The Maricopa County craziness rachets up a notch
The reporter wanted to come film the raid. (?!) The judge, Barbara Mundell, went code red. She went to the Arizona Court of Appeals to block her offices’ being raided. But at the hearing, an assistant county attorney said no warrants were being issued.
Heat City’s Nick Martin cites this as an example of hair-trigger tensions in the court system, as Arpaio and his Dimmer Twin, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, have used just about any aspect of their police and legal powers to harass and intimidate enemies.
The journalist in question is identified only as a TV reporter, and no gender was cited. Unanswered is where the reporter got the tip. According to Martin, the ADA at the hearing said no warrants had been “sought or obtained.” That could mean a) the reporter was lied to; b) the reporter was given a good tip but somehow got the judge in question wrong (a possibility, since he or she seemed to have a screw loose in any case*); or c) Thomas’s office was choosing its words carefully in front of the judge to obscure the fact that some sort of action was about to be taken against Mundell.
Martin says the judge has reason to find herself on Arpaio’s enemies list:
In May, Mundell told a Phoenix TV station she thought Maricopa County’s judges were facing serious intimidation by the sheriff, including possible investigations and retaliation. She said the sheriff was upset, in part, because a judge had just criticized his office for bringing inmates late to their court appearances.
Mundell also fought the sheriff’s office as far back as 2007 over whether his deputies should have access to thousands of emails she and other court officials had sent or received that year. Mundell and Superior Court Administrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer denied the request, and the sheriff’s office eventually sued.
- By which I mean it’s inappropriate for a reporter to find out a raid is about to happen and then call up the target of it to ask permission to film.
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E.J. Montini: Hey Sheriff Joe—What am I, limburger?
The Republic columnist wants to know why everyone’s getting arrested but him:
It seems that with each passing day, a new and different critic of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is investigated, charged, indicted and arrested.
And with each new investigation, each new charge, each new public vilification that is orchestrated and carried out by the two most powerful law-enforcement officials in the county, I get more and more angry.
[…]
How could you look at the slings and arrows that have been aimed at you, at the number of times you have been subjected to what you believe to have been unfair, unjust criticism, and bust these individuals ahead of me?I mean, really, what’s a guy got to do to get arrested in this county?
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McCain dinged for robocalls
PHXated likes Dan Nowicki, the Republic’s political columnist, but thinks a note today on criticism against John McCain was incomplete.
A DC group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed an ethics carge against him for doing some recorded telephone campaigning against the health care bill. Wrote Nowicki:
CREW argues that the robocalls, paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, violate a Senate rule.
McCain dismissed CREW as “a far-left group” and said the complaint is meritless.
“They might have a beef if I paid for it with Senate money or official money, but that was a political issue paid for with political contributions,” McCain said. “It isn’t any more complicated than that.”
a) “Violated a Senate rule” explains nothing. More on that in a minute. b) CREW isn’t a far-left group. It’s nonpartisan and fairly fearless. It’s a typical cheap shot from McCain that should have been put into context. c) McCain’s next comment—"they might have a beef if I paid for it with Senate money"—is exactly backward, which is why the bland description of CREW’s complaint didn’t help.
The issue is that it was outside money. Under Senate rules, he’s not supposed to be using lobbying money to, essentially, do his job, which is be a politician. That’s what the CREW complaint is about, which you can read here.
I don’t care one way or the other about the complaint itself; but the Republic should have explained the matter more fully.
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A new director for the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
Bob Allen has been appointed the new director of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, effective Jan. 4.
A city employee since 1996, Allen is currently the deputy director of the Phoenix Convention Center, overseeing the Venue Management Division. In his new position, he will have oversight of the city’s Public Arts Program, the Arts in Education Program, grants services and community initiatives, and cultural bond projects.
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