Another day, another closeted right-wing politician (h/t commenter elm):
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.
Villago Delenda Est
Scratch a homophobe, find a man in the closet.
Alex S.
Horrible, as usual. Though it’s not homosexuality here that matters, but the attempted abuse of power. The hypocrisy is just the icing on the cake.
Brachiator
Ya missed the obvious thread title: Babeu Love.
elm
@Alex S.: Babeu’s been the poster child for anti-immigrant politics, so there’s additional hypocrisy in him having a same-sex Mexican lover that Babeu now claims is an illegal immigrant.
Still, I agree that the more serious charge is his alleged abuse of his power as a law-enforcement officer and an elected official.
Suffern ACE
I agree. The abuse of power is the story, not the hypocrisy. Has the sherrif made homophobic comments before, or do we just assume that he has?
Brachiator
@Suffern ACE:
What do homophobic comments have to do with anything?
The part of the story I read was about threats and intimidation.
And hypocrisy. Let’s see. A law enforcement official is hot to deport illegal immigrants. Except for the one that he is having an affair with.
Joe L.
This is SO poetic!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Who else but a closeted conservative homosexual would feel the urge to be the sheriff of
“Penile”“Pinal” county.Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
The abuse of power might be the story to thinking human beings, but there are no thinking human beings in the MSM, as witnessed in the Mark Sanford case. That wasn’t a story until there was an Argentine bimbo involved.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, I hereby revise my thread starting comment:
“Scratch an anti-immigrant bloviator, find a guy shacking up with a Mexican.”
Soonergrunt
Apparently, there’s more to the story.
Frankensteinbeck
@Villago Delenda Est:
This. The pattern is the same. Only the closet is different.
suzanne
Why am I totally unsurprised?
Villago Delenda Est
@Soonergrunt:
Whoa, SG. I guess hatin’ on the brown people, as indicated at your link, absolves a number of otherwise totally “unconservative” behaviors.
jayboat
@efgoldman:
I see what you did there.
dr. bloor
Them boys could put up a fence along the border from the Pacific to the Gulf with all the lumber they used up building the closets they’re hiding in.
Cargo
Every – I mean every last one – virulently antigay politician or religious figure either sucks dick on the sly or wants to very badly. Sometimes I wish for some kind of truth drug that makes people face their own proclivities and just ADMIT IT for once. I find myself wanting to scream that at the TV sometimes. ADMIT IT! ADMIT YOU WANT TO KISS A MAN AND TOUCH HIS PENIS!
It would just save so much bullshit.
gocart mozart
Babeu love, my Babeu love
I needed you, oh how I needed you!
But all you did is treat me bad
Threaten to deport me and leave me sad
Tell me, what did I do or say?
To force me to expose teh gay
JCT
@Soonergrunt: Whoa, good read.
Scott
BTW, famed Internet Tuff Guy Jim Treacher is making his presence known here on older threads. Because beating up on dead threads is tuff.
gex
The homosexuality is key in that, he wouldn’t have been worried if anyone found out he was sleeping with a woman. It’s in this respect that gays are at greater risk for this than others. The abuse of power doesn’t happen if he isn’t afraid of being outed.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Bimbo? I think not.
@Soonergrunt:
Yikes. What is infuriating here is that people in the media knew that the guy was gay, probably knew that he had a Mexican lover, and yet kept quiet as the guy went on to become a right wing poster boy for macho (hetero) immigrant bashing.
dr. bloor
@Scott: Who’s Jim Treacher? Any relation to Arthur? Delicious fish and chips.
WereBear
@Soonergrunt: Yikes, how terrible!
Ever since the story broke, I felt it wasn’t hypocrisy (though that, too) as much as a power-hungry guy choosing his intimate relationships in ways that let him have almost all the power in the relationship.
suzanne
Though I don’t think the issue is that he’s gay (nothing I read said hat he was closeted), but that he’s banging undocumented immigrants while furthering his career by persecuting them, and then attempting extortion.
Though it sickens me that this dude was a Chandler police officer. I live in Chandler.
JPL
Three days ago..a big government site interview Babeu and he said he felt Holder perjured himself
Maybe Issa will call him to the stand. No links cuz I don’t want to.
Suffern ACE
@sooner – ok. Sex slave ring? The lover worked on the sheriffs campaign and broke it off because the sheriff was cheating on him, not because of the politics, or forced sex. How is this sexual slavery?
