Ken Bennett learning lessons at Mitt Romney's knee

...And so crappie season begins...

Mitt Romney is renowned for his penchant to change his position on an issue, any issue, when he thinks it may be politically expedient.

He may be the consummate flip-flopper in American politics today.

Now Ken Bennett, Arizona's Secretary of State and Romney's campaign co-chair in AZ, is flip-flopping on a fundamental issue for his own political expediency.

From the Arizona Republic, written by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez -

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who oversees state elections, reversed his stance on endorsing candidates this election cycle, saying detractors would still criticize him based on endorsements he made years ago.

During a televised debate with his Democratic opponent in 2010, Bennett, a Republican, told the audience it was improper for elections officials to weigh in on partisan issues.

Bennett is now co-chairman for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Arizona campaign.

"I do not feel it's appropriate that I take a position on either the propositions that the voters will be voting on, or endorsing candidates in elections," Bennett said.

Bennett has gone far beyond merely flip-flopping on the issue by endorsing Romney; he has crossed a serious ethical line by using his office to attempt to remove President Obama from the Arizona ballot to ensure that his candidate, Romney, has a clear path to Arizona's 10 electoral votes.

He truly deserves to be removed from office for abusing it so, but that is beyond my power as an individual.  That will be up to the voters in 2014 (maybe sooner if his arrogance in office inspires a recall drive).

Still, I can only award him the first Crappie Award of 2012 for the flip-flop.

For his shamelessly acrobatic flip-flop, Ken Bennett wins the most (not) cherished award of the election season - The Crappie...

Hey, at least Bennett and the rest of the birthers shouldn't have reason to whine about this particular type of crappie - this particular breed of crappie is called the "white crappie."

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Last year, this award was created as the Sunday Morning Crappie Award to recognize that week's most egregious example of political flip-floppery. Shortly after creating it, I noticed that Arizona's senior U.S. Senator was winning the Award or was one of the leading contenders every single week.

In the interests of giving every (usually) Republican elected hypocrite their moment in the glare of the spotlight, at that time I named the Award after Senator McCain and deemed him ineligible for future Awards.

However, from time to time Sen. McCain does or says something so outrageously hypocritical that he merits receipt of this eponymous award.

Today is one such time.

Yesterday, McCain introduced an amendment to the health care reform bill in the Senate that would remove any cuts to Medicare funding (the current proposal calls for $500 million in cuts - remember that number)

Sounds like he cares about seniors, or at least that he figures GOP seniors are more frightened of any changes to Medicare than they are of immigrants (giving him a leg up in next year's primary battle versus JD Hayworth), right?

Not so much.

During last year's campaign, McCain proffered his own plan for health care "reform".

At that point in time, he was so concerned with protecting Medicare, his proposal called for $1.3 trillion in cuts.

For this reverse inward twisting 2 1/2 somersault of an expedient political flip flop, the John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award goes to...

John Sydney McCain.


Note: It wouldn't surprise me a bit to see more flip flops and position triangulations from McCain in the coming months - he's got fewer fundraisers since they started getting busted for racketeering and fraud. Whether the biggest threat to his job security comes from within the GOP in the rather loud and blustery form of Hayworth or from the Democrats in the rather tall form of Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman, McCain is going to have to work hard, on the issues and on the ground, to gain re-election this time around.

Note2: According to the FEC, the Florida attorney cited in the linked "racketeering" article raised or donated over $100K for McCain's presidential run last year.

Coverage from...

...The New Republic here.

...Tedski at R-Cubed here.

...Washington Monthly here.

...TPMMuckraker here.

Later...

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Haven't given out one of these in a while (it seems that campaign season is a target-rich environment for those who like to point out hypocrisy and flip-floppery on the part of politicians), but Andrew Thomas has graciously offered himself up for this incredibly prestigious award during the lull between the 2008 and 2010 campaign seasons.

:)

From AZCentral.com -

Maricopa County Manager David Smith is requesting that high-ranking employees in the County Attorney's Office tell him whether they have leaked confidential information about county business.

{snip}

The letter went to County Attorney Andrew Thomas, six of his top attorneys and his public-information officer. Smith wants to know whether they posted information on blog sites under pseudonyms or released information to conservative Web sites or media outlets such as The Arizona Republic.

"I have never in 42 years of (legal) practice seen such an outrageous demand," said Barnett Lotstein, a special assistant to Thomas and one of the employees to receive a letter.

Lest you have forgotten (or are reading this from a place that is not Arizona), Andy Thomas is the same County Attorney who mounted a grand jury investigation into the Phoenix New Times, subpoenaing pretty near all of the New Times' reporters' professional notes and records and online readership identifying information in the pursuit of finding out who has talked, written, or read about the foibles of Thomas' political mentor, Joe Arpaio. [More info on the case here]

He is also the same County Attorney who was oh-so-supportive when his mentor/puppeteer dropped a massive public records request (aka - a shameless fishing expedition because Arpaio didn't have enough probable cause to get a warrant for the records) on the the County Board of Supervisors, seeking all of the phone, email, and calendar records of the supes and a number of County employees, including the above-mentioned County Manager, David Smith.

