And would not want to guess, beyond betting that he will be well to the right of both McCain and Obama.

Outside attacks against Simcox will hurt him not help him. They will reinforce the idea to all of our damned CA transplants that he’s a right wing terrorist. And they’ll but it. Simcox may have a “national” base, but it’s single issue and he’s all but unknown here in AZ, at least for anything but his “hard line” on immigration.

And, AZ ain’t CT.

Oh, and trust me on this one, I hope Simcox wins a whole lot more than you do. Lord, prove me wrong. Please.

The McCain forces tried to foist Lisa James on the Party — and failed. Randy Pullen got re-elected as AZ chairman. But barely. I’m told by people in a position to know, from multiple sources, that the McCain forces brought in out-of-state money to run someone against the former county GOP chairman in the chairman’s precinct committeeman election so he couldn’t run for reelection as the county chair, as PC status is a pre-requisite to be the county chairman. The McCain forces succeeded in that gambit, but then thier moderate candidate, Jerry Brooks, failed to win against the conservative Rob Haney. And Haney appointed the outgoing chairman as his Executive Director. The ED doesn’t have to be a PC. Sorry, McLame.

I’ve been recruiting precinct committeemen at grassroots gatherings in the Phoenix area. Guess what, I don’t meet any moderates at them. Rather, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the energized people are “mad as hell” and identify themselves as “Reagan Republicans” or “Reagan Democrats.” If they are old enough to remember Reagan. The too young to remember Reagan tend to be people who “get” that the government gets its money from them or the children’s future earnings through deficit spending, and the current rate of spending, they’ll be paying much higher taxes, as will their children and grandchildren, and the value of their dollars will evaporate when the inflation rate rises, as it must. Primaries bring out the committed voters and, I believe, in the Republican primaries will trend very conservative in 2010.

I, too, will do whatever I can to support the strongest primary candidate challenging McCain (right now, I know of two — Jim Deakin and Chris Simcox; they both are conservative and I’ve seen Chris Simcox debate namby-pamby open border types at legislative hearings; he would destroy McCain in a debate. I will urge Simcox to to challenge McCain to townhall meeting debates like McCain challenged Teleprompter Boy).

Tonight I attended a Arizona Republican Assembly meeting in Mesa to hear former Sheriff Richard Mack, of Graham County, AZ, speak on his efforts to get law enforcement officers, and sheriffs, to read and study the Constitution. Half the people in the crowd were PCs; I pitched the other half at the conclusion of Sheriff Mack’s talk to become PCs, and everyone in this “target rich environment” seemed eager to read the short flyer I handed out explaining how they can become a PC.

As for Simcox’s campaign, I, too, will tilt at the windmills and will not be surprised if I’m wrong about the odds of beating McLame in the primary. At the right time, I will attempt to get Deakin, Simcox and whomever else might announce (J.D. Hayworth? Can we get Larry Elder to move here and run against McLame?) to sit down in a room and try to convince the faders to drop out and endorse the front runner among them.

And I, too, believe one must pick their battles. In this case, I can think of no better whipping boy than McCain to help crystalize for the voters what’s wrong with a lot of the Republican “leaders” in office now. If anything, the primary challenge might get McCain to actually realize some of us believe the Constitution still is the supreme law of the land and that we expect those to take an oath to support it to actually uphold that oath. Maybe he’ll even read it.

Added bonus: if McCain were to lose (we can dream, can’t we?), it might mean Meghan “OJG” (Our Janeane Garafalo) McCain might fade away.

In case anyone’s interested, Sheriff Mack, as he explained tonight, successfully sued the Clinton Administration over the unfunded mandates in the Brady Bill and won in the Supreme Court. Scalia wrote the 5-4 opinion, Printz/Mack v. U.S., 521 U.S. 898 (1997). The opinion is here:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-1478.ZO.html

Sheriff Mack quoted from the conclusion of Scalia’s opinion in the intro to one of his earlier books, “From My Cold Dead Fingers: Why America Needs Guns.”

“We held in New York that Congress cannot compel the States to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. Today we hold that Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the State’s officers directly. The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policymaking is involved, and no case by case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reversed.”

Learn more about Sheriff Mack here: www.sheriffmack.com

Sheriff Mack is trying to get a copy of his latest book, “The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope,” into the hands of every one of the 3,000 county sheriffs and his book is endorsed on the back cover by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Thank you.

Nobody would believe him. We had a bunch of GOP House members who got elected in ’94 who pledged three terms and out. And, as I remember, all reneged. JD Hayworth was the most vocal about term limits and the first to abandon the pledge.