JPL
Breitbart sure has a lot of articles about the fine man.
link
I wasn’t gonna link to him but I figure knowing the coward, Andrew will be doing some scrubbing of his site soon.
piratedan
@Brachiator: and the key here isn’t that he was gay or that he was the Sheriff, it was that he abused his position for his own personal benefit (talk about a “personal” benefit). Pinal County isn’t exactly a Mecca of liberal thought but this won’t sit well with folks once the light of day shines on this. The interesting part will see if this will even filter into the news feed that those folks tap into or even if the Feds will step in to investigate those nagging little issues like kidnapping and abuse of power. Granted this will play well on the personal persecution multiplex, but we’ll have to see if people stay long enough for the show or just tune into the trailers.
Legalize
Holy shit. Is that the fella from McCain’s “build the dang fence” spot?
Soonergrunt
@dr. bloor: He styles himself “The DC Trawler” over at Tucker Carlson’s Vanity News Site And Pretentious Bowtie Emporium.
He’s the dumbass who either jumped or drunk-stumbled in front of a car in DC and got banged up and tried to present it as a hit-and-run by some liberal activist a couple years back, IIRC. Exactly what he thinks he’s trolling for around these parts is anyone’s guess since he hasn’t the guts to show up in live threads.
gocart mozart
@efgoldman:
h/t Dianna Ross and the Supremes
Soonergrunt
@Suffern ACE: I was far more interested in the shenanigans with the state senator/representative or whatever he is and the 1.7 million bucks than anything else.
@Legalize: The one and same.
piratedan
@Legalize: yes, same guy….and he’s got a nice shiny image that deflects some simmering dirt, he’s Arpaio’s protege in more ways than one.
Villago Delenda Est
@Soonergrunt:
Of course, it’s always possible that this is a cocker spaniel out to make him look like an even bigger douchebag.
This is the Interons, you know.
Jennifer
Bonus points: at the linked site, there’s an ad for “Arizona Vulva Clinic.”
I had no idea such businesses existed.
Mike in NC
Paging Lindsey Graham.
Frankensteinbeck
@Suffern ACE:
I think ‘sexual slavery’ is a hyperbolic phrasing. The lover had the option of walking out on him. The thing is, it has the basic elements of sexual slavery, that is Babeu had a relationship with someone who he had enough power over to have that person deported, in circumstances where that threat was consciously known at all times even if it was never discussed. This becomes vividly clear when Babeu overtly uses the threat to get his way on something.
The power imbalance is huge, Babeu demonstrated that he was willing to use it to get his way, and they were in a sexual relationship. Most forms of this are illegal, will get you fired and banned from a profession, or both.
gocart mozart
@Soonergrunt:
Good one. I call it “Tucker Carlson’s Twit Farm” myself.
Here is an example of Treacher’s idiocy from last June that I mocked in one of my earliest posts if anyone is interested, scroll toward the bottom of my blog.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/24/some-knee-slappin-knock-knock-jokes-for-anderson-cooper/
Brachiator
@piratedan:
It kinda is. If he weren’t the sheriff, he wouldn’t be in a position to abuse his authority. And to be gay and to let himself be used by anti-gay forces like the GOP and the Tea Party is despicable.
I would be interested to see what the local reaction to all this will be.
gocart mozart
Tracher does spend a lot of time complaining about teh gays. Things that make you go “Hmmm.”
JPL
Fox News likes to use Babeu for comments concerning border safety and fast and furious, so I’m sure they will pursue this story. I’m gonna wait until they uncover the truth before commenting further. andwaitandwaitandwait
MattF
I think that what this country needs is the sexual and ethical equivalent of a ‘tax holiday’. All the closeted wingers, abusers, and miscellaneous liars can come out all at once, they can all get counseling and forgiveness, and then they can all promise to leave the rest of us in peace. In return, they will get a life, and–if necessary–a guaranteed reduction in fines or jail time, if the illegal things they’ve done are misdemeanors and not extremely icky.
elisabeth
Babeu has a presser scheduled for 3:00 est.
WJS
@Brachiator
What’s sad is that, in the minds of Republicans, their hatred of immigrants really is “macho” and the liberal preoccupation with a common-sense solution to dealing with people who come here to work is the exact opposite of macho.
Whenever their bullshit explodes in their face, obviously it’s all Obama’s fault.
amk
Is there no end to abuse of power by various elected officials of AZ ? What a whacked out state.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Scratch a homophobe, find a man in the closet…
Scratch a political Mexican-hater, find a literal Mexican-lover.
Scratch a libertarian, find a power-abusing control freak.
There’s probably even more ironies lurking around there somewhere, but those are what comes to mind.
WereBear
@Chris: I’ve heard of “hearts on their sleeve,” but this is NEUROSIS tattooed on the forehead.
Ben Cisco
I think the entire GOP is trolling us.
__
Aren’t they?
Yutsano
@Ben Cisco: We should be so lucky.
