Above is videographer Dennis Gilman's take on the state GOP meeting in January, which I covered in a previous post.
As you'll see, a lot of Arizona Republicans, not unlike their national counterparts, define themselves by what they hate: President Barack Obama, minorities, gays, and the undocumented.
Which makes Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's scandal as exposed by my colleague Monica Alonzo even more intriguing.
Babeu has been a right-wing icon, revered by Tea Party types for his tough talk on border issues. Now, he's alleged to have threatened an ex-boyfriend with deportation, all over the issue of his sexual preference.
Perhaps if so many Republicans were not blinded by loathing and obsessed with fear-mongering, someone like Babeu could be an openly gay man and support gay marriage and gays in the military without feeling the wrath of his fellow GOPers.
But the current Republican line is one of exclusion: Excluding minorities, even if these minorities agree with the party on fiscal matters.
Shamefully, Babeu has misrepresented himself and bashed Latinos in order to rise in this fetid swamp of xenophobia and bile.
The symbolism of the state's biggest bigot, ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce being elected to the Arizona GOP's number two position over a qualified and very conservative Latina incumbent speaks for itself.
As does the rest of Gilman's video, which documents a nadir locally for the party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower, both of whom would be twirling like dervishes in their coffins if they could see how far their Grand Old Party has fallen.