For his "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy in the form of a forward 2 1/2 somersaults with a twist dive, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is the latest recipient of

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Throughout the Bush Administration, AZ Senator Jon Kyl carried the Bush's water on Capitol Hill in many ways, but particularly in trying to shepherd Bush's judicial nominations through the Senate. One of his favorite tactics to try to intimidate Democrats who made noises about filibustering the worst of the worst was to cry about "obstructionism" and demand an "up or down" vote on the nominees.

A lengthy Kyl speech on the topic, courtesy his own Senate web site, is here; a written piece is here.

It's clear from the speech and other sources, Kyl considers filibusters a case of Senate minority members "running roughshod over its [the Senate's] traditions."

So what does he do as a member of the now-minority party in the Senate faced with the likelihood that a Democratic president will nominate a liberal to the Supreme Court?

Threatens a filibuster.

Of course.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This one was easy...

Early in Tuesday's meeting of the House Appropriations Committee, Republican chairman Rep. John Kavanagh opined (courtesy AZ Capitol Times) (emphasis mine)-

"I guess it's great to be a Democrat in a situation like this," he said. "Democrats, unfortunately, are myopic. They don't see beyond the current year. They don't see 2011."

While he was quick to criticize what her perceived at shortsighted thinking on the part of Democratic members of the lege, he ignored, proudly, his own.

From the Video archive of the meeting (available on this page if the previous link doesn't work - 5/5, House Approps I) at approximately the 2:59 mark, during a discussion of the Reps' scheme to get their paws on municipal development fees illustrate this (emphasis mine) - after a municipality had given a certain amount of their available development fees to the state, "a city or town would be free to use any and all impact fees for their immediate needs."

Umm...yeah, John, whatever.

For decreeing that Democrats should look to the future with their ideas but almost immediately flip-flopping and demonstrating that Republicans are incapable of doing the same, John Kavanagh earns...easily...this edition of the John Sydney McCain Crappie Award.

Later...

Let's just proclaim March 18 "National Shameless Posturing Day"

...or maybe "National Triangulation Day"

Let's be clear - the posturing and triangulating wasn't confined to Republicans (though they did dominate in that department)...

Much of it stemmed from the U.S. House's vote on H.R. 1586 (to tax the AIG bonuses at 90%). The bill passed 328 - 93, with 6 Democrats (including CD5's Harry Mitchell) joining 87 Republicans in voting against it.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, who voted on this bill was posturing, since the bill itself doesn't stand a chance of actually becoming law.

It might fail to gain cloture in the Senate (it will only take a few Dems who aren't up for election next year to kill it, and AIG has given LOTS of campaign contributions over the years); if passed...

It might not get into law by President Obama; if enacted...

It won't survive a constitutional challenge (can you say "bill of attainder" or "ex post facto law", both of which are explicitly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution - Article One, Section Nine)

...Of course, the posturing and triangulation wasn't limited to the primary vote on the bill itself; once it became obvious that the bill was going to pass with or without their support, dozens of Republicans switched their votes from "no" to "yes".

...Over in the Senate, when Harry Reid tried to get the bill passed by unanimous consent, in spite of his (faux) criticisms of the bonuses, Jon Kyl objected (source: Countdown with Keith Olbermann)

...And in a move that would merit consideration for a Crappie Award for Kyl (if only he hadn't won one yesterday :)) ), Kyl joined fellow shameless hypocrite Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in criticizing President Obama for taking time out of dealing with the economy and the AIG bonus scandal to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket (his predicted winner: UNC; mine? Louisville. Sorry ASU. :)) ).

Besides the insult to Obama, that he was like his predecessor and can't handle more than one issue at a time without suffering from brainfreeze, Kyl and Alexander forgot to mention one thing.

Their friend and colleague John McCain did the same thing. He even selected UNC to win it all.

Just like the President.

Geez...a guy goes to work and all sorts of twisting with the wind, flip-floppery, and outright hypocrisy breaks out all over...

More tomorrow (maybe featuring the AZ lege...)

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This one was easy...

Earlier today, I wrote a post concerning the finger-pointing going on in D.C. over the spectacle of AIG giving millions of dollars in bonuses to executives who were so good at their jobs that AIG needs billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bailouts to remain open for business.

In that post, I linked to a HuffPo post that quoted Jon Kyl on the bonuses. When appearing on Fred Thompson's radio show, Kyl opined -

"If the contracts are stupid contracts, if they committed them to do things that weren't right, or went way overboard, because taxpayers have put a bunch of money behind AIG, certainly we have the right to be asking those kinds of questions."

In other words, he was saying the even if the contracts were bad, they have to be honored.

Now journey back four months or so to his sentiments regarding the auto industry, from one of his weekly columns (advocating bankruptcy) -

Unfortunately, these companies can’t do that [adequately cut costs] voluntarily because they have labor union agreements and other contractual obligations. The unions are not going to make the concessions sufficient to enable these companies to compete. The only way to address their problems is under an existing code in our bankruptcy laws known as Chapter 11.

