WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain found out once again that pop culture trumps policy every time.

Earlier this month, McCain, R-Ariz., was getting ready to deliver a major June 10 speech on Iran to a National Endowment for Democracy conference when Brooke Buchanan, his Senate spokeswoman, mentioned to him that reality-show diva Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi had unexpectedly dropped his name.

The star of MTV's "Jersey Shore" griped that President Barack Obama had put a 10 percent tax on tanning-bed bills. She speculated that McCain, Obama's opponent in the 2008 White House race, wouldn't support such a tax "because he's pale and he would probably want to be tan."

An amused McCain decided to shoot Polizzi a Twitter message.

"I said, 'Oh, why don't we tell Snooki that we wouldn't, but we better put in there that I recommend you use sunscreen,' " McCain, who has battled skin cancer, recalled last week. "Kaboom! It's on the (bottom-of-the-TV-screen cable news channel) crawl for days."

The intense, sustained national coverage of McCain's June 9 "Snooki" tweet completely eclipsed his Iran speech, he said.

"I can't tell you how much hard work was put into that speech, and I still think it was one of the finest speeches that I've ever given," McCain said, laughing.

In other developments:

��The Federal Election Commission has tossed a December complaint alleging that broadcasting giant Clear Channel Communications gave former Rep. J.D. Hayworth an illegal corporate "in-kind" contribution by allowing him to continuously bash McCain and discuss a possible GOP Senate campaign while he was a talk-show host on Clear Channel-owned Phoenix radio station KFYI-AM (550).

Hayworth's afternoon KFYI program ended Jan. 22 and he officially announced his primary challenge to McCain on Feb. 15.

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, now a McCain campaign adviser, unsuccessfully argued in his complaint that Hayworth was a de facto Senate candidate even while on KFYI's payroll.

In a written statement, Hayworth said the "baseless complaint" was part of a "pattern of fear and intimidation regularly practiced by the senator." Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, responded: "The fact that Congressman Hayworth entered the race after leaving the radio is proof that he intended to run all along and was using his show as a campaign platform."

��If McCain had won the presidency, how would he have handled the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? McCain acknowledged that second-guessing is always easy, but he said he probably would have met with top BP executives sooner and directed the federal government to take control of the situation earlier. "Some would argue that he (Obama) has never been in a decision-making role, and this is an indication of that," McCain said.

��Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., is working to secure a National Scenic Area designation for Sedona's landmark red rocks. "That also would bring jobs because that's going to bring more tourism to that area," she told The Republic last week. "It's so beautiful. Every time you look at those red rocks, it's spectacular." Earlier this month, Kirkpatrick and Sedona Mayor Rob Adams made their pitch for her bill at a hearing before a House Natural Resources subcommittee.

Follow Arizona's congressional delegation on Nowicki's blog, azdc.azcentral.com. Monitor congressional votes at congress.azcentral.com.