Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu announced on October 15, 2015 he is running for Congress – again. I realize we’ve exhausted our bank of morally-qualified candidates for president of the United States [and Americans refuse to elect a candidate who is]. I also know Congress is already infested with morally bankrupt elected officials so why complain of another one running for Congress?
I met Babeu at a Cochise County Republican Women’s luncheon about three or four years ago. He sat across from me at the speaker’s table. He stared a hole in me for so long I finally realized he was coming on to me in a homosexual manner. I felt like sticking a fork in his throat. But there are other things that bother me about Sheriff Babeu.
He has -to put it nicely- a “lean” resume’. He’s not well-educated. He touts his “command” of a national guard unit on the Mexican border as having reduced the number of illegal crossings. Ehh, not so much. The Arizona national guard was also stationed at the Douglas, AZ Port of Entry where I worked. They were worthless as a deterrent to illegal crossings. They got in our way at the Port of Entry and bragged about making easy per diem for doing nothing. The word we got through the border grapevine was those on observation posts (OPs) and in the border patrol stations spent their time reading or watching porn on their computers. Several ranchers put video cameras on the OPs and told us the national guard never left their tents except to use the Port-a-John or change shifts. Not much getting out and about to “observe”. Their rules of engagement were almost as ridiculous as those in Afghanistan now that is getting Americans killed. The most egregious example of this was when a Mexican army truck packed with armed Mexican army soldiers pulled up to a national guard OP twenty miles inside OUR border and forced the national guard to retreat off the OP site. This was reported on TV news and in the newspaper at the time. As to whether Babeu and his unit effected a reduction in illegal crossings: once the political decision was made to send support troops (versus actual combat troops) to the border, the reduction in numbers was assured. “Liars can figure and figures can lie” is no more true than with border patrol apprehension rates. Babeu makes much political hay about being in the -very politicized- Arizona national guard. There are three kinds of army troops: Combat – the actual bullet launchers like infantry, artillery, etc.; Combat Support: engineers, medics, etc. and Combat Service Support: paper pushers, mailmen, legal, etc. Which one is Babeu? By omission he infers he was on “the front lines.” He wasn’t.
And if he is so hell-bent on enforcing border security where was he when Maricopa Sheriff Arpaio and I were testifying before the Arizona State Legislature’s Border Security Committee? Where was Cochise County Sheriff Dannel’s and all the other Arizona sheriff’s for that matter? Nowhere to be seen. Last time I was by there Babeu doesn’t even bother to evict the illegals selling trinkets at the Casa Grande gas stations. Truth is Babeu is elected because he takes a “wink-and-a-nod” approach to illegal aliens since his district is heavily agricultural and the farmers wouldn’t back him if he took an Arpaio approach. Babeu is pure politician: as an elected sheriff, as a member of the Arizona national guard; and, apparently, as a homosexual activist.
According to Babeu’s Mexican boyfriend (see any hypocrisy or conflict of interest in border security here?), Jorge Orozco, Babeu threatened to deport him if he outed Babeu, I remember seeing a (since disappeared) photo published showing Orozco reaching across Babeu’s chest into his open law enforcement uniform pinching Babeu’s right nipple. As a former law enforcement officer this image was burned in my brain. Babeu demonstrated he is willing to demean and humiliate the law enforcement profession by publicizing a photo of him exercising his sexual preference in uniform. That cost him one election. What is different this time? Has he changed his sexual preference? Will Babeu not use his homosexuality to influence his behavior in an elected office? The answers: nothing is different, he is still homosexual (and believes “there are more important issues than gay marriage” – political code for he will support laws giving preference to homosexuals) and he hasn’t demonstrated any regrets disgracing his uniform. Sounds like another elected official with a penchant for publishing photos of his body: Anthony Weiner.
You remember Weiner don’t you? He was the United States Representative from New York City who was involved in two sex scandals involving sending explicit photos of himself by cell phone. He finally resigned from what was dubbed “WeinerGate.” If Babeu is elected we can bet on a similar scandal like “Babeu’s BoyGate” involving congressional pages. As the saying goes “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me!”
Well, Arizona voters, have we no shame?