WereBear
SInce we don’t have an Open Thread, and this seems pertinent, I loved this article:
A Conservative Explains Why Right-Wingers Have No Compassion
Brachiator
@Chris:
To be fair, he may not have been in the closet. Your other comments, though, are spot on.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: He apparently wasn’t all that secretive about it. At least he wasn’t married with kids and hiding like that.
suzanne
@efgoldman:
Not bad. He’s loved in Pinal County, and that is a fast-growing area.
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: ETA–he’s in the mod filter again for that dead thread.
Chris
@WJS:
The same’s true in the war on terror: Obama killed Osama, Bush did a photo op on a carrier. To them, the latter action’s the one that matters.
Same for gang-fighting in Central America. Under FBI pressure and advice, every country down there’s enacted hardcore all-stick-no-carrot laws against MS-13, and still the gang problem’s worse than ever… the only country that’s made any headway against it is Nicaragua, which instead of listening to the FBI’s bullshit, actually invested into rehabilitation programs which… lo and behold… work.
But it’s all about the emotional gratification of kicking People Who Deserve It in the face, no matter if that makes things better or worse. And the same’s true of their economics.
Suffern ACE
@Brachiator:
Well, it hasn’t been established that lover was in fact undocumented. In fact, the guy claims that he is documented and that Babeu’s lawyer threatened him with deportation anyway. And I am guessing the former boyfriend had good reason to believe that they could make that happen. Not that it makes a difference, but it really stinks if you’re legal and someone will deport you anyway. Breaking up with your boyfriend who won’t commit to an exclusive relationship after you’ve caught him attempting to cheat is hardly the type of offense that earns most people a trip to the INS detention system. I think we should focus on that rather than “Oooh. sleeping with illegals by night. railing against them by day.”
suzanne
@suzanne: I just found a poll that has Babeu with an 8-point lead in the polls against Gosar in AZ-4, who was elected last cycle. A mostly rural district, not likely for a Dem pickup.
So it should be interesting to see if this revelation changes anything. I thought Gosar was a good GOP footsoldier, so effectively, it doesn’t really matter which of them wins.
JPL
@suzanne: If the facts are true and they appear to be true, he should be fired from his job. It will be interesting to see what he says at the news conference.
calliope jane
@Soonergrunt: Wow. “And no matter what Babeu does in his non-border district with all the money Matt Heinz gave him”
What the hell is a democrat doing giving all that money for “border safety” to a county NOT on the border when that democrat IS ACTUALLY IN A BORDER COUNTY. And running for Congress? Hell no.
And because someone needs to say it :) This is obviously good news for John McCain. @Legalize: Yep, this is the same guy from the border spots. Fun fact: McCain couldn’t get an actual border county sheriff to do the ad and was left with this power-hungry jackass.
Soonergrunt
@calliope jane:
Yes. The questions–they write themselves, nes` ce` pas?
SiubhanDuinne
@Jennifer:
No no no, you misread. It was an ad for a Swedish car repair shop.
Brachiator
@Suffern ACE:
Why? Why insist on a single focus?
Actually, the sheriff is playing it both ways. “I will keep you close or kick you under the bus, based on my relationship to you and your keeping quiet.”
And what if he approached someone else and said, “I know you’re illegal. How would you like to stay in this country and not have to worry about your status? All you have to do is be my luv muffin.”
And then to go out bashing illegal immigrants? Dante put the Hypocrites in the lower circles of the Inferno with good and poetic justification.
Mnemosyne
Oddly, the least important part of the story is that Babeau is gay, IMO. It would be equally horrifying if he was threatening to have his Mexican ex-girlfriend deported for breaking up with him.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
It’s only important to the extent that he allows himself to be used by the anti-gay Tea Party People and the GOP regulars.
I want to see Rick Santorum and other GOPers go on record and say “it’s OK to be gay in the Republican Party as long as you bash Mexicans.” They will have a chance to do so at the next GOP debate, scheduled to be held in Arizona.
Suffern ACE
@Brachiator – well I will deal with the hypothetical scandal when it comes up.
JPL
Although I think Whitney Houston had a beautiful voice, I don’t own her albums and thought her acting talents were questionable. I will say though that the funeral in her honor was beautiful. It’s the only celebrity wedding that I watched so this is out of the ordinary.
maus
@efgoldman:
Eh, charge him with sex trafficking.
maus
@Mnemosyne:
It’s not “interesting” so much as essential to describe the internalized shame and hatred of the Tea Party.
WereBear
@JPL: It’s such a terrible thing: to me, it was a classic case of her falling in love with a jerk; and not realizing that the only way to deal with a jerk is walking away. And she had the resources!
With the caveat that I was not a real fan (while a great admirer of her voice, not a pop fan) and I only observed from a distance.
