Don't laugh, but neo-Nazi-huggin' state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce is denouncing the neo-Nazis.
Talk about man bites dog.
"These hate-based groups are not welcome," spat the biggest hatemonger in the state. "They don't speak for those of us fighting the tremendous costs of illegal aliens. Groups like this one detract from the serious discussions we have every day on how to address this issue."
Okay, now you can laugh. After all, Pearce was the primary pusher of SB 1070, as well as the sponsor of a host of whacked-out Nuremberg-type laws that have yet to make it on the books.
And in the upcoming session of the legislature, he wants to rip birth certificates out of the tiny hands of American citizen babies born to those in the country illegally.
Pearce always likes to say, "Illegal's not a race, it's a crime." But according to him, illegality is a status that's inherited. One that children get from their parents. Like a congenital disease. How, um, eugenical.
That aside, Pearce has had connections over the years to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, bigots, extremists, and insane, Mexican-bashing nativists.
Take for example his association with Valley neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. The infamous photo above is of Pearce and Ready at nativist rally at the state Capitol in June of 2007. Pearce has tried to pooh-pooh his ties to Ready, and has said that the photo was just one of many he takes with folks.
But I watched Pearce and Ready work the crowd together at that event. And as Ready gave a frighteningly effective speech that outlined a fascist takeover of America, Pearce applauded at the sidelines. The rally was also attended by members of the White Knights of America, a racist organization based in Tonopah.
Pearce applauds Ready about 1:34 in
The Arizona ADL's Bill Straus warned Pearce of Ready's white supremacy in 2006, according to a Republic sidebar to a recent, gushing bio of Pearce. Also, the ADL held a forum at the state House in March of 2007 that outed Ready, and in April of 2007, I had written of Ready's page on Newsaxon.org, "an online community for whites, by whites," where Ready engaged in anti-Semitic scribblings.
So Ready was a known quantity by the early part of 2007, but Pearce buddied-up with him publicly in June of 2007. It wasn't until August of 2008 that Pearce was finally forced to denounce Ready, as he battled to win a GOP primary for state Senate.
A disappointed Ready later told me that Pearce "was like a father figure to me."
Add to this, Pearce's advocacy for a return to "Operation Wetback," the fact that he forwarded an anti-Semitic screed authored by the neo-Nazi National Alliance to supporters in 2006, his association with hateful nativist groups, and on and on.
As for Pearce's various ethnic cleansing proposals, he and the neo-Nazis obviously hold similar views on immigration.
That's why the neo-Nazis, for all their faults, are essentially more honest than Pearce. The NSMers who'll be goosestepping Saturday, are not hesitant to tell you they want an America where only those of "pure white blood" can be citizens.
Pearce's goals dovetail with those of these Schutzstaffel-wannabes, but Pearce hides his bigotry in a cloak of Americanism and an attack on illegal aliens, almost all of whom just happen to be brown. He's far worse, far more dangerous than the knuckleheads in the National Socialist Movement.
Instead of protesting those clowns, the anti-Nazi crowd should be dogging Pearce with demonstrations, whenever and wherever he appears in public.
