was that ALIPAC was a group of white supremacists with members from the National Socialist Movement and people like David Duke, a former "Grand Wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan and one-time presidential candidate from Louisiana.
It's not the classiest group of alleged racists, either -- its leader, William Gheen, once told New Times that the next time we contacted him we should do so by e-mail so he could print it out and shove a hard copy "up [our] ass."
McCain urged Hayworth to disavow the endorsement.
"J.D. Hayworth's lavish praise for the social theories of noted anti-Semite and xenophobe Henry Ford sparked a major controversy during his losing 2006 campaign, causing many Arizonans to question Mr. Hayworth's judgment. It is astounding that Mr. Hayworth would today accept the endorsement of a group that the Anti-Defamation League reports is backed by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Mr. Hayworth should immediately disavow this group's support," Brian Rogers, McCain's communications director said at the
time.
Hayworth kept the endorsement and was later trampled by McCain in the GOP primary.
ALIPAC endorsed another candidate in this year's election, and that candidate is Jesse Kelly, the Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona's Eighth District.
That wouldn't be an issue for McCain if The Mav hadn't recently funded -- and starred in -- a campaign ad for Kelly.
Check it out below.
"I guess McCain's opposition to ALIPAC was a political stunt -- not a moral stand," says Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. "For a guy who claims to put 'country first,' it looks like Senator McCain needs a lesson in why political courage matters.
"We'd be surprised if a reckless candidate like Kelly disavowed ALIPAC, but McCain hasn't even bothered asking him to. These days, calling McCain a hypocrite is redundant," Heredia continues.
We contacted the McCain campaign to see if there were any plans to ask Kelly to disavow the endorsement. Nobody got back to us.