So for his shamelessly hypocritical reverse inward pike with a twist (wealthy corporate con artists should get a free pass; union workers should get screwed), Senator Jon Llewellyn Kyl will be providing gainful employment to the latest John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers summed it up best with the title of his blog post regarding Kyl's (and most Reps') sentiments regarding bail outs:

"Congress bails out those who shower before work, but not those who shower after work"

Turns out that not much has changed in Rep attitudes toward working class Americans in spite of the change in Presidential administrations (and the landslide losses in the Presidential and Congressional elections that precipitated the change in Presidents).

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

For the first time in the history of this distiguished award for spectacular political flip-floppery, the Crappie Award is going to bestowed rather reluctantly.

There were a couple of serious contenders for the award this week (for example, the House Republicans' faux show of bipartisanship with President Obama before abandoning bipartisanship, and the American people, when all of them voted against the Economic Stimulus plan), but there was one clear "winner" this week -


Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia.


Gingrey is one of the most conservative members of Congress, usually ranking among the ten most conservative. Normally, he's among the group of Republicans that is most in the pockets of the "culture warrior" type of conservative bullies, those more interested in fanning the flames of ideological conflict and polarization, furthering an agenda that doesn't include constituents or people.

Earlier this week though, even the normally faithful Gingrey had had enough, He called out some of the limo-riding, microphone-wielding talk show ranters and ravers that pass as conservative intellectuals these days.

From Politico on January 27 -

Responding to President Obama’s recommendation to Republican congressional leaders last week that they not follow Limbaugh’s lead, the conservative talkmeister said on his show that Obama is “obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell. He's more frightened of me, than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn't say much about our party."

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., did not take kindly to this assessment in an interview with Politico Tuesday.

“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell."

Have no doubt - Gingrey was and is still *very* conservative. His positions haven't changed one iota, probably since Fred Flintstone lived in Bedrock. :)

However conservative he remains though, he did one of the things that even a dyed-in-the-wool liberal like has to respect anyone for - he stood up to the unrepentant bullies that are dividing the country.

While most, if not all, of his political positions were and are wrong, his stand actually generated a spark of hope that perhaps we can start having an honest public dialogue on issues in this country.

Of course, as is the norm for such intraparty dustups, not too long after his statement, Gingrey backed off of his criticisms.

In and of itself, that fact wouldn't warrant a Crappie Award.

However, the fact that his "backing off" was of a spectacularly groveling nature does.

Gingrey actually called in to Limbaugh's radio show to verbally genuflect and make amends for his temporary apostasy.

From Politico on January 28 -

“Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience. Everyday, millions and millions of Americans—myself included—turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination,” Gingrey said.

He was so cravenly obsequious that *I* was embarrassed for him, and partisan hack that I am, I normally *revel* in any Republican's embarrassment.

And so for his incredibly spineless'flexible' twisting flip flop on bended knee, this week's John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award goes out to Congressman Phil Gingrey

John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Didn't have to look far this week to find the "winner" of this dubious award. In fact, the award, named after Arizona's senior Senator, is going to...


Arizona's junior Senator, Jon Kyl.


On Thursday, Senator Jon Kyl issued a press release touting the Senate's passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act.

From the presser -

The U.S. Senate today approved S. 22, The Omnibus Public Land Management Act -- a catch-all package that consists of more than 150 separate public land, water, and resource bills, including two that were authored by U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and several that he cosponsored.

He wrote or cosponsored many parts of the bill, so it wouldn't be shocking that he supported the bill, right?

So naturally, he voted *against* the bill. (Senate roll call vote 3)

Nice flip flop there, Senator.

To be fair to Senator Kyl, in his press release he actually did admit to voting against the bill, citing the cost of the non-Kyl additions to the bill, and the fact that no amendments to "improve" the bill (aka - remove the non-Kyl provisions) were allowed.

Apparently, the only worthy projects related to public lands are the ones that he supports.


On the other hand, at least he is finally doing some work for Arizona.


Even if he is voting against it when it comes before the full Senate.



Later!

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This edition of the award goes not to an individual or even a group of politicians, but instead to an entire federal Cabinet department.

From AP via AZCentral.com -

MIAMI - U.S. prosecutors want a Miami judge to sentence the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 147 years in prison for torturing people when he was chief of a brutal paramilitary unit during his father's reign.

Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9 by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga. His conviction was the first use of a 1994 law allowing prosecution in the U.S. for acts of torture committed overseas.

A recent Justice Department court filing describes torture - which the U.S. has been accused of in the war on terror - as a "flagrant and pernicious abuse of power and authority" that warrants severe punishment of Taylor.

Umm...so the Department of Justice is prosecuting an American citizen for torturing others (the appropriate section of the US Code here). Sounds great, except that the reason the guy has been prosecuted isn't that he is a torturer, but that he wasn't a torturer for the Bush Administration.

On the other hand, when those who are ordering or performing the torture are doing so at the behest of the Bushies, the FBI and the rest of the Department of Justice turn a blind eye to those crimes.

Torture is wrong, period.

It's one topic where that widely-held moral position matches up with long-established U.S. law and international treaties.

And for hypocritically forgetting that fact just because it's convenient merits bestowing a Crappie Award to the entire Department of Justice.


