It looks like any potential for a deal between the Justice Department and America's Dumbest Sheriff has gone out the window. Also defenestrated: All remaining shreds of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's sanity. Here's how he responded to the news (on Twitter, so you know he's serious about this sheriffin' stuff).
A Department of Justice investigation found that Arpaio's office engaged in "systemic" discrimination against Latino Arizonans, a finding that I think surprised approximately nobody; the current round of negotiations was meant to come to some agreement about how the Maricopa County Sheriff's office could avoid a larger round of litigation targeted against it by the Justice Department, a negotiation that seemed doomed from the outset when you consider the crackpot they were dealing with.
The link in Sheriff Joe's tweet will take you to a strange Maricopa County Sheriff's Office press release with lots of capital letters. I can only presume it was written by Sheriff Joe himself, since there's absolutely no way anyone but Joe could think it makes him look good:
DOJ TO SHERIFF ARPAIO
"MONITOR ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY"
ARPAIO TO DOJ
"I WILL NOT SURRENDER MY OFFICE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT"
Yes, yes, very dramatic. And:
“I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected Sheriff and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government. And so to the Obama administration, who is attempting to strong arm me into submission only for its political gain, I say, ‘This will not happen, not on my watch!’”
Note for future reference: Putting exclamation points in your press release makes you look like a crazy person.
I don't know if Arpaio honestly believes the Obama administration is just out to get him or if it's just another way to stir up the rubes (Arpaio's only actual apparent job skill, as far as I can tell), but given that he gave such fawning praise to warmed-over birther conspiracy theories, he may believe this is all a plot against him. It's also not clear how Arpaio thinks he's going to hold off the federal government—does he hole up inside his anti-drug tank until the mean Department of Justice goes away? Good Lord.