Immigration: Back in 2006, McCain was among the primary sponsors of a bipartisan reform bill at the heart of Bush's immigration push, and worked closely with Ted Kennedy on the issue. The bill included a path for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship if they paid a fine. Hayworth latched onto the bill early in the current primary fight, blasting his rival for supporting "amnesty," whereupon McCain denied that he had ever supported legalization and ratcheted up his anti-immigration rhetoric. He proceeded to push aggressively for border security, speak in favor of Arizona's harsh new immigration law, and even support hearings contesting the 14th Amendment provision that ensures American citizenship as a birthright. 
 
 In fact, his transformation from aisle-crossing, party-bucking maverick (see this 1998 Mother Jones interview ) to cookie-cutter conservative has been years in the making. During his 2008 presidential bid, he began to lurch rightward on a litany of issues in his play for the GOP's conservative base. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was the final blow for some of his truest believers, who saw it as political pandering at its worst. But the failed White House run was just the beginning of McCain’s transformation into an ideologue. Behold some recent flip-flops: 
 
 In theory, John McCain's right-wing madness could come to an end on Tuesday, when he is expected to prevail over former Rep. JD Hayworth in Arizona’s Senate primary. Faced with a stiff conservative challenge, McCain has spent this election cycle defying many of his long-held moderate positions. 
 
 Gun Control: McCain was once a vocal advocate for stricter gun-control laws. As Think Progress points out, he even appeared in ads for the nonprofit Americans for Gun Safety urging states to close the gun-show loophole that lets people buy firearms without a background check. But McCain made a dramatic reversal this past spring. He introduced a bill that would force the District of Columbia to repeal its gun-registration laws and allow residents to transports firearms within the district. 
 
 Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Four years ago, former war hero McCain seemed willing to consider changing the military's ban on gay service members. "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, ‘Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it," he said. But in February 2010, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chair Mike Mullen testified that they supported Obama's desire to repeal DADT, McCain rebuffed them. "At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," he said after the testimony. 
 
 Climate Change: Once a key supporter of cap-and-trade legislation—he co-sponsored a 2003 bill and declared during his 2008 campaign that the country urgently needed to address global warming—McCain now calls it "cap-and-tax," and has tried to claim that he never supported the policy to begin with. 
 
 McCain could soften his newfound positions prior to November. But since he’s safely ahead of all of his Democratic challengers, there’s little incentive for him to change up now. Moreover, his flip-flopping mirrors his party’s rightward creep: For example, Sen. Lindsey Graham—whom many have compared to the old John McCain—has similarly abandoned efforts to work with Democrats on climate change and immigration. 
 
 If the GOP expands its congressional ranks significantly this November, it could bring a degree of ideological diversity back into the party if moderates like Mike Castle, Charlie Crist, and Mark Kirk are elected to the Senate. But given the beating he’s received from the conservative base since stepping into the national spotlight, it's unclear whether the old McCain will ever come back. ||||| Daily Beast columnist and daughter of Arizona Senate primary victor John McCain on the mudslinging in the race just ended, the role of media bias, and why her father hasn’t changed. 
 
 Tuesday night, my father won the Arizona Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Like so many times before, I stood behind him on stage proud and hopeful for the future—for both the state of Arizona and our country. 
 
 It is no secret this seemed to have been the summer of anti-incumbency rhetoric in numerous Republican primaries. This is probably most evident in the Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio race in Florida, where Gov. Crist left the Republican Party to run as an independent against the much more conservative Rubio. 
 
 My father hasn’t changed. The media bias has. 
 
 It is a complicated time in politics, especially Arizona politics. I recently moved back to Arizona, and I got to see it firsthand every night as commercial after commercial (not just in my father’s race) penned each candidate in an unflattering light. There was the mudslinging—a particular ad where in red letters the word “Liar” ran over and over again over my father’s face. 
 
 
 
 J.D. Hayworth brands John McCain a "liar" in this campaign ad. 
 
 There was the bizarre—with an ad run by Ben Quayle in which he said he was going to “knock the hell out" of Washington. 
 
 
 
 Ben Quayle promises to "knock the hell out of" Washington. 
 
 Add the controversy over Gov. Jan Brewer and the state immigration bill, and politics in Arizona has been reaching a fever pitch that doesn’t seem to be cooling as the summer comes to an end. 
 
 My favorite moment in my father’s primary against J.D. Hayworth: an old infomercial video that surfaced showing Hayworth trying to rope people into a “money-making” scam. 
 
 
 
 J.D. Hayworth filmed this infomercial for National Grants Conferences. 
 
 Of the events that I witnessed during the race both locally and in the media, the most telling thing of all is just how much of a threat my father’s presence in the Senate still remains. My father hasn't changed. The media bias has. Many politicians and media pundits are clearly aware of his continued power and influence and would have loved nothing more than to see his long, accomplished career end during this election cycle. 
 
 At the end of the day, no matter how Arizona and Arizonans have been misrepresented in the media, they chose my father because of his reputation, commitment to his country, and record of outweighing the mudslinging and fearmongering. Arizona is facing serious challenges and I have more faith than ever that if reelected in November, he will be the man to help solve those problems. 
 
 Meghan McCain is a columnist for The Daily Beast. Originally from Phoenix, she graduated from Columbia University in 2007. She is a New York Times bestselling children's author, previously wrote for Newsweek magazine, and created the Web site mccainblogette.com. Her new book, Dirty Sexy Politics, will be published in August. 
 
 Get a head start with the Morning Scoop email. It’s your Cheat Sheet with must reads from across the Web. Get it. 
 
 For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
– It may have seemed like John McCain kept shifting further to the right during his campaign against JD Hayworth, but daughter Meghan insists this is not the case. "My father hasn't changed," she writes in the Daily Beast. "The media bias has." And despite all the distortions, Arizonans chose him "because of his reputation, commitment to his country, and record of outweighing the mudslinging and fearmongering." (At Mother Jones, Suzy Khimm runs down recent McCain "flip-flops" on issues from immigration to climate change.)