McCain Running Hard in Arizona -- With a Little Help From His Friends

Facing a primary challenge from the right in Arizona, Sen. John McCain is highlighting endorsements from a bevy of political luminaries in a bid to overwhelm rival J.D. Hayworth and neutralize his opponent's claim on the conservative, anti-Washington Tea Party movement.

McCain, the Republican candidate for president in 2008, isn't taking anything for granted in his bid for a fifth Senate term.

He has already won the backing of his '08 running mate, Sarah Palin -- a favored guest at the recent Tea Party convention -- and also claimed the endorsement of newly minted Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. He has the support of the entire Republican Arizona delegation, including a few lawmakers who served in the House with Hayworth when he was a congressman, Politico reported.

"The establishment in Arizona is very conservative," local GOP consultant Sean Noble told the Washington-based newspaper and Web site. "You've got guys who are way more conservative than either Hayworth or McCain, and they are siding with McCain."

Hayworth has the support Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but the famously hard-nosed law enforcement officer is under federal investigation for alleged abuse of power.

Back on Capitol Hill, McCain has made peace with a Democrat who crossed him last December in an exchange on the Senate floor, the Hill newspaper reported. McCain was irked when freshman Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) refused a plea for more speaking time from McCain pal Joe Lieberman. The request was "objected to by the newest member of the United States Senate in a most brusque way," McCain said at the time. "I've never seen anything like that and I hope I don't see it again." McCain himself is no slacker when it comes to brusque ways.

But he said he later learned that Franken -- who made his name as a comedian -- was simply following orders from Democratic leaders to hold all speakers to a 10-minute maximum -- no easy task in a body known for free-flowing rhetoric. "He was told to do it," McCain said, "so it was never anything between me and Senator Franken."