Jack, Jack, Jack...what are we to do with you?

Edit on 4/5 -

See below for Sen. Harper's side of this from a guest post at the Sonoran Alliance. Obviously, he's unrepentant about his actions yesterday.

As noted by Tedski at Rum, Romanism,and Rebellion and by Mary Jo Pitzl at the AZ Rep's Plugged In (or at least, at what's left of it), Sen. Jack Harper (R-Surprise!) was running off at the mouth today during a hearing of the joint committee investigating the conditions at the Arizona State Veterans Home.

From the Plugged In report -

Harper closed the hearing by eliciting testimony from Alan Stephens, the governor's co-chief of staff, about his involvement in the AzScam political-corruption scandal in 1991. Stephens was exonerated, but Harper cut him off before he could finish his response.

While many observers were shocked at Harper's behavior, it was no surprise for anyone who has ever attended or watched a Senate Government Committee hearing chaired by Harper.

[Note: check out AZ Capitol Television or the Lege's video archive of committee hearings. I recommend the 3/19 hearing of the Senate Government Committee to see Harper in all of his glory.]

He is consistently rude and disrespectful to witnesses, frequently using the tactic of asking a loaded or irrelevant question and then cutting off the witness before an response can be made.

Today was nothing new; he just had a larger-than-usual audience for his antics.

Heartening was the response by many of his legislative colleagues, even many Republicans.

In the House floor session later in the day, Republican Reps. Paton, Nelson (co-chair of the joint committee), Stump and McComish rose to express their disapproval of Harper's behavior, as did Democratic Rep. Ben Miranda.

Over in the Senate, Democratic Senator Richard Miranda rose take issue with Harper's behavior, equating it to the tactics of red-baiting by Sen. Joe McCarthy where he (McCarthy) engaged in character assassination by innuendo.

Harper rose to his own defense, saying that sometimes questions lead to unexpected places and [with a saccharin sweet voice] that he didn't know before today that Mr. Stephens had been involved or that Janet Napolitano had been his attorney when he was cleared.

"Didn't know?"

Like hell.

He didn't help himself when he admonished the Democratic members of the joint committee for displaying anger over his tactics.

After Harper spoke, and his saddle partner from the Government Committee, Sen. Blendu, rose to make a wishy-washy "don't want to offend my buddy but don't want to seem like I approve either" comment, Senator Ron Gould rose to defend...

...Joe McCarthy.

Ouch.

Note: Tedski has been doing great work documenting Harper's recent bouts of verbal diarrhea, including blaming *U.S.* Rep. Harry Mitchell for the conditions at the *Arizona* Veterans Home. His pieces can be found here, here, here, and here.

Some of my previous pieces featuring Harper can be found here and here.

One really good thing about all this??

Right now, Jack Harper is the face and voice of the Arizona Republican Party.

God, I wish the 2008 elections were today. :)

Continuing edit:

If you want to read his entire statement, please follow the above link to Sonoran Alliance.

I'll just post one quote from his closing (emphasis mine):

Now after the dust has settled, reporters have opined that I should have known Alan Stephans’ history in the AZScam scandal. I have better things to do than to gossip about the past of the Governor’s staff, specifically, looking out for the veterans.

So then why did you do it, and why are you so unapologetic about it, Senator Harper?

I caught part of today's hearing on AzCT. He referred to his question to Mr. Stephens as an innocent, "random" question and, as with the Sonoran Alliance post, continued to criticize the Democratic members of the joint committee for their behavior while proclaiming that his own was purely innocent.

Harper's still clueless as to how much he has embarrassed himself, his district, and the legislature. Nor does he seem to have *any* concern for the disservice he did to the state home's elderly veterans with his cheaply partisan witch-hunt tactics and contempt for the witnesses.

End edit.

Later!