Because of his one-time flirtation with becoming a Democrat, his once somewhat progressive views on immigration and his 2008 presidential defeat, earlier this year John McCain looked as though he could be in for the fight of his life as he tried for a fifth term in the Senate. But as Eric Kleefeld explained a couple weeks ago, McCain has ended up completely out-hustling Hayworth in Arizona’s electoral CrazyStakes to the point where he’s now an overwhelming favorite in the primary later this month. Whether it’s because he’s outspending Hayworth 10-1, or because Hayworth’s been such a buffoon or just because McCain’s out-politicked him, Hayworth looks pretty much finished.
But I wonder if the emergence of the 14th Amendment revision and birthright citizenship issues might not provide Hayworth some opening.
Whatever else you can say about J.D. Hayworth, he’s been over-the-top against unfettered immigration since pretty much forever. Unlike McCain, he’s got plenty of credibility on the issue. And I doubt he’s going to feel very restrained in swinging for the fences on rewriting the 14th Amendment.
McCain, on the other hand, is in an awkward position. Even by the standards of election year nonsense, the idea that we’re going to rewrite the 14th Amendment is pretty out there stuff. And it’s clear that McCain would like to keep as far away from the issue as possible. See this post from Tuesday about him almost literally running away from reporters on Capitol Hill when pressed about whether he really supports repealing or revising the 14th amendment.
What’s more, McCain’s own history has some deep ties to the question of just who is a natural born citizen. (McCain was born in Panama while his father, a Navy Admiral, was serving there.) And as one TPM Reader pointed out today, during the 2008 campaign while McCain’s eligibility to serve was briefly tossed around by the press, his campaign issued a legal opinion by Larry Tribe and Ted Olson which in no uncertain terms said that there’s no question the 14th amendment ensures birthright citizenship (“The Fourteenth Amendment expressly enshrines this connection between birthplace and citizenship in the text of the Constitution.”)
I think this nugget from the past will be brought up and deprive McCain of any talking points to the effect that birthright citizenship can somehow be ended by Congress passing a law rather than actually amending the constitution.
Put all those together and I think McCain just isn’t in a position to chase Hayworth to the right on this issue. Hayworth has very little time left; I suspect too little. But if this keeps taking shape as a key election issue, it’s one that Hayworth can distinguish himself from McCain on and hammer him with every day.
