McCain Hearts Renzi
Not only is Rick Renzi unwilling to step down from the House, but John Straight Talk for Lobbyists McCain is unwilling to kick him out of his campaign.
Asked in Ohio today, however, McCain said “it doesn’t matter” if Renzi stays on his campaign or not. Watch it:
McCain has been staunchly loyal to his fellow Arizonian. After the FBI investigation into Renzi was first reported in October 2006, McCain vouched for Renzi’s “integrity” in a robo-call to Arizona voters:
This is Senator John McCain. I’m calling to urge you to support my friend, Representative Rick Renzi for Congress. Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach.
Perhaps the several AZ folks who hang around these parts will help me out. But isn’t Renzi one of the best known carpet-baggers in Congress? Further, don’t most of the ethical, um, exuberances that were not charged, but should have been, associated with him bringing pork to Daddy’s (RIP) boondoggle in Huachuca–outside of Renzi’s district. That is, Renzi’s been a great second Congressman for AZ’s 8th CD, but a piss poor one for its first district, the one that elected him.
Someone ought to confirm with McCain that he meant to invoke the first district in this statement.
Or even better, folks ought to ask McCain why it is that he’s so loyal to a spooked up Congressman who is so obviously violating the trust of his constituents (regardless of whether he committed a crime or not). I imagine this support for Renzi will grow more embarrassing for Mr. Straight Talk for Lobbyists, as he go forward.
So why is he risking that embarrassment now?
And Fred Wertheimer is too busy lecturing Obama over a non-existent promise to notice!
As an Arizona citizen, I must say I am proud of the way John is sticking with Rick and I hope they will be two happy losers together!
Heh heh heh. Yup. Right in line behind freaking McCain. Birds of a foul feather carpetbag together. In fairness to Renzi, he has probably been present in the House for a far higher percentage of votes, on behalf of his constituents in the
EighthFirst District, than McCain has the Senate (almost none for some time now).The Navajos didn’t seem to mind Renzi as he got them some of the pork, and a little tiny bit for some needed road projects actually got spilled over onto Hopi(Franks district) cuz he thought the roads were on the Navajo Nation.
Jeebus our state is fucked up. Trent Franks. Another total piece of work. Renzi might actually be a better guy than Franks…..
Franks is so *ucking safe cuz he has Sun City and Lake Havasu City. They are kind of the Republican-from-cold-states retirement towns. Not much to worry about there.
at least you guys got a real governor
the guy we got ain’t even much of an actor
thank god the gropenator was born in Austria, or we coulda had ronnie raygun redux
“Jeebus our state is fucked up. Trent Franks. Another total piece of work. Renzi might actually be a better guy than Franks…..”
Jeez, that is a really hard one to swallow. Franks must be the devil incarnate.
Bob in HI
Bob – Here is an early taste of Franks for you. Heh, remember Joe Stedino and AZSCAM? We represented Stedino; a real, shall we say interesting, guy.
Ah, here you go, a comprehensive list of Trent Franks On The Issues. See if you can find any you agree with him on. Won’t be easy I bet. He was the biggest and loudest mouth, all over the media big time and constantly, behind only Frist and DeLay, in the Terry Schiavo mess. He is a militant right to lifer; here he is on the floor of the House comparing Planned Parenthood to 9/11. There’s a lot more…..
The San Pedro River groundwater exculsion Renzi got for Ft. Huachuca was a stinker but the Arizona Republican newspaper wasn’t going to investigate. I thought it was a turd at the time and wonder why it didn’t get a good looking into.
Sweet–do you guys see the NFL ad in teh corner?!?! Finally–my obvious cross-over appeal. bmaz, all those trash talk threads might keep this joint in business.
Didn’t know Franks covered the Hopi. Guess I oughta study that map. Did they intentionally split Hopi and Navajo? Or jsut stick the Hopi in with the tourism?
Heh, I dunno. But speaking of the devil, Kevin Faulk just got arrested for pot possession.
