Politics Dude, that’s not very civil.
As you know, GOP candidate Mike McGavick’s main campaign issue is civility & bipartisanship. You may even have seen McGavick’s TV ad featuring Sen. John McCain, where McGavick sings McCain’s praises for reaching across the aisle (“I look to the example of John McCain…”).
So, why is McGavick attacking McCain’s bipartisanship now?
Check it out:
As the campaign started in earnest this week after the primary, McGavick started talking up issues where he differs from his opponent, Sen. Maria Cantwell. One issue McGavick is stumping on (and one he hyped in his latest TV ad) is his claim that Cantwell is “giving tens of billions in public aid to illegals while Social Security is going broke.”
In his primary night victory speech, McGavick hit the issue again:
With Social Security going broke already, I don’t think paying benefits to illegal workers makes sense. And yet Sen. Cantwell voted to keep that practice in place.
These are direct attacks on Cantwell’s opposition to an amendment that would have prevented former illegal immigrants (who had paid into the Social Security system) from getting those payments back when they become legal.
Not only is McGavick’s attack way off base (ie, Social Security payments are not going to illegal workers), it’s also a swipe at the independent bipartisanship of John McCain.
Thanks to bipartisanship: 11 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and killed the amendment—50-49. Guess who the lead Republican fighting against the “fundamentally unfair” amendment (as he called it) was? Sen. John McCain.
Here’s McCain, after he joined Cantwell and voted against the amendment:
“We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for years and sometimes decades while they work to contribute to our economy…It’s fundamentally unfair to collect taxes from these workers and then disqualify” them once they reach legal status, McCain said.“The amendment would undermine the work of these people by preventing lawfully present immigrant workers from claiming Social Security benefits that they earned before they were authorized to work in our community,” he said. “If this amendment were enacted, the nest egg that these immigrants have worked hard for would be taken from them and their families.”
So, ummm, what was McGavick’s point again?
although he's telling moderates he's not a partisan hack, he's touting to his base how much of a partisan hack he actually is--tried and true politics.