Friday, October 15, 2010
By Pete Aleshire
Top Rim Country leaders took advantage of a breakfast meeting with Sen. John McCain on Thursday to win fresh commitments to push for a Forest Service land exchange to allow construction of an ASU campus here and more help protecting Rim communities from forest fires.
McCain also ran through a genial, personalized version of his stump speech in his battle for re-election against Randy Glassman, a former Tucson council member who has worked to make an issue of McCain’s sharp shift to the right. Recent polls give McCain a 20-point lead over his challenger.
The longtime incumbent and former Republican presidential nominee teased and charmed his audience, which included a bevy of local officials including Gila County Supervisor Tommie Martin and Payson Mayor Kenny Evans, who McCain singled out for praise as a “good friend.”
McCain vowed to continue working on the Forest Service to clear barriers to the exchange of 300 acres for a college campus in Payson, construction of the Blue Ridge pipeline and thinning a dangerously fire-prone forest. He then riffed into sharp criticism of recent health care reforms, the current administration’s efforts to revive the economy, and the federal government’s effort to secure the border.
“The tax and spend policies of this administration have been a failure,” he said. As an example, he cited the recent halt in foreclosures by many major lenders nationwide due to widespread problems with paperwork.
“Wall Street this year reported $14 billion in profits, but we’ve still got 10 percent unemployment in Arizona and 23 percent unemployment in Yuma and 30 percent in Superior.”
He said he felt “guarded optimism” that Republicans will regain control of Congress. However, he noted that if Republicans do regain control they must get the economy moving again, cut federal spending and reduce taxes, or disgusted Americans will turn to some third political party movement —like the current Tea Party.
McCain noted that public approval for Congress has declined to 17 percent. “That’s blood relatives and paid staff level of support,” he quipped. “The Tea Party movement is real. The average citizen is fed up with the way things are,” said McCain.
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