Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio can't be too thrilled that some of his national ink has been hijacked recently by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. But has media-whore Arpaio's resorted to a game of media-one-upmanship with his Pinal County counterpart?
As you may have heard, the latest bounty on Arpaio's inflated head allegedly comes from Mexican drug cartels, which the sheriff claims would pony-up $1 million to have him bumped off.
Again, this is just the latest supposed threat against Arpaio, which happens to have been issued via text-message and didn't gain too much media steam until Babeu made headlines of his own.
If you checked out the Drudge Report yesterday, you may have seen the top story on the main page about Babeu's comments that "our government has become our enemy.
What you may have missed, though -- because it was added later in the day -- was a headline that found its way to the top of Drudge's homepage. That headline, of course, included the name "Sheriff Joe."
See below.
The headline in the top-left corner is a little small but it reads "Mexican drug cartel puts $1 million bounty on Sheriff Joe's head."
That story was originally published last Thursday and since the Drudge Report isn't typically in the business of recycling four-day-old news stories to feature on the top of its page,
our cynical minds got to wandering.
Allow us to speculate for a minute,,, would it be so far-fetched if Arpaio's media flack, Lisa Allen, caught wind of the Babeu story and just happened to alert Drudge -- and several other national news outlets -- that Arpaio's made some news in the past week, too?
Given Arpaio's death-threat-related history, which you can see here, it doesn't seem too far-fetched at all, if you ask us.
We wouldn't put it past America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" to feel a little left out now that a younger county lawman is the go-to guy for the media when it comes to Arizona sheriffs and immigration enforcement. But we want to know what you think: is the latest threat against Arpaio legit, or is he using an impotent threat to get a little ink?
Vote -- and see the results of yesterday's poll -- below.
Yesterday's poll question: Does the Immigration Debate "Heighten Racism" in Arizona?
- 65 percent say yes.
- 7 percent say no.
- 28 percent say racists are what "heighten racism" in Arizona.
Here is your morning poll:
