Tennessee legislator calls children of undocumented immigrants "rats"

...and to the surprise of absolutely no one, he's got a LOT in common with Arizona's own Shadow Fuhrer, State Sen. Russell Pearce (R - National Alliance).

From Tennessean.com -

State Rep. Curry Todd, a Col­lierville Repub­li­can prob­a­bly best-known in these parts for his spon­sor­ship of gun leg­is­la­tion, is the hit of the Inter­net today after a clip of a leg­isla­tive hear­ing Wednes­day was posted in which he com­pared ille­gal immi­grants to mul­ti­ply­ing rats.


Todd made his remark after being told by Cov­erKids admin­is­tra­tors that they could not require women to pro­duce proof of cit­i­zen­ship before receiv­ing pre­na­tal care because their unborn chil­dren would, by law, be con­sid­ered Amer­i­can cit­i­zens. Todd appeared upset over the opin­ion, mum­bling that it meant “they can go out there like rats and mul­ti­ply then, I guess.”

Hmmm....

Such a perceptive and insightful observation!

Surely he can't have anything in common with our very own Russell???

...Like sponsoring anti-immigrant bills that would let any resident of the state sue a state agency or political subdivision (municipality, county, etc.) that they feel isn't sufficiently energetic in toeing the nativist line?

...Like sponsoring bills (and here) that would require proof of citizenship, with specified forms, of all people registering to vote, whether or not they were financially able to obtain the specified forms (Note: a similar law in AZ was recently found to be illegal by a federal appeals court)?

...Like sponsoring bills that are nothing more than love letters to lobbyists, easing rules regarding reporting requirements, increasing the allowable values of bribes "gift" to legislators from lobbyists, and reducing the number of lobbyists who have to register as lobbyists, even though they engage in professional lobbying activities (here, here, and here).

...Like sponsoring bills that allow/encourage the carrying of guns in bars.

...Oh wait.  Russell Pearce has done all of those, often before his counterpart in Tennessee did so.

Well, there can't be any other similarities, right?

....Like being involved with the Corrections Corporation of America (accepted campaign contribution 10/14/2010 and 11/24/2009 in the amount of $500)

...Like being involved with the American Legislative Exchange Council - Todd is listed as ALEC's state chairman for Tennessee and is a member of its national board of directors (he also paid $1000 out of his campaign funds on 4/23/2009 for "dues/subscriptions" for the ALEC Convention and $175 on 12/27/2006 to the ALEC Convention under the heading of "conference.")

Note: details on the Pearce/ALEC/CCA ties here and here from NPR.

Who am I kidding?  They're peas in a pod; they've even got the same mush-mouthed speaking style.

There are probably even more similarities, but the Tennessee legislature's website absolutely sucks for searching bills by the name of the sponsors.

Maybe during last week's "Over/Under" post, I should have added a line about "Percentage of American state legislatures that will be caught up in the Pearce nativism pandemic in 2011:  70 percent"...