Joe Arpaio, Senator from Arizona?

[Miles Teg]

Since DT beat me to the birther poll, I thought I'd post this instead.

Link

A Summit Consulting Group poll in Arizona finds Joe Arpaio (R), who calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff," to be the leading Republican candidate to replace Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ).

Arpaio leads with 21%, followed by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) at 17%, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth at 17% percent, former Rep. John Shadegg at 12% and Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) at 6%.

Huge caveat: The poll was conducted by a company that is raising money for Arpaio's reelection campaign for sheriff and employs Arpaio's campaign manager.

Okay, caveat aside, does it scare anyone that Joe Arpaio is a serious candidate for the US Senate? The man re-instituted chain gangs, denied prisoners access to medical care after they got sick from eating moldy food in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, used his powers to investigate and harass his political opponents by filing strings of baseless charges against them, wasted and misused $80 million dollars in department funds, devoted money to rounding up illegal immigrants over other, more useful anti-crime measures, and is currently the subject of more federal and statewide investigations than you can shake a stick at.

Of course, Arpaio would say that he's tough on crime, but violent crime rates have actually risen by 58% even as Arizona's rate of violent crime has dropped by 12%.

And Republicans want this guy to be their senator?

 

[useless]

He's also a rasist, who would of guessed?

 

[downtown]

He'd be a formidable candidate. Arpaio held a fundraiser in my district in Indiana when I was a political staffer, and he outdrew nearly every heavyweight that showed up (and Newt was there a month before). He would certainly be able to raise quite a bit of money from Tea Party and anti-immigration activists across the country, and could out-outsider a guy like Flake, who would normally be pretty strong.

Now that Giffords is hurt, I'm not sure if the Dems have a candidate that can match his rock-star powers, even though he's a despicable rasist.

 

[Miles Teg]

Now that Giffords is hurt, I'm not sure if the Dems have a candidate that can match his rock-star powers, even though he's a despicable rasist.

Janet Napolitano? She had really good approval ratings back in '08, good enough that she was expected to give McCain a run for his money before she decided to take the DHS job. And now she has the security credentials to go toe to toe with Arpaio, if she can get over some gaffes she made.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Arpaio, Flake, Hayworth, Shadegg and Quayle sounds like the concocted name of a crooked legal firm from a bad Hollywood screenplay.

And Republicans want this guy to be their senator?

Republicans from the more reactionary states seem to prefer their politicians to be jackbooted thug types regardless of the facts, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that their currently favorite bigot is in the lead.

And I think it is clear that the Republicans direly need replacements for Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond in the Senate. Where else can they get their long-lost moral compass but from a similiarly minded individual?

 

[Tani Coyote]

Conservatives tend to believe in reciprocal human rights, so it's not surprising they don't mind the way he treats his prisoners. Plus his tough on immigration status helps him a lot in a state where it's a huge issue.

People will ignore the violent crime statistic, just as they ignored all the lawsuits.

 

[GhostWriter16]

He goes too far for my tastes, but he does make a good point. Prison isn't supposed to be a good thing.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I hear that all the time from prisoners in the US. Most just don't think that freedom and liberty compares at all to being gang-raped, unless they are forced to wear pink and live in tents in the desert.

 

[GhostWriter16]

I hear that all the time from prisoners in the US. Most just don't think that freedom compares at all to being gang-raped unless they are forced to wear pink.

No, but I'm not a big fan of the idea of letting killers and rapists get to watch TV and such.

As I said, I think Arpaio goes too far. But I do think he is onto something.

 

[Left]

Prison isn't supposed to be a good thing.

Its not supposed to be a violent spectacle either.

 

[downtown]

Janet Napolitano? She had really good approval ratings back in '08, good enough that she was expected to give McCain a run for his money before she decided to take the DHS job. And now she has the security credentials to go toe to toe with Arpaio, if she can get over some gaffes she made.

I can't imagine that working closely in the Obama administration is going to be a positive for Arizona voters.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Its not supposed to be a violent spectacle either.

If we started actually executing murderers and rapists this would be less of a problem. Gang-rape in prisons is hardly intentionally created by the government. It just happens.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Right. That explains why it so rarely happens in more civilized countries. Because it isn't intentionally part of the punishment (and reward system?) at all.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Right. That explains why it so rarely happens in civilized countries. Because it isn't intentionally part of the punishment at all.

Oh please...

First of all, for all its faults, the US is pretty civilized place.

Second of all, its just because in the US we use prisons, not playgrounds.

 

[Formaldehyde]

So you admit it is intentional? That the authorities could almost completely eliminate it if they really wanted to do so? How exactly is that "civilized"?

 

[Miles Teg]

I can't imagine that working closely in the Obama administration is going to be a positive for Arizona voters.

Point, but Napolitano still polled the best against Kyle in a poll from a month ago. Admittedly, loosing 41 to 53 isn't exactly great, but it's a start. I suppose the other big candidate would be Terry Goddard, former AG, who polled just a little worse than Napolitano.

 

[GhostWriter16]

So you admit it is intentional? How exactly is that "civilized"?

No, its intentional that we, you know, actually lock people up.

Its not intentional that they get raped. That said, if we executed any of these rapists that we caught, it would happen a great deal less.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I'ts not just the rapists who are doing it.

And how many homosexual rapists do you know of? They appear to be quite the exception.

We don't need to make our prisons even more deliberately brutal and draconian as Arpaio has obviously done. We desperately need just the opposite to even appear to be civilized to the rest of civilized world.

 

[GhostWriter16]

I'ts not just the rapists who are doing it.

Once they have done it, they are rapists.

We don't need to make our prisons even more deliberately brutal and draconian. We obviously need just the opposite.

I don't agree with Arpaio's methods, I certainly do not. However, we should not continue to allow prisoners cable TVs, porn, and similar nonsense.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Once they have done it, they are rapists.

They are rarely, if ever, punished. That's the problem. Now why is that? Why are those obviously quite serious felonies completely ignored in the vast majority of cases?

I don't agree with Arpaio's methods, I certainly do not. However, we should not continue to allow prisoners cable TVs, porn, and similar nonsense.

So we should subject them to 1970s TV and take away their pr0n? This is what you advocate to fix the problems with current prison system?