Note - just to be clear here, my problem isn't with the sought-after sentence for Taylor (147 years). If anything, it's far more merciful that he deserves. Nope, my problem is with the double standard that says torture is OK if it's practiced to further the Bush Administration's agenda.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This one was easy... :))

By now, most people in the Valley of the Sun have heard about how the Maricopa County Attorney successfully sought a 118-count indictment against Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley. The supes turned around and hired an outside attorney to seek an opinion on whether the prosecution of a county supervisor creates a conflict of interest with the County Attorney's office.

As could be expected, County Attorney Andrew Thomas immediately criticized the move, saying that the only attorney that the supes could consult on any issue is the County Attorney. He says that hiring outside attorneys is illegal.

Such concern for legal niceties (or even for responsible use of taxpayer money) is laudable.

Too bad such concerns are almost unheard-of from our County Attorney.

From the Phoenix New Times (June 15, 2006) -

Maricopa County paid more than $326,000 over the past year to a private law firm that employed Andrew Thomas immediately before his election as county attorney.

The county payments to Wilenchik & Bartness began in May 2005, four months after Thomas took office in January 2005, county records reveal.

Yes, Thomas is criticizing the supes for hiring outside counsel when he has spent hundreds of thousands on that exact thing.

As such, for this week's brazen exercise in the "do as I say, not as I do" flip-flopping strain of hypocrisy dressed up as public policy, Andrew Thomas reels in the latest John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

...A couple of quick points - on this one, I *really* hope both sides lose - Thomas and his saddle partner, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, are prime examples of political bullies, but the supes aren't much better. They turned from being elected public servants into being elected enablers.

Also, I originally thought that Thomas did Stapley a favor by holding off on the indictment until after the election season. However, a growing possiblity is that Thomas is using the indictment to keep the other supes away from his and Arpaio's offices and budgets, especially during this period of dwindling county revenues.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award - Debate Edition

OK, OK - I admit that I named this award after McCain because he was always a contender for it and his constant presence in the race for the award interfered with the ability of other contenders to earn their moments in spotlight.

Naming the award after him was a way of giving McCain the 'flip-flop' notice the he always seems to merit without ever giving him the award.

However, after his performance at the debate on Friday night, McCain win the latest edition of the Crappie-st award in politics.

First, during the debate question on the Russian invasion of Georgia, he said things like -

"...Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia..."

{snip}

"...But we also have every right to expect the Russians to behave in a fashion and keeping with a -- with a -- with a country who respects international boundaries and the norms of international behavior."

Funny, he wasn't so concerned with the behavior of the U.S. when it ignored "international boundaries" and "the norms of international behavior" and agressively invaded Iraq without anything resembling just cause (lies about WMDs don't count as 'just cause'.)

But that was a relatively small flip flop compared to another Iraq War-related flip-flop (OK, it was more an example of shameless hypocrisy, but that works for this series of posts).

"Honor"

Six times during the debate, McCain used the word "honor" (or a variant of it) in relation to the war in Iraq. The first instance was in reference to coming "home with victory and with honor."

Ummm, some may consider this rude and even impertinent, but where was McCain's concern for honor *before* he supported Bush's invasion of a country that hadn't done anything to us, or was even a threat to do so?

The troops involved, other than a few notable exceptions (i.e. - Abu Ghraib), have been honorable in their service. However, the leaders like Bush and McCain who directed them to serve, kill, and die in Iraq should be hanging their heads in shame.

And that hypocritical cloaking of himself in "honor" when he should instead working to cleanse himself of the shame of the worst American political shame in generations (the campaign to exterminate Native Americans was worse), *that* is why John McCain has won the latest edition of his own award, The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.


A transcript of the debate, courtesy the L.A. Times, here.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Time for another edition of the award for political flip-floppery that every politician dreads even being considered for, much less receiving.

Apparently, the plaque that commemorates this award, with its real mounted Crappie, becomes "aromatic" rather quickly, distracting the staffers who work in the offices where the winners so proudly display it. :)

There was a spirited competition for the award this week, with John McCain, the namesake of this thoroughly uncoveted award, making a run for it.

From an article about the candidates' personal cars, in the latest edition of Newsweek magazine -

"I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud," McCain said in the interview with Detroit's WXYZ-TV.

Then the article goes on to list the McCains' *fleet* of vehicles -

"There's a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan. Otherwise, there's a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup truck, which might come in handy on the Sedona ranch; a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep; a 2008 Jeep Wrangler; a 2000 Lincoln; and a 2001 GMC SUV. The McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities."

In addition to the imported VW convertible and the Honda sedan listed in the paragraph, the article mentioned another import, a Toyota Prius, that was purchased for the McCains' daughter. There's yet another import, a Lexus, that's used by Cindy McCain, but that one doesn't count because it is registered to her family's beer distributorship.

I would love to go on about how McCain's flip flop on American-made products and jobs for American workers, but in this week's finned follies competition, this is nothing but "normal" campaign hyperbole.

