By Alexander Zaitchik, Media Matters
PHOENIX — The demographic death spiral of the conservative movement has a laugh track. It was recorded live in Barry Goldwater’s hometown on Saturday night, in front of a 1,000-person ballroom audience, during a banquet roast of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the gala conclusion to the annual Western Conservative Conference, known until last year as Western CPAC.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne laid down the basic comic framework for his fellow roasters, totaling a dozen conservative dignitaries of local and national reputation. “Apologies to the Civic Center,” said Horne, “but half of the kitchen staff was arrested tonight upon arrival of Joe and his deputies. Because of a budget crunch, the sheriff’s cutting way back. No more green baloney for prisoners — just an extra beating at suppertime. Over the years, Joe’s touched many people. We know because many are now pressing charges.”
Chuckling throughout Horne’s routine on stage next to Arpaio was Russell Pearce, a recalled state senator with a documented fondness for neo-Nazi websites, and the primary architect of Arizona’s controversial immigration bill S.B. 1070. Pearce smiled as his one-time ally in the 1070 fight, Arizona State Rep. John Kavanagh, began his set asking, “How many Hispanics did you pull over on the way over here, Arpaio?” He later added, “All these years I figured he was rounding up Hispanics because you had a grudge from [fighting in] the Spanish-American War. But if you were in the Korean War, how come you’re not rounding up Asians?” Kavanagh was doing a bit about the difficulties of dining out with Arpaio — “When we go into a restaurant, most of the wait staff and cooks dive out the back window” — when he spotted a passing waiter holding a platter of stuffed chickens, and screamed, “There’s a brave one! Get him! Sic ‘em!”
The crowd roared; the waiter turned red. Thus did a day of strategy sessions on how to reclaim the White House and build a new conservative majority end with national movement leaders affectionately teasing a divisive deport-‘em-all drug-war dinosaur, whose roast material revolved entirely around the three facts of his being old, sadistic, and having a bit of a brown-person problem.
Read the full article at Media Matters