Alabama Conservatives To McCain: Kiss My Grits!

Source: al.com

Seems the devil went down to Georgia Alabama looking for some dough to campaign, he was in for a bit of a disappointment...

U.S. Sen. John McCain was in Dothan Thursday to campaign for local Republican candidates, but he spent much of the time talking about national policy issues.

The senator spoke to about 70 supporters who each contributed $100 to the Alabama Republican Party Victory 2006 Fund.

He endorsed the local candidates and stressed the importance of maintaining Republican control of the House and Senate in November's elections.

Jack M. at AOS dug a little deeper...

Dothan is the largest city in the most conservative part of the state. The "wiregrass region" of Alabama is the GOP lynchpin. Republicans who wish to run successful statewide campaign traditionally need to win large majorities in this area, which allows them to offset losses in North Alabama and Birmingham. McCain only pulled in 70 people at $100 ($7,000 total) at this event. That's very weak.

So why did John "candy ass" McCain do so poorly in The Cotton State? Mr. M reports...

I actually did some "investigative reporting" (I called some of my old friends on Capitol Hill who are close to the McCain people) and asked why they thought the Senator wasn't getting much traction in a place like Alabama, which traditionally loves their war heroes. The answer: Illegal Alien Amnesty and the "torture" debate have taken a much heavier toll on McCain then previously thought. Even McCain's recent vote in favor of construction of the 700 mile border wall hasn't earned him any credit among these voters.

Republicans have truly bought themselves a world of hurt with their conservative base on the issue of illegal immigration. Yes, Senator McCain has done some good things but he was so bad, so clearly corrupt on the illegal immigration/Shamnesty issue it's hard for actual conservatives to ever take him seriously again, sort of like the president.

Captain Ed among others have made the point that a ruling party cannot be about ideological purity, I agree, with one big caveat. If I genuinely believe the issue at question is one of national survival it's no longer about purity, it's about survival and I think a lot of otherwise wishy-washy conservatives are starting to get that in their guts.

I recently blogged on the importance of the Porkbusters campaign, here is another example of that kind of thing. A politican these days cannot do the sort of odious speechifying Mr. McCain did, suggesting that enforcing the law would be like asking black folks to ride at the back of the bus and then expect all his hard work to be undone by a single vote. Those days are over, the internets provide way too much transparency.

If you're not familiar with the Ace Of Spades blog I would classify it as a fairly moderate conservative blog. Here are some comments...

But failing an Ace/Coldcuts ticket, Give me Giuliani/Gingrich. Or Giuliani/Rice. McCain? Rot. In. Hell. Asshole.

As a staunch conservative, I relish the thought of McCain running for POTUS in 2008. I will do everything that I can (donate, volunteer, vote) to see him totally embarassed in the primaries. That goes double for his little wormtongued toadie, Lindsay Graham. Payback's a bitch and elephants have long memories.

I'm with Log Cabin. I want McCain to run, so we can crush him like a bug in the primaries. I volunteered with the Bush campaign in 2000, and hated hated hated the McCain supporters I met. They all seemed to absorb their boss' self-righteousness.

Anyone. but. Mccain.

I could only find one solid supporting comment. I won't presume to make any strong declarative statements about any upcoming elections other than to note that CW again seems to be getting stood on it's head. CW used to say that illegal immigration was a loser for political candidates, nowadays it seems that this issue is pushing up everywhere and guys like McCain and Lindsay "Pussy" Graham are taking lumps for their un-Americanism.

I'm broken up, really.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, john mccain, lindsay graham, Alabama, conservatives, republicans, president 2008

***Corrected from previous post -- the state is ALABAMA, not Georgia. Thanks to reader nomorespin2005 for catching my goof!***