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McCain Censure the Latest Sign of GOP Fratricide
By Eric Pianin, January 27, 2014
If there were any doubts that Republicans are in the throes of ideological fratricide that could threaten their prospects for success this fall, they were dispelled over the weekend in Arizona.
In a move both bizarre and ill-timed, Arizona Republican Party members voted to censure Sen. John McCain – a highly-decorated Vietnam War hero, maverick conservative and 2008 Republican presidential nominee – for being too liberal for their taste.
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The resolution reads like a federal indictment on espionage charges, condemning McCain “for his continued disservice to our state and nation,” and said state Republican leaders “will no longer support, campaign for or endorse John McCain as our U.S. Senator.”
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After losing to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, McCain made such a dramatic shift to the right that by 2010 he was tied with Tea Party favorite Jim DeMint of South Carolina for the title of the Senate’s most conservative member, according to a National Journal analysis.
McCain’s sins, in the eyes of state party Republicans in Arizona, include his support of the Senate-passed bipartisan immigration reform bill that would provide 11 million illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship. State Republican officials are adamantly opposed to any bill that smacks of “amnesty” for illegal immigrants and their children.
Another sin committed by the often-free-wheeling, combative McCain was clashing with rising conservative Senate stars, including Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, over national security and budget policy as well as Obamacare.
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His final misdeed was to side with Democrats last fall in deriding GOP efforts to block passage of a budget and threaten a government shutdown to force cuts in spending for the Affordable Care Act. In a Sept. 25 floor speech that drew Democratic praise and GOP hostility, McCain said that while he had vigorously opposed passage of Obamacare, “elections have consequences.”
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Such interparty tensions could have troubling consequences for Republicans this year in their bid to retain control of the House and recapture a majority in the Senate. Seven of 12 Republican senators up for reelection – including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky – are facing primary challenges from Tea Party candidates.
For now, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi appears to be the most endangered GOP incumbent. The politically potent Club for Growth has endorsed his primary challenger, state senator Chris McDaniel. The other Republicans facing primary challenges appear to be in pretty good shape.
Yet just a few Republican primary upsets – as we saw, for example, in Indiana and Missouri in 2012 – could result in a weaker general election field and costly losses for the GOP.
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