(And for the sake of giving this week's award to the person I wanted to award it to anyway, I'm going to ignore McCain's spinal cord-shearing flip flop on regulation of America's financial markets this week. During the yet-to-be-penned election post-mortems, this past week will go down as the point when the McCain campaign succeeded in locking his "I'm a maverick. Trust me!" wool over America's eyes or as the point where America finally realized how full of Crappie McCain really is. Check back in a month and a half for an update. :) )


The second and more serious contender for the award was President George W. Bush. He and his Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, are pushing a plan to bail out Wall Street that will cost taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion.

This is after a year during which Bush spent most of his time opposing and threatening to veto any plans to help out Main Street homeowners dealing with the mortgage crisis.

I'd speak (at length! :) ) about how Bush's concern for those facing financial stress seems to be directly proportional to their tax bracket, but since he actually broke down and signed a mortgage relief act, the Wall Street bailout isn't quite a flip flop of "crappie" proportions.


Nope, this week's award goes to another regular contender for the award, Congressman John "Calgon, take me away" Shadegg.

First, he spent most of August bloviating in an empty House chamber, "protesting" the failure of Congressional Democrats to pass a measure authorizing more oil drilling near America's coasts.

So when the House considered a measure to do just that, did Shadegg support it? He decried the bill as a Democratic "hoax" and voted against it.

For that shameless flip flop of the "reverse one-and-a-half somersaults with a twist" variety, Congressman John Shadegg reels in this edition of the John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

For more Southwestern finned follies, check out Desert Beacon in Nevada for a possible Sunday Morning Deck Bass sighting.


Later!

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

It's time for another tribute to political flip-floppery.

The competition for this week's edition of this dubious yet apparently highly-coveted honor (well, there always seems to be many contenders for the Award, so they must covet it, right?) was fierce. Two old pros and one relative rookie fought tooth and fin over this week's award like it was a minnow on a hook.

First, let's be clear up front - if the award hadn't already been named after McCain, he would have won the award going away for first criticizing Barack Obama for not having visited Iraq (May 2008) but then criticizing Obama for this month's visit to Iraq and Afghanistan (June 2008).

As if that wasn't enough, in his latest campaign ad, McCain also criticized Senator Obama for not holding hearings on Afghanistan in the Senate subcommittee that he chairs (European Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) while blithely ignoring the fact that McCain, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hasn't attended any of his own committee's hearings on the same subject.

However hard he strove for the award though, out of fairness to the legion of other contenders, he has been retired from consideration.


Also in the running was John Shadegg, who, in a shamelessly cynical election-year ploy, voted to override the President's veto of a Medicare bill that he originally voted against anyway. However, I already wrote about that move, so I won't add to his embarrassment by awarding him another Crappie.

Have no fear though - he's got plenty of time between now and when he loses his job in November to Bob Lord to earn many more Crappies.


This week's winner is a first-timer, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.


The AZ Republic broke a story about how a Thomas staffer at the County Attorney's office, paralegal Phillip Quihuis, is one of the leaders of a group seeking to force a recall election of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a political adversary of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Thomas' political mentor.

When asked about Quihuis' convenient (for Thomas) side project, Thomas didn't criticize or question it, he simply stated "I'm not involved in it. He has constitutional rights. "

Yes, this Andrew Thomas who is so concerned with civil liberties and constitutional rights is the same one who ordered an investigation into the Phoenix New Times. critics of he and Arpaio, an investigation that led to the false arrests of two of the New Times founders.

For this back one-and-a-half twisting tuck of a flip-flop (lackeys have Constitutional rights, journalists don't), Andrew Thomas is the winner of this week's John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

This may be Thomas's first Crappie, but like Shadegg, he has plenty of time to win more before losing his position to either Gerald Richard or Tim Nelson.


Later today, travel over to Nevada's Desert Beacon for her latest edition of the always entertaining, informative, and pointed Sunday Deck Bass Award. And if you're feeling really adventurous and want to take a road trip that won't burn up any of that $4.00+ gas that is the Bush Administration's legacy to the American people, journey up to Minnesota's Extemperaneous Discourse to see if a rare but tasty Sunday Eel Pout Award is on the menu.

Have a good weekend!

Compliments, and pressure...

Last week was a good week in the 'ego' department...

First, I open up the June 27th issue of the Arizona Capitol Times, and there, featured in the Cap Times' "Best of the Blogs" section - The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award from June 23, wherein I "chided" (the Cap Times' word) a laundry list of Republicans for criticizing the Arizona Democratic Party for sending an observing to a couple of the Reps' public events when they have done the same thing (oh, and I had a picture to prove it :) ).

At first, I thought the mention might have been a response to some criticism that I had directed at the Cap Times for overt partisanship on June 6th, but then I realized that either way, that they were responding to the criticism or that they thought the Crappie Award post merited wider notice, it meant that an MSM outlet was paying attention.

Yup, definitely an ego boost there, one that alone would have made for a good week, but there was more to come.

On Friday, Pico at Wild Chihuahuas posted an incredibly complimentary piece about yours truly; after reading it, I had to go bathe my head in icewater to reduce the swelling.

Of course, the fact that it was 110+ had *nothing* to do with the decision to do so. :))

I've realized that a compliment from a fellow blogger, someone who is doing the same thing, plugging away steadily in relative obscurity, doing their part to knock down the wall of insanity that is Arizona politics, is much more meaningful.

