Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods co-authored a column in the Arizona Republic about the lessons that should be learned in the wake of an assassination attempt of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:
"It has spurred a national teaching moment, a pause in the war of charged vocabulary, and a discussion of the health of our democracy and sanity of our political order," Woods wrote, along with Fred DuVal, vice chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents. "We should maximize and elongate the moment, and in it reach for something different before the practitioners of politics and punditry relapse into old habits of demagoguery."
Really? We've got Woods chiding "the practitioners of politics and punditry."
While it might be a well-written - if not obvious - piece, we have to say that Woods is certainly a curious messenger given that he revels in sophomoric name-calling and used his infamous Woody Award to take shots at politicians with whom he disagreed.
Here's a for instance.
During one of Woods' podcast shows, he gave his little Woody Award to former Congressman J.D. Hayworth.
He took more than a few shots at Hayworth during the segment, saying that the former Congressman was a "current and perpetual blowhard," predicting that he wouldn't make a bid against Sen. John McCain in 2010 because he didn't have the "guts to go all in with that little pair of deuces of his."
Watch him in action.
During the segment, Woods says that Hayworth is a "bigot," a "delusional, megalomaniacal former Congressman" and a "huge, super fat guy eating everything in sight."
And how about that time when, referring to Hayworth, Woods told Newsweek: "Someone just needs to drive a wooden stake through this guys' heart."
When Hayworth demanded an apology for the "death threat," Woods responded via Twitter:
"OK. Enough with JD Hayworth and his Dracula wooden stake paranoia. I think we can put a fork in him. Oh no, did I do it again?"
Despite all that, Woods and DuVal wrapped up their opinion piece by writing about being young, working for and learning from Mo Udall, Barry Goldwater, John Rhodes and Bruce Babbitt - politicians who weren't "personal or vindictive or mean in their politics."
"We learned from them how to disagree with someone on an important issue and not to become their enemy," the pair wrote.
Of course, there isn't any mean or personal about calling a political opponent a bigoted, delusional, megalomaniacal, fatso.
Woods' mentors would be proud.
(And, geez, what is Grant Woods problem with fat people?)