Jeff's Commentary - 6/28 - Uncle J.D.

Everyone has an uncle they would like to hide from. The guy who knows everything about everything and makes you feel like you would run for cover every time you see him coming your way. A guy who talks a game of principles and walks a game of whatever it takes to fill his own agenda. We in Arizona have that Uncle and he is running for the Senate against John McCain...our very own J.D. Hayworth.

I won’t even get into the Jack Abramoff lobby scandal other than to say that Uncle J.D. was the largest single recipient of Abramoff-related money and co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, receiving more than $150,000 from Indian tribes once represented by Abramoff. There is a reason the Tea Party has not given their endorsement out to J.D. and it has to do with the fact that he doesn’t walk the walk they walk.

There was rarely an earmark he could not resist to add to bills while he was in Congress and a microphone he rarely passed up to throw in his ten cents worth. Now it comes out that Uncle J.D. was involved in a 2007 infomercial that promoted “free government grant seminars.” Consumer advocate groups called foul. The company that produced the infomercial was sued and eventually went bankrupt. Of course J.D. explained it away as simply a “caveat emptor” - buyer beware in his webcast “Round Table Politics.”

I don’t know about you, but a guy who claims to be an advocate to cut government spending and then turns around and does an infomercial to get as much government largesse as you can, simply cannot have it both ways. In the upcoming election against Senator John McCain, I can only say that we should have a “caveat emptor” approach to our crazy Uncle J.D. Just as J.D. regretted his association with the infomercial firm, we Arizonans may want to look closely under the sheets on what our Uncle says he believes and what his actions show he believes. Caveat Emptor for sure.

Jeff