That's not a knock at the Cap Times (whatever the motivation, their notice is a compliment that I'm grateful for), but when a thoughtful colleague takes the time from their own efforts for a tip o' the hat to mine, well, that's a special compliment, and a humbling one too.

Not least because now I have to live up to the praise for a while! :))

Later!

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This week's award doesn't go to just one person - the organization known as the Arizona Republican Party, on behalf of some of its candidates in CD5, a radio talk show ranter, and some of its bloggers, earns this week's award.


Late last week, news broke that an employee of the Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) had attended a fundraiser for Republican CD5 candidate Laura Knaperek. (PolitickerAZ)

The ADP employee was spotted taking pictures of people attending the fundraiser and of the license plates of their vehicles.


Knaperek's campaign manager, Lauren Barnett, went on JD Hayworth's radio show to decry the move as "undemocratic" and "reprehensible".


[Not so coincidentally, this was the same JD Hayworth who lost in 2006 to the man Knaperek wants to face in November, Harry Mitchell. Oh, and also not so coincidentally, Laura Knaperek has lost twice to Harry Mitchell, and her obsession with beating him by any means necessary almost makes me embarrassed for her. Almost, except for the fact that it can be soooo entertaining. :) ]


Emily Derose, spokeswoman for the ADP contended that the move was a standard campaign 'due diligence' practice of both parties, something that was immediately denied by Sean McCaffrey, spokesman for the Arizona Republican Party.


From the PolitickerAZ story -

"We don't do that, we think it's ridiculous and it contributes to people's low opinion of the political process," said McCaffrey.

Perhaps someone should send Mr. McCaffrey (and perhaps to good ol' JD himself) a copy of this pic -



















For those you who don't recognize the scene or the man with the crossed arms walking around the edges of the crowd, the scene is the Harry Mitchell's Congressional campaign kickoff rally in April of 2006, and the man surveying the crowd is Todd Sommers, then a legislative assistant for future ex-Congressman Hayworth. (My post on the matter here. Please note that my original source was Tedski at R-Cubed. His original post is here.)

While one party sending an employee to the public events of another party may be tacky, especially when they're caught at it :) , it's not unethical.

The same cannot be said for sending a paid Congressional staffer to a challenger's event.


Et tu, Sean.

And JD.

And Laura.

And every Rep blogger who has been cloaking himself in faux self-righteous indignation. (Sonoran Alliance here, for example)


And for the shameless, "do as we say, not as we do" brand of hypocritical flip-floppery, they all earn this week's John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.


Don't forget to check out Desert Beacon's latest "Sunday Morning Deck Bass."


BTW - When I first heard the story, the movie geek in me flashed on an early scene in the film "The Godfather" where FBI agents are spotted at the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter, taking pictures and writing down the license numbers of various mobsters attending the wedding.

In many ways, the movie scene summed up my feelings on this - while the observations were a distasteful but legitimate and necessary endeavor, it became a tacky one when it was discovered.

I'm actually glad that I couldn't find a screen cap of that scene because I would have gone with that before I remembered Mr. Sommers' visit to Tempe two years ago.

While that image would have been *almost* perfectly appropriate for this subject, the Sommers pic *is* perfect for this.

Later!


P.S. - I do want to thank this week's Crappie Award recipients for giving me the opportunity to legitimately liken Republican campaign contributors to mobsters.

Yup, that was sweet.

:))


P.P.S. - for those of you who are wondering how I can harshly criticize Congressman Mitchell in the post immediately prior to this one, yet so strongly support him (and the ADP) in this one, there's no disconnect here. His vote on the FISA bill with retroactive telecom immunity was a dreadful mistake, one that I wholeheartedly disagree with, but he's done some great work for veterans, students, and his district, and he is head and shoulders (and torso, hips, thighs, and knees, too!) above his challengers in terms of his qualifications for the office.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This week, George W. Bush made a serious run at another award.

In May, the Bush Administration, through the Interior Department, declared that the polar bear is an endangered species, worthy of protection. It was, perhaps, the most decent act of the Administration in its nearly 8 years of existence.

However, lest you worry that the Administration was mellowing in its dotage (a smidgen more than 7 months to go!), that same Bush Administration Interior Department issued rules that allow oil companies to "accidently" annoy or harm polar bears and Pacific walruses during their pursuit of sources of oil and natural gas.

Yup, the Bushies are saying what you think they are saying - it's ok to kill endangered species if you are an energy company looking for more profits.

I don't think that I've ever used the word "craven" to describe a Crappie Award winner, but it fits here. Yet amazingly enough, Bush didn't win this week's award.


He didn't win because of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who, in a "poetic justice" moment, wins the award for a shamelessly hypocritical reverse inward twisting bellyflop of a flip-flop during a fishing expedition.

To be completely honest, however, the fishing expedition was of the "political vendetta" variety, not the "beers and bait on a boat" variety.

Earlier this spring, Arpaio's office submitted a public records request for months worth of City of Phoenix emails, including those of Mayor Phil Gordon and Chief of Police Jack Harris. The justification given at the time of the request was that the records were necessary to an investigation into whether some of Arpaio's deputies have engaged in racial profiling.

