Republican Hypocrite Of The Week: Paul Babeu

If it's Tuesday then there must be another news story about a conservative Republican caught up living his or her life privately very differently from the image and ideology he or she is promoting in public.

The latest Republican Hypocrite of the Week is Paul Babeu a 43-year-old conservative Republican who had some national renown in political circles as the elected Sheriff of Pinal County, AZ and who is a declared candidate for the 4th Congressional District of Arizona. He is also apparently a closeted gay man who while maintaining a sexual relationship with a Mexican immigrant has repeatedly aligned himself with Pima County Sherriff Joe Arpaio and the racist, xenophobic nutjobs that fueled passage of Arizona's virulently anti-immigrant legislation SB 1070 into law.

With the astonishing title of "Paul Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation" the Phoenix New Times revealed the house of cards which was Babeu's private, public and political lives on Saturday February 18:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu's personal attorney, who's also running the sheriff's campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

Babeu immediately resigned as co-chair of Mitt Romney's Arizona presidential campaign and held a press conference where he confirmed he was gay but denied all the other allegations in the New Times article. Other papers and political outlets have taken up the story, it was even repeated on NPR's Morning Edition today as a "distraction" for Romney as he tries to concentrate on winning the upcoming Arizona and Michigan Republican primaries.

In fact, the next Republican Presidential candidates debate is on Thursday in Phoenix, AZ! I wonder if Sherriff Babeu will show up? (And will he delete his adam4adam profile "studboi1" now?)

I will take the time to reiterate that I am boycotting the entire state of Arizona while SB 1070 is on the books. The United States Supreme Court should rule on Arizona v. United States by the end of June, resolving the constitutionality of the measure.

I have just two things to say about the entire story: hot mess!


UPDATE 02/21/2012 09:26AM PST
The full name and face of Paul Babeu's ex-boyfriend has been revealed by an Arizona television station. It is Jose Orozco and he is 34 years old and apparently NOT an undocumented immigrant.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God.

Haters Effort To Repeal CA DREAM Act #Fail

Ha-ha! This is excellent news. The California DREAM Act was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown last year and the racist xenophobes started circulating petitions to put a referendum on the November 2012 ballot. The CA Dream Act  allows undocumented youth to receive state financial aid and scholarships for college.

Today comes words that the haters have had a major #fail!

Opponents of the California Dream Act have failed to gather enough petition signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot that would have repealed the legislation, organizers said Friday. 

Volunteers and a small group of paid signature gatherers had hoped to collect more than 500,000 valid signatures by this week to stop the legislation, which gives illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges. They were able to gather nearly 450,000 signatures, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino) said in a statement. 

Supporters of the California Dream Act have argued that many young undocumented immigrants came to the country through no fault of their own; those opposed stressed that the state should not use scarce resources on illegal immigrants.

The haters can still try and get signatures to put an initiative statute on the ballot in November but they have to collect twice as many signatures, and they have to have that done at least 150 days before the election.

I think even if the DREAM Act was up for debate on the ballot that California voters would re-affirm their commitment to equal opportunity and fairness.

Ha-Ha! Author of SB-1070 Gets Recalled

Ha,ha! This was the most encouraging election result in a night full of heart-warming election results (rejecting Mississippi's zygote personhood amendment, repealing Ohio's anti-union law and rejecting Maine's voter suppression law): the xenophobic author of multiple pieces of immigrant-bashing legislation (but most notably SB 1070), Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce was recalled by voters on Tuesday night.

KPHO reports:

Voters have ousted state Sen. Russell Pearce in an unprecedented recall election, a first for an Arizona legislator.

With a majority of the precincts reporting, the top vote-getter, Republican Jerry Lewis, steps into the District 18 legislative seat for the second year of a two-year term.

Lewis claimed victory at 9 p.m.  "Our opponent was the most powerful politician in Arizona and one who had deep-pocketed and powerful interests from outside our district backing him, as well as the entire muscle from our state Republican Party," Lewis said.

Lewis, 54, a charter school executive, has been a resident of Mesa for nearly 30 years.  His victory now forces the Senate's majority Republicans to pick a new leader for the chamber.

People on both sides of the debate said that removing Pearce would send a powerful message to the Legislature that uncompromising stances on immigration and other issues will not be tolerated by voters.

Pearce, a 64-year-old conservative Republican from Mesa, outspent his challenger by more than a 3-to-1 ratio and painted the recall advocates as liberal outsiders who targeted him because of his immigration stance.

Pearce was unabashedly racist and an asshole and it's a good riddance of bad rubbish. However, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Governor Jan Brewer are still elected officials in Arizona and should be removed from office by voters as well.