How do you feel the latest revelations will impact Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s political ambitions?

8 comments:

• Arizona Willie posted at 1:33 pm on Wed, Feb 22, 2012.

  Posts: 1915

  I suspect he may have been set up. I've seen articles that he was going to gay bars so he wasn't in the closet. They said it was an open secret.

  Considering the lengths the pro-illegal people have gone to in order to unseat the people who are trying to enforce immigration laws and the money they are spending ... it wouldn't surprise me but what they sent that guy in to get with Babeau and then blow the whistle at the right time.

  Since Babeau was willing to be involved with this guy it is pretty obvious his attempts to enforce immigration law aren't motivated by racism ... but I feel like his opponents are. Being pro-illegal is a form of racism.

  But I'm disappointed that Babeau wasn't smarter than to get involved with someone he wasn't absolutely sure about.

  Considering the resources available to him I can't hardly believe he didn't background check the guy before doing their thing.

  I read somewhere the guy is on a visa so that makes him legal. And Babeau would know he couldn't deport him.

  I strongly suspect the whole thing is a setup --- too bad he fell for it.

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• DrJCA1 posted at 4:01 pm on Wed, Feb 22, 2012.

  Posts: 315

  All the laws in the world cannot prevent the masses from being judgemental or prejudiced against someone who is "different". If you are from a conservative area, being gay will probably not get you lots of votes. Likewise, if someone is very religious and pushes this as an agenda, they probably won't get lots of votes in a very liberal area. I think he's done for in AZ.

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• Arizona Willie posted at 4:18 pm on Wed, Feb 22, 2012.

  Posts: 1915

  He probably is ... but that doesn't mean he wasn't the victim of a set-up by the same people who brought Pearce down and are still after Sheriff Joe ... even running a TV ad against him tonight from what I read.

  Where is all the money coming from?

  All the money being thrown around to stop people who are trying to enforce the laws should alert people and make them think twice before supporting the people who are doing it.

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• IceCat posted at 5:36 pm on Wed, Feb 22, 2012.

  Posts: 211

  This incident was the result of good reporting and investigation by the staff of the New Times. Babeu caused his own problems. He should have known as a elected he couldn't post those type of pictures on any web site especially gay ones in Arizona and expect nothing to happen. There is a lot of dirty laundry, misspent funds with the Pinal County Sheriff Office (really $36,000 for special badges) that deserves more attention.

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• Rich posted at 9:18 pm on Wed, Feb 22, 2012.

  Posts: 1868

  Actually it was too overt to be a set-up. The outing came from the wrong source. Gannett would have outed him just as quickly. The idea that "illegal Immigrant" is perfectly fine if you buy a round at the 'Chartreuse Moose' is too obvious. 'Jose', not homosexuality is the problem here. Call it what it is. He made xenophobia an issue, and almost any journalist would bite him on this. It would only be slightly less dramatic if his live-in lover had been a Latina topless dancer that no one sure was legal. The implication would change to, if you dance topless, no one cares how you got in the country. Yes, he'll lose votes being gay, but the implication of misusing his office is more damaging and even an ultraConservative media outlet would report that, and it would be more damaging leaked that way.

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• Dale Whiting posted at 7:42 am on Thu, Feb 23, 2012.

  Posts: 3705

  Willie,

  Set up or not, he's toast in this Neo-con universe. So you are a conspiracy nut! I'd never have expected that of you.

  DrJCA1,

  You've hit the nail on the head. He's toast. And that's too bad. While I distained his cheap politicing on "build the dang fense" I did understand from my ICE contacts that they liked working with [and around] him.

  IceCat,

  Don't start with setting out the facts. The Neo-cons on this site distain facts.

  Rich,

  While I can agree with you on all of your points [i.e. the conclusions you reached], I do find one minor fault with the means. It would have been much less onerous if Jose and been a topless illegal alien Latina dancer named Josephina. Just look at how Arpaio invents excuses. Babeau could have claimed he was doing "under cover" investigations.[wink]

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• Arizona Willie posted at 9:52 am on Thu, Feb 23, 2012.

  Posts: 1915

  Dale, I only consider conspiracy because of the way the pro-invader people have acted in concert to bring down Pearce and are working to get rid of Arpaio.

  I find it hard to believer someone could make it up the ranks and get to be Sheriff of Pinal County without have some smarts. How could he be so stupid as to get involved with a < possibly > illegal hispanic without completely checking out his background and being absolutely sure who he was dealing with?

  I suspect he did use the resources available to him and did check the guy out.

  Which makes it more likely that either he was sent is as a plant by the pro-illegal / hispanic community or that he is just a jilted lover striking out to hurt Babeau and making < probably > false claims. I'm sure Babeau knew he couldn't deport the guy.

  It's just too too convenient that these charges would be made now while someone the pro-illegal group is opposed to is running for office.

  It might be interesting to see and audit of this guy's finances to see if he has received money from one or more of the pro-illegal groups.

  It just smells, because Babeau has to be smarter than that.

  Maybe I'm giving him too much credit.

  After all, Bill Clinton, a Rhodes scholar and President of the United States fell for a b l o w job too.

  But the timing and the people involved make me suspicious. If his lover hadn't been hispanic it would be different.

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• Dale Whiting posted at 1:03 pm on Thu, Feb 23, 2012.

  Posts: 3705

  80 votes in, folks and it's 51 for the proposition that he's toast, if not forever, at least for now. Only 19 think he has a political career ahead of him.

  Don't give up the ship, Paul. Your name sake John Paul Jones made his reputation vowing to go under if necessary.

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