The records were made available to some of Arpaio's deputies this week. The deputies, per City of Phoenix policy, were able to scan the documents at the City's Public Records counter, and were able to do so at no cost (unlike their own office, bastion of government transparency that it is, which charges 50 cents per page.

(On those rare occasions when they fulfill a public records request.)

Anyway, the tiff between Mayor Gordon and Sheriff Arpaio being newsworthy around these parts, the deputies' activities at the City attracted a contingent of media, including a representative of The Phoenix New Times.

Things started going south from there.

This was the same Phoenix New Times that had two of its publishers/journalists arrested by Arpaio for daring to criticize him in print.

And, in keeping with what is apparently a standing MCSO policy, the deputies soon were threatening to arrest the New Times' reporter, Ray Stern.

His alleged crime?


Trying to do the same thing that they were doing, examine public records.


The situation rapidly degenerated with a rep from the Phoenix City Attorney's office and multiple Phoenix PD officials stepping in and advising the deputies that public records are just that, *public*, and can be viewed by any member of the public.

Even those that work for the New Times.

For this breathtakingly twisted flip-flop (keeping his own public records away from the public as much as possible, while using public records laws to harass his political adversary) that created a situation that endangered a law-abiding member of the media, countless City of Phoenix employees who were just trying to do their jobs while attempting to defuse a volatile situation, and the members of the public who were also attempting to do business with the City of Phoenix that day, Joe Arpaio is awarded a particularly pungent JS McCain Crappie Award.

I do have one question, legal scholar that I'm not -

If Arpaio's office needed the records for a real investigation, why didn't they just get a search warrant? Then they would have had to deal with the inconvenience of having to conduct their examinations in public or of having the press looking over their shoulders while doing so.

Just askin'... :)



Also, be sure to visit Desert Beacon to find out the winner of the least-coveted award in the West, her Sunday Morning Deck Bass Award!

She calls it the least desired in "Northern Nevada", but she's underestimating her influence - receipt of her award is dreaded by two-faced politicos not just in her backyard, but all over the Mountain West and stretching all the way to D.C.


More background -

The New Times has a copy of an internal MCSO memo on the incident. It can best be described as, ummm..."artful." If the MCSO officials involved in the incident were painted any more heroically, the memo would be the script for a Chuck Norris TV show or movie.

AZ Republic coverage of the incident here; it's a blog entry, not a news story.

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

When I retired the "Sunday Morning Crappie Award," and created the JS McCain Memorial Crappie Award, it was with the expectation that McCain wouldn't receive the award that is named after him.

To put it simply, the award was named after him because he was hogging it anyway, and others deserve their day of infamy.

However, he outdid himself this week and dragged someone else down with him; as such, he, together with George W. Bush, have earned the first joint J.S. McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

First the flip - John "I support the troops" McCain opposes the new G. I. Bill with its education benefits for veterans who have served since 9/11.

As does Bush, the commander-in-chief of the troops.

Then the flop - McCain suffers the humiliation of having to relocate and downsize a fundraiser with the President ($25K per couple!), in his own home state. Something about too many protesters and too few tickets sold.

Awwwww....I feel *so* bad for our John...really. Trust me. :))

And the hypocritical tie that binds the two, flip and flop, is that Johnny Mac moved his public appearance with Bush from downtown Phoenix to the Mesa site of a defense contractor, Silverado Cable Company. The fundraising part of the event will now take place in a private home instead of the Phoenix Convention Center.

So, within a week of turning his back on the people who put their lives on the line for the war that Bush started and he supports, McCain plans to party down with people who make a profit from the sacrifices made by America's troops.

And Bush will be standing right next to him.

And for that rather acrobatic flip-flop, both John McCain and George W. Bush win an unprecedented joint John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

Maybe instead of saying that McCain is 'flip-flopping', it would be more accurate to call it 'flip and flipping off'...

The ever-wise Desert Beacon has awarded her weekly Sunday Deck Bass to McCain, for reasons that include his opposition to the G. I. Bill.

Later!

Time for a John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Yesterday, as part of a 'funds sweep' (a move to help balance the state's budget by finding allocated but unused funds in state accounts and returning them to the state's treasury), an unused million dollar grant to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to help fund Arpaio's personal (but taxpayer-funded war against undocumented immigrants. (Phoenix New Times coverage here)

The swept funds will be reallocated to a new, multiple agency, felony warrants task force.

Unsurpisingly, Arpaio was apoplectic. In his hastily organized press conference with fellow nativists Jim Weiers, Speaker of the Arizona House, state Rep. Russell Pearce (R-National Alliance) and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, he responded with quasi-paranoid rantings of "dirty politics" and a "conspiracy" between Governor Napolitano, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and unnamed "activists" were out to stop him from performing his "sworn duty" to fight illegal immigration.

ABC15 coverage here; NBC12 coverage here; CBS5 coverage here; all three stories contain links to video of Arpaio's verbal antics at the press conference. (As for the coverage by the other two major stations in Phoenix, one is a Fox affiliate, and I won't link to Fox unless it is the *only* source for a piece of news, and there is something about the website of the other station, KTVK Channel 3, that jacks up my browser window. Too much effort to do a link to their coverage, though the New Times article contains a link to their raw video of the presser.)

