McCain Squares Off Against Club for Growth

This is another poorly chosen battle for a candidate already unpopular among his party's economically conservative base.  The Club ranks McCain in the lower half of the class among his Republican colleagues in the Senate (and two dozen slots behind Sam Brownback, the only other GOP Senator in the Presidential hunt), so maybe it's only natural that he wouldn't expect the warmest reception at the Club's meeting.  Still, CPAC-goers likely differed with the bulk of Rudy Giuliani's social platform, yet he managed to make a terrific showing at the event and has since eclipsed McCain in a number of polls.

McCain now having twice scoffed the primary-voter-laden base of his own party by turning down these invitations might well have sustained be the self-inflicted death blow in what was a long-shot primary bid to begin with (especially if he continues to throw a spotlight on his ideological differences with the groups in question).

Video of him doing just that is here.

(HT: The Corner)