Funnily enough, I was going to make a comment about “did inhale” being totally redefined by Obama’s youthful indiscretions.
And FWIW, one of the biggest reasons to vote against Clinton, of course, was that he didn’t. Should have been a primary sign.
IF you got to a map of AZ district you will see a thin line running up the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, then up the Little Colorado to Moenkopi Wash over to the main Hopi Reservation. Hopi didn’t want to be in the same district with the Navajos.
Oh man. I was looking at an out of date map. That’s one hell of a gerrymand.
One of the most interesting people I met in grad school was a Navajo guy getting a joint PhD in Anthro and JD. It was a pre-Columbian narratives class–which was key to him, bc this stuff can still be used to claim property rights.
We talked a lot about Mormons (I had just moved to MI from UT). And thing is, it’s got to be saying something that the Hopi woudl rather be in a district with what must include a ton of long-time enemies the Mormons, so as not to be in a district with their long-time rivals the Navajo.
Amd I right in that read?
Oh, they’re not friendly. Totally Hatfields and McCoys; and they are very chippy about it too. They will argue over anything.
There are a lot of Mormon areas in Renzi’s district. The political disputes over land, water, and mineral(coal) rights play a big part in the rivalry.
” And thing is, it’s got to be saying something that the Hopi woudl rather be in a district with what must include a ton of long-time enemies the Mormons, so as not to be in a district with their long-time rivals the Navajo.
Amd I right in that read?”
That’s pretty much correct, but also think about it this way: There are a lot more Navajo than there are Hopi. Put’em in the same district, and Hopi influence drops just about to zero. Put’em in a different district, and they’ve got a chance of making an alliance with others in the district against the Navajo when their interests differ.
Yes, there has been a long rivalry, and the Hopi are farmers whereas the Navajo are ranchers, but the demographics of the situation are important, too.
Bob in HI
Flagstaff, AZ 1987-2004
I have an inkling we had a little more derelict fun than Obama did. Granted, the education may not have been as prestigious as Columbia and Harvard, but ASU was consistently rated in the top three party schools by Playboy back when I was there, and earned every bit of it. Then there was Boulder….
As to Clinton, I always held it against him that he said he didn’t inhale. Didn’t care whether that was true or not either. He was either a wimp or a fibber.
In my younger years we always had some one like Bill hanging around while we “inhaled”. They usually showed up to impress some girl that they were part of the cool crowd. (That, and to get their homework done by someone with a clue.)
Therefore the former.
Amen.
When I was in law school in the early 70s, we did a straw poll looking for the date when grass would be legalized. The average guess was 10 years. Sigh.
I tend to agree with McCain’s assessment. Renzi is the least of his problems right now.
OMG, Marcy, a busy day and off to LAX in the morning at 4am and you put up FIVE pithy informative *interesting* posts today. I won’t be caught up until late tomorrow at the earliest. Have we told you how much we love you lately? :^)
The San Pedro flows north out of MX into SE AZ then to Tucson, which is where Democrats read the less conservative of AZ’s two principal newspapers; which is to say current Republican politics would care naught about trashing one of the worlds most biologically diverse riparian habitats because its neighbors are the few Democrats known to inhabit AZ. Then there is the spirited Phx New Times which seems to sport more of a modern kind of AZ outlook. CA should let AZ Indians build casinos in CA where there is sufficient gambling population to help the native peoples fund buy-back of lands like the San Pedro; if the European immigrants are going to disregard stewardship of the land, it is time to see the Indians take back all this turf, by owning it again themselves.
private ownership of land is going to be a tough thing to change. just a different form of slavery.. i am not sure the indians would go back to their previous system anyway.. they seem to like adopting white mans ways with casinos and such.. maybe i am wrong and they are doing the best they can in a white european mans world..
Depends on the reservation and tribe. Also, what Bureeau of Indian Affairs land policies were put into effect on what reservation. Some reervations were invaded by white settlers because the BIA decided the Indians weren’t making economic use of their lands.
