McCain Faces Primary Disaster, New Frenemies

The odd post-election journey of John McCain carries on as the Arizona Republican takes on old friends over climate legislation and has to deal with a new poll showing that he could be facing a strong primary challenge in 2010.

McCain has completed an evolution from a gracious election loser pledging to work closely with the new president to an increasingly bitter partisan who is unflinching in his willingness to take on President Obama daily, even on issues where the two former foes are seemingly on similar side. McCain has offered little praise for the president, and now he is hitting hard at two of his closest friends in the U.S. Senate over legislation with the goal of curbing climate change that McCain once championed but which the GOP’s conservative base has taken a strong stance in opposition.

McCain has criticized the outline of a potential climate change bill being worked o by Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman aimed at drawing bipartisan support in the face of more liberal legislation that has been attacked by Republicans. McCain said the work of his two friends has been “horrendous” and that “they’re going nowhere” in trying to garner bipartisan backing.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain.

“Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.”

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McCain refers to the bill as “cap and tax,” calls the climate legislation that passed the House in June “a 1,400-page monstrosity” and dismisses a cap-and-trade proposal included in the White House budget as “a government slush fund.”

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Former aides are mystified by what they see as a retreat on the issue, given McCain’s long history of leadership on climate legislation. McCain and Lieberman authored their first climate bill in 2003 and reintroduced the legislation in 2005 and 2007. “The only reason we are debating climate legislation in the Senate right now is because of the leadership he showed three Congresses ago,” said Tim Profeta, a former staffer for the Connecticut independent on climate issues who is now a professor at Duke University.

“I wouldn’t be here on this issue without him,” said Graham, a South Carolina Republican who spent much of last fall campaigning for McCain. “He’s the guy that introduced me to the climate problem.”

It is a shocking turn of events for the political “maverick” who has been a consistent advocate in the fight against global warming and made climate change a key part of his 2008 election bid despite his opposition to actual mandates limiting carbon emissions.

But the cause and effect for this lurch to the right could be found in a new Rasmussen poll focusing on McCain’s 2010 primary fight in his bid for another term in the Senate.

The poll finds McCain, long a target of the more extreme conservative elements in the GOP and more so now given the rise of the Palin crowd and tea partiers, barely ahead of a man not even officially challenging the former GOP presidential nominee.

McCain is leading former Congressman and current conservative radio host J.D. Hayworth by just two points, a lead that could vanish once Hayworth officially enters the race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely 2010 Republican Primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%.

Former Minuteman leader Chris Simcox gets four percent (4%) support, while two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

Hayworth, a conservative former U.S. congressman who now is a popular radio talk show host in Phoenix, is reportedly interested in the race but has not formally declared for it. He captures 59% of the male GOP vote, while McCain wins 58% of female voters.

Younger GOP voters like Hayworth more than their elders. McCain has a solid lead among the relatively small number of moderate and liberal Republicans in the state while Hayworth picks up a plurality (48%) of conservatives.

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