Many people believed Arizona Senator John McCain would run again for his senate seat in 2016, by which time he'd be 80. Their belief was confirmed today when the senator told the Arizona Republic that he'll announce tomorrow.
Veteran U.S. Sen. John McCain will announce Tuesday that he will seek a sixth term in 2016. McCain, R-Ariz., plans to officially declare his bid for re-election during a speech before the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Arizona Biltmore resort in central Phoenix.
The senator is certain to be challenged from the vocal tea party wing of the Arizona GOP—the goonballs who want a war at the border, who would ban gay everything if empowered, who still speak birther, who'd prefer mandatory church attendance. In the 2010 GOP primary McCain was challenged from the looney right by former congressman, TV/radio personality and Foghorn Leghorn impersonator JD Hayworth. His nativist campaign forced the senator, who used to embrace immigration reform, into making that "Build the Dang Fence" ad, reflecting a shift toward militia craziness on border issues. But the nutters still think McCain is too moderate, believing his more extremist language is just electioneering, not core belief. It's still pretty much 24/7 McCain bashing at the far-right local blogs. Last year outgoing chair of the Maricopa Republican Party A.J. LaFaro, who's a Joe Arpaio ally and crackpot critic of Sen. McCain, called the rift between his hard right pinheads and McCain "one of the bloodiest political civil wars." It hasn't gotten better since LaFaro said that more than a year ago. One name that's surfaced in Oz is Republican state Sen. Kelli Ward from Lake Havasu City, home of the London Bridge, but that's another diary. She certainly meets the NRA and Christian right's qualifications. When that tax cheat Cliven Bundy was all over Fox News, Sen. Ward and a few other Arizona pols drove up to get their pictures taken with the old Nevada coot, and talk about land-grabbing Nazis in DC. Sen. Ward gave a speech there that was covered by the local media—more bellyaching about government control, for stuff like driving. Yeah, she said that: no driving laws. Sen. Ward and the others posted those Bundy photos on their websites, until the criminal rancher explained what he knew about the Negro. The Ward-Bundy pictures vanished. Heck, if she found and used those photos, that would probably earn her points with a lot of the Arizona GOP. But their clown car will soon fill with other candidates; we are not deficient in bible-thumping border hawks who hate Obama. It'll be interesting to see who the Koch Boys sponsor. Their dark money certainly influenced the governor's race, and if, in the senate primary, they threw a lot of cash at a winger like Rep. Matt Salmon, who said he's considering, it could be fun to watch. They'll all wink-wink about Sen. McCain's age without mentioning it directly, although he confronted running at 80 head-on:
He shrugged off questions about his age, saying his health "is excellent" and noting that his mother is 103 years old and "doing fine." ... "I would be glad to show somebody my daily schedule, both here and in Washington," McCain said.
So, is he telling us he's going to be around another 23 years? Heck, at 80 he's a schoolboy compared to Sheriff Arpaio, who'll be 84 when he runs next year. And he is running, with a big fat war chest. And a crapload of lawsuits.