Democratic state Senator Steve Gallardo seems to get it -- every year, legislators make asses of themselves by passing, or even just by proposing, ridiculous laws.
We've seen all kinds of pleas from the few legislators who don't want to play along with the "meth lab of democracy," but we like Gallardo's plea before the Senate yesterday, as some of the ultra-right-wingers were proposing to let regular Arizonans decide whether they think the federal government's doing something unconstitutional -- this is how we all end up looking like asses on national television.
See also:
-Arizona's Top 10 Appearances on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
"If we want to get away from the Daily Show and all the national-type television shows that keep mocking Arizona, we must put an end to the stuff like this," Gallardo said, which was first reported by Capitol Media Services.
As we noted when we picked out the top 10 Arizona-related Daily Show segments, we had 152 segments to choose from, almost all of them mocking the state in one way or another.
Really, we wouldn't be surprised if something about this bill landed on a Comedy Central "news" show.
According to a Senate fact sheet on SCR 1016, here's what these Republican Senators -- Chester Crandell, Judy Burges, Al Melvin, and Brenda Barton -- are proposing that Arizonans vote on in 2014:
1. Prohibits the Arizona and the United States governments from violating the U.S. Constitution.
2. Allows the people of Arizona to reject a federal action if they determine it violates the U.S. Constitution by passing an initiative or referendum, passing a bill or using any other available legal remedy.
3. Prohibits Arizona from using any personnel or resources to enforce or cooperate with a federal action that the people reject as unconstitutional.
4. Requires the Secretary of State to submit the proposition to the voters at the next general election.
5. Becomes effective if approved by the voters and on proclamation of the Governor.
Wow, where could any of that possibly go wrong?
It should come as no surprise that this bill got another layer of approval from the Senate Committee of the Whole, which keeps this proposal very alive.
