Early polls suggest Arizona Sen. John McCain leads former Rep. J.D. Hayworth by a healthy margin in the GOP primary. Among conservative radio talk show hosts, however, McCain is losing by a landslide.

As McCain gears up for a vigorous challenge from the former six-term House Republican, national conservative talkers are picking up where they left off in the 2008 presidential campaign, blasting McCain as insufficiently conservative and unloading on him with all the bombast they can muster.

Hayworth, himself a former talk radio host, is the beneficiary.

“This is a race about a conservative versus a phony, so let me be the first national host to say it,” blared best-selling author and radio personality Mark Levin on his nationally syndicated program.

"McCain is not a solid conservative. You want to send a signal that will be heard all over the world? Elect J.D. and defeat McCain," Levin concluded.

Earlier this week, popular Fox News television and radio host Glenn Beck — who once said McCain “would've been worse for the country than Barack Obama” — offered his unvarnished take on the Arizona senator during a radio interview with Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

"I'm convinced that John McCain is going to be one of the guys who pushes through a health care compromise," complained Beck. "And I don't want any health care through the federal government. Because you know and I know, Senator, that they're going to build this damn machine whether we like it or not," he continued.

"And they're going to build it one piece at a time, and a progressive like John McCain will help them build it," Beck asserted.

When DeMint signaled he was staying out of the Arizona primary, Beck expressed a sigh of relief.

"This is great news to me. So you are not endorsing him or helping him in Arizona?" Beck asked.

"No, I'm not. I know J.D. well, and they can have their own race," DeMint replied.