JOHN SHADEGG (AZ-03) PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES WITH GOP HOUSE LEADERS-- HE DEMANDS A PLACE IN THE LEADERSHIP OR HE'LL WALK AWAY FROM CONGRESS

John Shadegg's congressional district changed while he was fighting for extreme right wing ideological purity in Congress's vicious internecine partisan wars-- the ones inside the cut throat Republican caucus. While Shadegg-- a hated and mistrusted member because of his alleged seduction of a fellow right-winger's wife-- was trying to prove he was even more extremist than Blunt and Boehner, the northern suburbs of Phoenix were turning into typical moderate suburbs. AZ-03 may still lean Republican but it's residents are definitely for stem cell research, against persecuting gay people and ready to vote for better Democrats when they show up on the ballot. This is a problem for someone who's political career has been fashioned around proving that he's the biggest crackpot in town.

Some of the craziest far right bloggers are begging Shadegg to not leave Congress, tantamount to giving up his seat to moderate, well-financed and much-liked Democrat Bob Lord.

A Republican friend of mine in Phoenix, who has been right before when he warned me Shadegg would pull out of his re-election bid before anyone knew, tells me Shadegg now plans to play out the guessing game indefinitely about whether he has allowed himself to be convinced by his congressional colleagues and the nutcase extremists to stay on. I don't know that this is helping the folks in Paradise Valley with their drinking water situation-- but constituent services has never been what the Trotsky of Arizona Republicanism has ever been about. What he's about is amassing personal power and augmenting his career. He thinking that by making Republicans beg him to stay he can force them to give him what he has never been able to win straight-up-- a position in the GOP leadership.

Shadegg says he's pondering. He better ponder fast; his constituents are getting tired of his lack of service and his prima dona games... and Democrats all over Arizona are on the move. In 2006, not only did Janet Napolitano roll over her GOP opponent with a 28% margin of victory, 2 red congressional seats flipped. Two more could go blue this year-- the first, where Rick Renzi's corruption scandal forced him to retire and the third, where Shadegg is playing games, while mired in his own money-laundering charges, and facing the strongest political opposition of his career.


UPDATE: STOP THE WORLD-- SHADEGG ISN'T DONE BLACKMAILING BOEHNER YET

Although Shadegg had promised to make his intentions clear today-- their are half a dozen Republicans in AZ-03 champing at the bit, and chomping their fingers off, to jump into the race if he's really out-- he's "still pondering." He's trying to blackmail Boehner and Blunt into giving him a leadership role-- a leadership role he failed, and failed miserably, to get democratically. The reason he has to depend on this tactics is because another conservative congressman, Jon Christensen, caught Shadegg in bed with his wife and they had two fistfights over it-- one in the House cloak room. Shadegg's Republican colleagues like his extreme right positions but they loathe his personal ethics and have been reluctant-- actually unwilling-- to vote him a position of trust. I mean, they picked Boehner and Blunt over him; think about that for a moment. So what are the supposed to do now? Throw Howdy Doody under the bus?


UPDATE: LOOKS LIKE SHADEGG GETS HIS WAY

When Shadegg first ran for Congress he signed a contract with America promising to leave office after 3 terms. Of course that was a boldfaced lie and he's turned into a career politician. Last week he said he was leaving office "to spend more time with his family." His Inside the Beltway family seems to have more pull on him this week than his actual family. Now he says he's staying in Washington. Bob Lord is going to decimate this clown in November.