Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Weasel of the Week: Sheriff Joseph Arpaio

Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joseph Arpaio is in the news for two reasons. Try to guess which one gets him the weasel ears.

On the one hand, it seems that Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law got the attention of actor-comic George Lopez, who made light of it with some remarks directed toward Arpaio in a stand-up comedy special that aired on HBO over the weekend. Arpaio responded by inviting Lopez to meet him for a "Mexican lunch". Arpaio, known, according to Yahoo!, as "America's Toughest Sheriff", has been outspoken about illegal immigration, but it is another cause celebre that raised the profile even higher.

See, since March, Arpaio has conducted an investigation into the legitimacy of a certain birth certificate. Yep, the issue over President Obama's place of birth has come up again, and Arpaio is convinced that the document released by the White House in April is fake. 

Who is he trying to fool?

Arpaio is 80, still serving his home county at an age when most men are retired and enjoying their golden years. A 95 year old former state worker, who had signed the President's birth certificate, explained some of the numeric codes on the certificate that Arpaio and his staff couldn't quite understand. Well, guess what, Sheriff Jabroni, it's none of your concern! Why can't you and the birthers leave the President alone?

I get that this sort of thing is bound to come up during an election year, and the nation is divided over whether or not President Obama is worthy of a second term in office. Officials in Hawaii, of course, verified yet again on Tuesday that the chief executive was a native Hawaiian. Joshua Wisch, a special assistant to Hawaii's attorney general, dismissed Arpaio's claims as "untrue" and that they "misconstrue Hawaii law".

Of course, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who'd stand the most to gain from this outrageous grandstand play, has not said anything publicly about this latest imbroglio. Just as well, too, because if he were to even so much as endorse this fool's folly, it would cost him the election.

Back in the day, the United Negro College Fund ran some PSA's with the slogan, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste". One wonders why Sheriff Arpaio is even bothering to waste his time and the taxpayers' money to further someone else's smear campaign against the President. Apparently, the only reason he's still sheriff is because he's just unwilling to step down and let someone else carry on his work. In this case, it might be time for him to consider grooming a successor.

Just as long as that successor has an open mind and isn't looking for weasel ears to wear as an accessory.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree.

Joe Arpaio (himself the son of a legal immigrant) is elected to the Maricopa Sheriff's Office. The voters who live in his jurisdiction appear to be satisfied with his work as Sheriff and continue to elect him. As long as he thinks he is able to fufill those obligations, Arpaio will continue to run.

George Lopez IMO, acted poorly by howling at a law officer with a profanity laden tirade just because he's doing what his job (and the law) accords him. Arpaio even offered to accept Lopez' challenge (The Mexican Lunch), which was followed by crickets from Lopez' camp. Personally, I think Lopez is far more deserving of weasel ears for taking his wife's kidney to save his own life then cheating on and divorcing her shortly thereafter, but that's another discussion.

Arpaio is conducting the investigation into the Obama birth certificate because frankly, few others are! Sadly, the arenas in which vetting of a man who seeks the highest office in the US choose to ignore gaps in Obamas' past that make the Grand Canyon look like a foxhole. Obamas' college records, passport info, tax records etc. are all sealed on his orders. Why? No other president I know of ever sealed their college records.

Romney chooses not to use this against his opponent because he wants to lose this election. Like John McCain & Bob Dole before him, he doesn't really want to win the White House, just be a nominal candidate who will gracefully lose in November. Believe me, there's plenty out there he could use against Obama if he wanted to.

hobbyfan said...

Why can't they just let this issue fade?

There's been more negative sentiment toward Obama than there was when he made his run 4 years ago, when all most people knew about him was that he was a then-junior Senator from Illinois. Then, you get those birther dweebs and their loony conspiracy.

Even public figures deserve some measure of privacy, and maybe, Obama's holding out on a lot of things until he's ready to write his memoir...........