You scratch my back ...
Now, this is interesting—how I love a good GOP pissing match.
Arizona Capitol Times (subscription) is reporting this morning that the pizza man who became the star attraction of the GOP primary carnival, if only for a short time, has donated $5,000 to a fund that is trying to remove Andy Tobin from his seat in the Arizona legislature. Tobin, a Republican, is Speaker of the House, and he's running against two other GOP nitwits for the two seats in his district. One of them will lose.
We heard last week that the Hermanator is endorsing Senator Lori Klein, who served as Cain's state chairperson, in her bid to win one of the two House seats in über-conservative Legislative District 1. Klein is currently a state Senator in a district that's been redrawn and has a strong incumbent Senator, so she's running for a House seat against Tobin and current House Republican member Karen Fann. With Cain's help, she's set her sights on Tobin:
"I've known Lori for years, and she is the real deal. A conservative who tries to get government off of backs and out of our way," Cain is quoted in a news release issued by Klein's campaign website. Arizona Republic
To most Arizonans outside LD1, Klein's mostly known for two dumbfuck moves. In 2011, just days after the shooting in Tucson that nearly killed Gabby Giffords, and
did kill six others, including a judge and child, Klein pointed a loaded handgun at a reporter.
Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein (R), a gun-rights champion, keeps a loaded raspberry-pink handgun in her purse, and during an interview with Arizona Republic reporter Richard Ruelas, she took it out and pointed it at him. HuffPo
Then, in the midst of last year's legislative debate over Senator Russell Pearce's immigration bills, Klein took to the Senate floor and
read a letter from a teacher that purported to prove that Hispanic students are lazy, disrespectful, stupid, and want to take over America. The letter and its author were since debunked, and all of Pearce's over-reaching measures
were defeated. The incident was one of many used as ammunition during the successful recall of the bigoted blowhard, but it also earned Klein time on FOX News to spout her anti-Mexican nonsense.
Fox News responded to the controversy by giving airtime to Klein to spew outrageous comments, including the claim that the National Council of La Raza "is a far-leftist, racist organization that is inciting young Hispanics to ... spit on America." Media Matters
Aside from those national stories, Senator Klein introduced legislation that would allow Arizona to nullify federal laws we don't like. And, as reporter Laurie Roberts writes in her "De-Kook the Capitol" series, Klein
stood up for the rights of the individual, running a bill to allow dogs to run free as long as they have liability insurance. Meanwhile, Klein sought to limit the rights of teachers by imposing FCC regulations on their speech. Arizona Republic
More recently, Klein's been palling around with Joe the Plumber, who's been in Arizona to endorse her candidacy and beg for cash from Arizona's ultra-right lunatics for his own Ohio congressional bid. Last week in deep red Prescott, alongside disgraced and recalled Russell Pearce, Wurzelbacher said the solution to immigration is to build a wall "and start shooting." When the sane media went a little bonkers at this,
Klein told them that Joe was just joking, but then he
said it again the very next day. And he wasn't joking.
Now Klein's got Herman Cain not only endorsing her, but contributing to a group that's trying to oust Republican Speaker of the House Andy Tobin. Cain's probably rewarding Klein for defending him when he was slammed by allegations of infidelity and sexual impropriety.
Lori Klein, an Arizona state Senator and Cain's Arizona state chairman [sic], told CBS News she stands by Cain. She says she has known him for 12 years and he's "never been anything but a gentlemen—and I am not an unattractive woman [sic]." Tucson Weekly
For his part, Andy Tobin has played the role of crazy rightwing fundamentalist Mormon nutjob legislator perfectly. Last session he even
introduced legislation to overturn the redistricting commission's final legislative maps, and replace them with district maps that
he drew, because he felt the commission's decisions were, well, too fair. The former banker and real estate agent currently runs an insurance company (typical of Arizona's law makers), and he's supported nearly every wackjob piece of legislation to come down the pike. Tobin's also received just about every honor you can get from the usual conservative groups: chambers of commerce, small business associations, home builders, and tax-hating organizations.
But this is Arizona after all, and some, like Klein, are trying to paint him as too moderate [insert facepalm]. At the Klein-Plumber-Pearce "Patriots Rally" in Prescott last week Klein pooh poohed Tobin's endorsement from the "Chamber of Communists." Yeah, that's what those car dealers, developers, and banksters in Prescott and Prescott Valley are—real hardcore communists. The Overton window has gone off the cliff.