Rep. Jack Harper: not one to let personal animosity to get in the way of the basest partisanship

It was just a matter of time, since even the least-qualified Republican legislator can do basic math.

It takes a 2/3 vote of a chamber of the Arizona legislature to expel a member of the chamber, and the Republicans control 2/3 of the seats in each chamber (can you see where this is going? )

LD4 legislators Sen. Scott Bundgaard and Rep. Jack Harper may both be Republicans but they aren't exactly friends (for example, Bundgaard was "rumored" to be behind the the website Crazy Jack Harper.)

However, Harper isn't one to let their dislike for each other get in the way of partisan attacks in support of Bundgaard as he schemes to keep his seat in the senate.  Bundgaard is facing an ethics inquiry into his violent assault on his girlfriend (something about "bring discredit to the Senate" or something like that)..

Nope, not at all.

From Harper's Twitter feed (emphasis mine)-

@HarperForAZ

JackWHarper St Sen David Schapira wanted "lawsuit-style" burden of evidence against a Republican. I say let's have an up or down two-thirds on DEMs.

20 Sep via web

A snapshot of the entry in case Harper gets clever and removes his Tweet -
 



So Bundgaard, his political enemy, assaults his girlfriend by the side of a Phoenix freeway and Harper supports him in his attempt to stay in the Senate. 
 
Interesting. 
 
Harper doesn't think that reprehensible, violent and illegal behavior is grounds for expulsion from the legislature, especially if the bad behavior is from a fellow Republican.
 
However, Harper advocates removing Democrats from the legislature simply because they are Democrats, and some of them have dared to criticize Bundgaard.
 
Now, I don't think that Harper's wish will get far, for at least a few reasons.
 
1.  While the other members of the R caucus on West Washington is just as partisan as him, there are at least a few that haven't quite stepped over the line into becoming "bay at the full moon" crazy.
 
2.  Even if all of his fellow Rs drink the same Kool-Aid as Harper, he's a state *representative*, not a state *senator*.  He has no say in the internal operations of the state senate.  He can lobby/beg the members of the senate to come around to his way of thinking, but that's about it.
 
3.  Even if all of the other Rs went along and expelled all of the Democrats, under Arizona law, those Democratic members would have to be replaced by other Democrats.  Harper may not like sharing the Capitol with Democrats or even non-Republicans in general, but the voters decide that, not him.
 
 
Still, I have to thank Harper for one thing -
 
He can always be counted on to supply blog post subject material.