Friday, November 3rd, 2006...7:53 am
Hayworth: Humble Victim of that Liberal Arizona Republic
Over at Espresso Pundit, Greg Patterson has been responding to the Arizona Republic’s scathing endorsement of Harry Mitchell. He takes issue with the characterization of J. D. Hayworth as a “bully.” The gist of what he is saying seems to be that Hayworth is being attacked for his ideology and stance on illegal immigration.
Come on! The Republic has been more than happy to endorse folks with immigration stances just as hard line as Hayworth’s (Jon Kyl, for example). The trouble they had, and they made this clear, was with his behavior.
Patterson makes light of the Republic’s references to Hayworth’s behavior in the editorial board room. People closer to the meeting than I have told me about how he acted not only towards the Mitchell but towards the members of the editorial board and it seems like, if anything, their account makes it look better than it was. I can’t imagine even for a minute that had Janet Napolitano or Terry Goddard acted this way that Patterson would regard it as anything less than “bullying” behavior.
That takes me to his comparison of Hayworth’s behavior with Napolitano’s. He tries to say by vetoing legislation, the Governor is a bully. This is just silly. Napolitano is exercising her right as a Governor to stop legislation she thinks is damaging to the state. This makes her no more of a bully than it would make Olivia Cajero Bedford a bully for voting against a bill. Heck, if she didn’t exercise her veto and try to get initiatives done on her own, there wouldn’t be much point in having a Governor in the first place.
Patterson invokes the name Bruce Babbitt as a model governor. I find this incredibly funny because Republicans don’t ever seem to be so much of a fan of him otherwise. Patterson claims that Babbitt worked with the Republican legislature during his term. True, but Babbitt could be combative as well. One may remember his hardball tactics during the negotiation of the water comprimise in the early 1980’s. More importantly, however, the legislature had leaders like Burton Barr who were actually interested in getting something done rather than playing ideological games. I can’t imagine that Barr, who was conservative but came out of the buisness community, could even survive the RINO hunters in today’s Republican primaries, much less be in leadership. One may remember that when Barr himself tried to run for governor, he was turned back in the primaries by conservative voters who were dissatisfied with his comprimises with Babbitt. The guy that beat him, by the way, was Evan Mecham.
3 Comments
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:21 am
It almost pains me to side with you instead of Greg on this one but you left out the most amazing endorsement by the Republic, Trent Franks. Trent makes J.D. look like a moderate and yet the Republic endorsed Franks.
He “is one of the most gracious politicians you’ll ever meet” said the Republic. Just like our mothers taught us, politeness pays.
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:12 am
Good point, kid. Another thing that seems to escape Greg when he upholds Bruce Babbitt as the standard bearer for “good Democrats” is that it was his veto record Janet broke earlier this year. So clearly, Bruce was no yes man to the GOPs either.
November 3rd, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I agree with PHX KID. Someone who shows graciousness, good temperament, reasonableness, fairness, openness will take you far–notwithstanding your issue stances. Newspapers [and voters too] don’t like assholes–no matter what their party.
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