In addition to the "conspiracy" rantings, there were very frequent, and very telling, references by Arpaio to "my money" and "me." Also telling was his dehumanization of undocumented immigrants. For example, when referring to the outcome of his war on immigrants, he could only bring himself to say that his deputies have arrested 950 "human smugglers and co-conspirators."

Nope, our Joe definitely doesn't believe that immigrants are human beings.

Anyway, back to our post and to the part press conference that has earned Arpaio the first awarding of the newly-rechristened John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award...

At one point during the press conference, when Arpaio was giving free rein to the most personal part of his umbrage at the state's fiscal responsibility move, he issued a choice quote, claiming that the Governor, Mayor and Supervisor weren't going to stop him from doing what he "took an oath of office to do, and that's to enforce every law in this county."

Apparently, that zeal for enforcement only applies to taillight violations against immigrants, not to the service of felony warrants upon those born here.

Otherwise, why would the state need to form a task force of DPS, municipal, and (if they want in on it) county law enforcement agencies to handle the service of such felony warrants?

And why would our sheriff (or any sheriff) object so strenuously to the service of those warrants?

For his shameless flip-flop, for claiming to enforce "every" law in the county while conspicuously ignoring the laws (and criminals) that don't appeal to his nativist sensibilities, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the first winner of the John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award.

Oh, and to sort of bring home the point about how Arpaio's enforcement of the laws in Maricopa County is based on his personal predjudices, we have exhibit A in the case -

Later in the evening yesterday, one of Arpaio's deputies pulled over the Mayor of Guadalupe, Rebecca Jimenez, the same mayor who last month criticized the sheriff for engaging in racial profiling in her town.

The MCSO deputy cited her for a broken headlight and for failure to have a registration and proof of insurance in the vehicle.

I suppose that's more creative than Arpaio's usual M.O. of going after Mexicans for broken taillights. :)

Edit on 5/16 - Now Sarah Fenske of The New Times has a piece documenting Arpaio's latest harassing tactic targeted at another mayor and another one of his critics, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

From the article -

On April 24, four weeks after Gordon's widely publicized denunciation of the sheriff at a César Chávez luncheon, sheriff's deputies fired off a public-records request seeking the mayor's e-mails, cell phone records, and meeting calendar.

The letter also demands e-mail correspondence for Police Chief Jack Harris, City Manager Frank Fairbanks, and all of Gordon's administrative staff. In all, the sheriff's investigators are seeking every single e-mail written by more than a dozen Phoenix staffers, from November to the date of the sheriff's demand.

The flip-flop here is that while Arpaio is try to swamp the City of Phoenix with public records requests (and the City has said they are complying with the requests), Arpaio habitually delays compliance or completely ignores such requests.

In the light Arpaio's continuing unprofessionalism and petty vindictiveness, is it any wonder that more and more people are supporting Dan Saban for sheriff?

It's time for voters to expect some professional and personal integrity on the part of then Maricopa County Sheriff.

End edit.

Later!

Time to retire the Sunday Morning Crappie Award

I wasn't going to do one of these this week, but then the McCain campaign, not waiting to be reeled in, served it up with a "reverse back somersault with 2 twists" leap directly into the bottom of the boat.

Earlier this week, the McCain campaign took umbrage when Sen. Barack Obama commented that perhaps McCain has "lost his bearings." They felt that Sen. Obama was attacking Sen. McCain's age (he wasn't, but the McCain campaign isn't going to let facts get in the way of negative rhetoric.)

Then later in the week Joe Lieberman, speaking for the campaign, called McCain's "experience" one of his biggest advantages and one of the reasons that voters should choose McCain over Obama.

On one hand, they criticize their presumptive opponent for a perceived reference to John McCain's age, but then squirm, twist, and flippety-flop when citing his age as a strength in one of their own talking points??

WTF???

For more on McCain's hypocritical antics this week, check out this post from Desert Beacon.

Anyway, on to the retirement of the Sunday Morning Crappie Award. It seems that every week, John McCain wins the award, or is in strong contention for it. He is so consistent in his flip-flopping that scientists have derived a corollary to Newton's First Law of Motion -

1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

..... a. In politics, once you start flip-flopping, you keep flip-flopping until the external forces of the electorate stop you.

Simply put , in light of past activities (like saying that he supported George Bush after the Bush campaign hatchet job on him in 2000, telling Arianna Huffington that he voted for Al Gore, and now denying that report) and current developments, there aren't any contenders for the award that are such strong candidates week in and week out, the Sunday Morning Crappie Award is henceforth retired.

Beginning next week, we here at Random Musings will debut a new award, one that is sure to light the blogosphere afire.

We hereby present......

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award!!!

Please note: McCain's involvement in a suspicious land deal in AZ, while worthy of a raised eyebrow (and possibly an indictment), doesn't factor in a Crappie award - he's been very consistent about it for years, as this post from DB demonstrates.

At least we now know where Rep. Rick Renzi, former AZ state chair for the McCain campaign and indicted for his own illicit land deals, learned his trade.

Later!