Soonergrunt
Completely OT–I’m four episodes into the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Netflix. And while schadenfreude at a conservative’s pain is always enjoyable, that’s a much better way to spend the day.
quannlace
Definitley the cherry on the sundae.
Gary
I think you’re all being unfair to Sheriff Babar.
He has been a strong advocate of deporting Mexicans and he is selflessly putting those principles into practice by threatening his Mexican lover with deportation. Where’s the hypocrisy?
I say the man is the true embodiment of severely conservative principles.
Leave Sheriff Babar alone and let him continue advancing those same principles by continuing to work for Romney!
Mark S.
Who the hell is managing LeBron?
I beginning to understand why the US basketball team didn’t want LeBron in 2008. The guy’s an egomaniac and a team cancer. Who could have predicted that being called the next Michael Jordan when one is 16 would have this effect on a person?
elisabeth
@Mark S.:
Probably the same idiot(s) who advised Maurice Clarett.
WereBear
I loooooooved Deep Space Nine. Sisko was played by such a marvelous actor; they wrestled with real questions in the aftermath of such an ugly kind of war, and there were a real variety of different people/aliens who interacted on long term arcs.
Sadly, it got kind of silly as it got lighter towards the end, but the Rules of Acquisition will live on, especially now.
JPL
From Politico
@elisabeth: Do you know if anyone is carrying his news conference?
walt
@suzanne:
Babeu will not win this congressional race. District 4 is ultra-conservative and tailor-made for a “values” candidate. The likely beneficiary is Ron Gould, a state legislator, although current the Congressman Paul Gosar could pull it out.
I’m listening to Babeu’s press conference now. He’s pirouetting madly around the germane issue of gay rights inside a party insanely hostile to minorities. So, he’s hiding inside a Ron Paul 10th Amendment position that conveniently allows him to avoid the issue of his own political position.
BTW, most of Arizona’s political junkies have known of Babeu’s sexuality for some time. The personal hypocrisy of being a hard-right Republican is more damaging than the allegations of abuse of power. Republicans don’t care if “authority” abuses the rights of a Mexican national. They do care if you’re “not one of us”.
Soonergrunt
@walt:
This is why I hate them, and this is why people like makewi never succeed around these parts in getting people to play. We know that she doesn’t care about victims of rape in the occupy movement, except to use as a rhetorical cudgel. In that respect, she is VERY much a child of her movement.
pragmatism
@Mark S.: His friend from high school.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRMR
trollhattan
@Jennifer:
Heh, spelling fail. I wonder how many confused Volvo owners show up there asking for a clutch rebuild?
Thymezone
I thought Babeu was the character on Seinfeld who called Jerry a “veddy bad man?”
Danny
Babeu’s an Iraq War veteran. Someone should ask McCain if he still supports bringing back Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, even if it means that Babeu could never serve again…
alex milstein
I just read that he was withdrawn as an official from Mitt’s Arizona campaign…but no mention whether he has abandoned his Congressional campaign or his Sheriff’s post. If the people in Pinal County allow him to remain as Sheriff, that would say a lot about them.
mai naem
I met the guy. He was at a friends Eagle Scout ceremony. I didn’t like his politics at all and he kind of comes across as a bully and basically a jerk but jeez I still kinda feel sorry for the guy. He’s got have known deep down it was going to come out at some point. He was probably hoping it would come out when the having the ghey didn’t matter even in Repub circles. Oy vey! I didn’t know he was from Mass. originally either. Even he must have been shocked by how right wing AZ is. AZ for all it’s right winginess sure seems to have had quite a few gay pols.
Polar Bear Squares
Whitney’s death has really bummed me out but two things have lightened the mood.
No. 1: Fox News was forced to cover the funeral which I’m sure freaked all these old white bigots out to watch a church full of black people.
No. 2: This “family values” sheriff is clearly messaging his latino boyfriend’s nipple in all of the pictures I’ve seen so far. And apparently the loving was so good he threatened to deport him if he told anyone. Wow. Just wow.
uptown
Isn’t blackmail still a crime?
demimondian
@Frankensteinbeck: No, the term sexual slavery is completely apt. If (and it’s still a big if, and I’ve seen enough cases where it turned out to be false) he threatened to have someone deported if he didn’t service him, that’s sexual slavery. The boyfriend had two choices — take the abuse silently, or risk deportation and the abuse that goes with being gay in Latin America.
El Cid
Good grief. Every fucking one of ’em.
Suffern ACE
@demimonian – yes. Sexual slavery is appropriate, if we ignore what the ex boyfriend said and insert stuff he didn’t say. Do sex slaves normally get mad when they are cheated on? Or do we now start talking about Stockholm syndrome.
maus
@mai naem:
I feel sorry for the closeted in general. I do not feel sorry for those who abuse others due to internalized self-hatred.