AZ GOPer Horst Kraus, just the way I want to remember him: Clothed!
Just got this press release over the transom, and it's so good, I have to share. Seems the Phoenix Business Journal has also picked this one up.
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 24, 2007
Nudist czar named to Arizona GOP Finance Committee Horst Kraus committed to GOP values, championing nudist camps for children
Phoenix - Nudist resort owner/promoter Horst Kraus has been such a major asset championing the Arizona Republican Party and its values that GOP Chairman Randy Pullen asked him to take on a more prominent role.
Kraus, who was just appointed to the state GOP finance committee, is best known for several controversial public stances, including pushing nudist camps for children. (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0306/20/se.18.html)
Jeez, these Republicans are kinky! Check out these excerpts from the CNN transcript, with the first from a pre-scandal Mark Foley:
REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FLORIDA: You put 11 and 18-year-olds together in a camp where they're nude, I think it is a recipe for disaster. It is like putting a match next to a gasoline can. You'll have disasters sooner or later.
Remember, the transcript is dated June 20, 2003, and certified irony-free.
ANDERSON COOPER: Well let me ask, Mr. Krause, you run -- operate one of these camps. What is your experience? You think it's a good thing for kids?
HORST KRAUS, OWNER SHANGRI LA RANCH: Absolutely it is a good thing for kids. The self-esteem the doctor just alluded on will just act in the opposite direction. Kids who walkway from those camps with an enhanced self-esteem. They know how to appreciate their own bodies. They know that nobody is perfect.
This is not -- we are not in a race for who is the beautiest of them all. This is a matter of nude lifestyle as a matter of healthy wholesome, family nudism. I don't understand what the doctor's find...
ROBERT BUTTERWORTH [CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST]: I'll tell you where I'm coming from. When it comes to adults, I have no problem with this. When it comes to teenagers, we're talking about hormones.
And listen, I don't know if you've been around teenagers, but I have. When they're 14, when they're 15 and when they're around the opposite sex and when they're naked, trust me, nature is going to take over. And if you don't know about that I don't know what rock you've been living under.
There's a crack here somewhere regarding where a pachyderm sticks his proboscis, but I'll be damned if I'll make it.
Here's an interesting item about Horst from the Sonoran Alliance blog.
And here's a link to Shangri-La Ranch, um, with some very scary pics: http://www.shangrilaranch.com/
