John McCain is about as moderate as, well, me.

He was in Tucson on Tuesday, ironically playing down his presidential ambitions while pandering to the Christian right on "intelligent design." If "all points of view" should be presented to students in public schools as McCain claimed here on Tuesday, why is comprehensive sexuality education banned in Arizona? Senator McCain doesn't make those decisions, but he holds a tremendous amount of influence over his state party. Hypocrisy and arch-conservatism at its worst.

He votes with his party more than 80% of the time in the U.S. Senate. During his lengthy tenure in Congress, that number has often climbed above 90%. His so-called maverick persona is a well crafted and undeniably successful PR ploy. Bill Frist could call himself a maverick for supporting embryonic stem cell research and hardly anybody would bat an eye.

Not that Stuart Starkey was a great candidate, but I happily voted for him last year. While it might be remarkable that a) McCain ran opposed and b) anyone - including me - remembers his opponent's name, at least it shows there are signs of life in the state Democratic party.