Word is, recalled, disgraced ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce wants back in the state Senate, and may run again in 2014, either in his current Legislative District 25, or in LD 16, which is just next door, further east, and in many ways, even nuttier.
Since Pearce has lived in the same house for the last 14 years, according to the county assessor's website, would he really move the whole kit and caboodle to LD 16?
Some Mesans speculate that Pearce might secure a rental, perhaps with the help of his money-bags bro Lester, and run from LD 16 as a "resident."
See, Pearce remains a hero to the rabid Republican base. So despite him losing twice by double-digits, first in the 2011 recall, then in the 2012 GOP primary, his possible candidacy cannot be dismissed as utterly futile. You just never know in Sand Land.
Fortunately, Pearce has a powerful foe, no matter where or for what he decides to run: himself.
Not only does the hateful nativist come with major bigot-baggage and the stigma of his historic recall loss, he has a predilection for opening his pie-hole and saying the dumbest stuff, as evidenced by his recent comment to Channel 3's Dennis Welch regarding the arrest of his political ally Chris Simcox on multiple counts of child molestation.
"Good people do stupid things sometimes," Pearce observed, thereby likening one of the most heinous crimes imaginable to intentionally running a red light, cheating on your wife or driving home after one too many brews.
That's our, Russ, and that's why he seriously risks becoming a three-time loser next year, should he opt to get in the game.
I hope he does run, because "three time loser" has a nice ring to it, and because Pearce never lets me down when it comes to material.
In fact, going through all of his verbal fumbles, racist statements, and outright lies over the years, leaves me with such an embarrassment of riches that I could do two or three top ten lists of his idiot pronouncements.
And if Pearce goes for the trifecta of defeat, by the end, I no doubt will have a boatload more Pearce-isms, ripe for exploitation.
10) "9,000 Americans [are] killed every year at the hands of illegal aliens."
Just one of the many bogus statistics Pearce has used over the years in an effort to demonize Latinos and justify legislation targeting them, such as Senate Bill 1070. The figure is false, and has been debunked many times. The FBI doesn't keep stats on how many crimes reported to them are committed by undocumented aliens.
9) "67 percent" of law enforcement officers killed in "the last few years" have been murdered by illegal aliens.
Another bogus stat from Pearce. I first heard Pearce use this one when he was testifying before a state House committee. I followed him outside and challenged him to give me the source for the stat. He couldn't. Know why? Because he pulled it out of his tuchis.
8) "They're simply open-border anarchists who have no respect for the rule of law, we'll deal with it."
Pearce smeared members of Citizens for a Better Arizona with this one, CBA being the group that successfully forced a recall election on Pearce in 2011.
Far from being anarchists, they operated within the letter of state law and the Arizona Constitution, and they won.
7) "It's an old story. It's fiction. [New Times] made it up."
Pearce said this to an activist in 2008 about a photo of him and white nationalist J.T. Ready, who would go on to embrace the swastika openly and murder four people including a baby girl in 2012, shortly before committing suicide.
Pearce and Ready were tight. Pearce even ordained Ready into the priesthood that all Mormon men are a part of. There was nothing fictitious about their relationship.
6) "I don't think J.T.'s a bad guy, I think his association with these groups is wrong,"
Pearce told me this after I confronted him about Ready's participation in a neo-Nazi event in Nebraska. Pearce seems to have a blind spot when it comes to racist a-holes. Either that, or he protects his own.
5) "I never took a penny from the Fiesta Bowl."
Another ostrich-sized canard. As we all know, Pearce was at the center of the Fiesta Bowl scandal, and was caught accepting nearly $40,000 in free tickets and trips for himself and his family.
As far as actual money, he received campaign contributions from ex-Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, Junker's wife, Susan, as well as from Fiesta Bowl execs Anthony Aguilar, Jay Fields, and others.
4) "We know what we need to do. In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower put together a task force called 'Operation Wetback.' He removed, in less than a year, 1.3 million illegal aliens. They must be deported."
Pearce rightly caught hell for this statement back in 2006, which he dropped during an interview on public radio, of all things, proving that he was way ahead of Paula Deen, at least when it comes to brown folk.
3) "I called [the Mormon church's] PR room personally. They said they were not opposed to Senate Bill 1070."
Pearce has tried this lie on for size twice, and each time was shot down by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he is a member. In fact, in the wake of SB 1070's passage in Arizona, the church supported the widely-hailed Utah Compact, calling for humane immigration reform, and opposing the separation of families.
2) "Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because no one [sic] was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved. All that was needed is one Courages/Brave [sic] man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done."
This bit of brain flatulence was part of an asinine commentary Pearce posted to his Facebook page about the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Twelve were killed, and 58 others were injured. Contrary to what mush-mouth wrote, there were several acts of heroism that day, with three men dying to shield others. Inundated with outrage, Pearce was forced to apologize for the statement.
1) "Good people do stupid things sometimes."
It's debatable, but I think this latest hoof-in-mouth moment for Pearce is his worst to date. He also suggested the allegations may have been the product of "an ugly divorce," as if Simcox's most recent ex-wife made it all up.
There are a couple of things wrong with that theory.
First, two of the three children were not related to Simcox, so how could his ex put words in their mouths? Second, the children, all under ten, were each interviewed by police officers, using forensic interviewing techniques. And third, Simcox was accused of child molestation years ago, by a 14 year-old daughter from another marriage.
In any case, this list doesn't begin to cover all the whoppers and idiotic things that have dropped from Pearce's gob over the years. I may have to do a part two. Stay tuned.