Hopi where I live is all trust land and essentially the clan system of land control is applied in the central district of the reservation. Another thing with Hopi, land passes mother to daughter. When a man marries he moves to his wifes village and arms her land.
Hopis don’t see our concept of land ownership. They feel you can use the land but it doesn’t “belong” to you.
There is a quote revision for some of the early comments in the thread; heard on NPR years ago.
so what are we talking about here, a THIRTYNINE COUNT INDICTMENT ???
that’s called “reproach” senator …
and where exactly are we at with the “mccain said-paxson said” controversy, cuz the third party in that dispute just called mccain a liar too …
Public Broadcasting Activists Refute McCain
IS IT SUPPOSED TO BURST INTO FLAMES LIKE THAT ???
“Renzi’s been a great second Congressman for AZ’s 8th CD, but a piss poor one for its first district, the one that elected him.”
You can say that again, regarding the First District.
Bob in HI
Flagstaff, AZ 1987-2004
so you’re where exactly ???
I like details …
I presently live in Honolulu. Moved here from Flagstaff in 2004, right before the elections.
Bob in HI
The reason the euro is rising is that interest rates in the US are falling. Many Americans are in debt, and no doubt the lower interest rates will help them. But what about savers, those who don’t trust the stock or the bond markets, and just want a fair rate of return from a CD or a savings account, or even a somewhat risky money market fund.
Conservative money-handling: just another casualty of the Bush administration.
bmaz,
Just finished reading the New Times article. If you go to his website you can find, I think, a map to click on and with Hopi the only thing he has goes to a Christian missionary website that comes out to help the Hopis. He is too lazy to come up here(not that I want to see him).
Holy Crap! Heh. I am not sure why, but from the different things you have said over time, I pictured you up by Window Rock/Ft. Defiance somewhere. Couldn’t jibe that with Franks’ district, so I went to the map you referred to. Man, I had forgotten how insane that district looks (or didn’t pay good enough attention in the first place back when they were doing that). EW is right; what a gerrymandered Rube Goldberg nightmare. Wow. Just wow.
Folks, you got to see this thing.
I never held it against Clinton that he said he didn’t inhale. The first time you try to inhale anything that’s not oxygen, you’re gonna have a little trouble. What he was trying to say was he had trouble inhaling. Pot is more tricky to smoke than tobacco. Sure, what he said was a little stupid, but whatever.
Why is McCain risking the embarrassment now? I don’t know. Why is he risking the embarrassment of the position that it’s okay to stay in Iraq for 100 years? What is the reaction of the McCain-loving reporters on the Straight Talk Express? Is his loyalty to Renzi just another sign of his Straight Talk? Maybe the honesty just burbles out of him like a geyser, he can’t control it.
My guess would be that Renzi’s trial isn’t going to be until after the election. As long as he’s saying he’s going to fight the charges, McCain may think his name will be associated with Renzi’s less often if he takes the “innocent until proven guilty” line than if there’s a big story about how he dumped Renzi (and Renzi dumps on him to the press.)
I’d also venture to guess that he might be responding differently if it was a state that was closely contested, rather than his home state.
Though what happens when Obama picks Napolitano to be his running mate?
I would dearly love to see that, because then the Dem nominee can pivot and attack (thanks Jane!) that if McCain is so fond of “innocent until proven guilty”, how can he be in favor of the suspension of habeus corpus, torture, rendition, and show trials? I would so love to see him explain that with Renzi standing by his side…
Maybe McCain thinks he doesn’t have anything to worry about because Obama’s being tarred with corruption problems of his own – Rezko. If anyone brings up Renzi he will just pipe up with Rezko.
my opponent is guilty too ???
it just OOZES with “straight talk”, doesn’t it
Renzi is a nice little footnote on McCain; but pretty much penny ante stuff. The emphasis should be pounding McCain on his own corruption, and there is plenty of major items there, and his position on the big issues, which are horrid and more of Bush, or worse, across the board.