J. D. Hayworth, the conservative former congressman challenging Sen. John McCain in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary, tells National Review Online that “while McCain brings in the big names, we’re borrowing some Hollywood star power.” Hayworth’s talking, of course, about his campaign’s new web ad that playfully nominates McCain for “best conservative actor” at what looks to be the GOP Oscars:

“All humor has an underlying element of truth,” Hayworth says. “John goes through the motions of being a conservative, but when he tries to backtrack on where he stands on tax cuts, amnesty, cap and trade, and the bailout, it is instant revisionism.”

Hayworth’s ad doesn’t just say that McCain’s an award-winning political thespian. It also portrays the war hero as a blue-hued native, a Na’vi warrior, from James Cameron’s Avatar, a favorite for Best Picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards. Team McCain has condemned the ad as being offensive to Native Americans.

“Some might view it as sophomoric, sure, but I think it’s pretty clever and funny,” Hayworth says. “A favorite line of Dwight Eisenhower’s was ‘Take your job seriously, never yourself.’ I think that fits. My advice to all of those trying to get into the leftist cottage industry of feeling so offended is this: lighten up. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the Senate. This isn’t an insult, but a gentle nudge. For conservatives to feign indignation over something this innocuous is absurd. I mean, come on. The younger guys, the Avatar devotees, get it immediately.”

Was the ad Hayworth’s idea? “Not me,” he laughs. “It was my creative team. I didn’t sit there with a magic marker and color it in. It’s funny how some look at it and see Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, while others immediately recognize it as Avatar.”

But why is Hayworth, the race’s self-described “consistent conservative,” alluding to Avatar, a film laced with leftist feel-good themes? “Hey, come on, what film in Hollywood doesn’t have overtones or financial ties to anything lefty?” he asks.

Hayworth adds that he’s not a big Oscar fan, “ever since the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona, my favorite film, was snubbed” in 1987. “We’re big Coen brothers fans in our house,” he says. “My son is reading a book all about the following of The Big Lebowski. This new information about our following may ruin the Coens’ career in Hollywood, but let it be known: I was crestfallen when they didn’t win anything for Raising Arizona. At least they got their due a decade later with Fargo.”