14 Feb 27th-March 5th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | T ribalism and Trump derange- ment syndrome can really skew folks’ perspectives. Granted, in the Donald Trump era, the bar for what consti- tutes a contemptible politician is lower than a manhole cover. How quickly we forget that the vast majority of our elected officeholders are self-serving egomaniacs who quite often get worse the longer they’re in power. And for those who make politics a career, there is little hope of redemption. Short attention spans and presentism have us judging foggy memories of the past by current events, conveniently forgetting horrors gone by. Bad behavior and corrup- tion are the rule in politics, not the excep- tion. Once you accept this simple fact of existence, you will be forever on guard — even with those pols who smile in your face, pat your back and tell you what you want to hear. Last year, we brought you our list of the 12 worst politicians in Arizona history. But the Grand Canyon State boasts far more than just a dirty dozen. So, we’re back with another installment. These 12 may not have been awful enough to crack our orig- inal list, but each is bad in his or her own special way. Janet Napolitano Ruthless self-advancement marked the political career of Napolitano, Arizona’s 21st governor. She notoriously abandoned the state in 2009 to a nativist, Republican majority in the legislature — and to her GOP successor as governor, Jan Brewer — for a plum position as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama adminis- tration. Brewer went on to sign the odious “papers please” law, Senate Bill 1070, which led to a massive boycott of the state and spread fear throughout the Hispanic population. Though Napolitano had signed some anti-immigration legislation as governor, SB 1070 was universally opposed by Democrats and Napolitano surely would have vetoed it. Should you be inclined to forgive her overweening ambition in this regard, keep in mind that during her tenure as Homeland Security Secretary from 2009- 13, the department deported more than 3 million people. That exceeds the number of deportations in Trump’s first presidency. Obama’s regime ultimately deported more than 5 million people, earning Napolitano’s jefe the moniker of “Deporter in Chief.” Nor should Arizonans forget Napolitano’s years-long political alliance with Republican Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 1997, while Napolitano was U.S. Attorney for Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice brought a complaint against Arpaio for the cruelty in his jails, which employed deadly restraint chairs used to suffocate prisoners to death. When Arpaio was forced to eat crow and sign an agreement with the feds to improve condi- tions, Napolitano did him a solid, appearing with him at a joint press confer- ence to downplay the agreement as nothing more than a “technicality” and “a lawyer’s paper.” Arpaio returned the favor in 2002, crossing political lines to cut a TV ad defending Napolitano’s record during her run for governor. In office, she helped Arpaio become part of the federal govern- ment’s 287(g) program, which trains local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. Arpaio once had the largest 287(g) force in the nation, empowering his sweeps of Hispanic communities until Latino groups successfully pressured the Obama administration to strip Arpaio of that authority. John McCain Carpetbagger, warmonger and ratfucker extraordinaire, the late Sen. John McCain has been forgiven all sins by many Democrats for a couple of reasons. First, because Trump publicly excoriated the Vietnam vet as a “loser” and verbally attacked him on many occasions. Second, due to McCain’s dramatic, 2017 thumbs- down vote to block the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Many conveniently forget that two other Republican senators also voted against the repeal. McCain just succeeded in hogging the credit. As for the logic that, vis-a-vis Trump, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” catch a clue — McCain was never your friend. He was a slimy political oppor- tunist. Earlier in his political career, McCain took campaign contributions and free plane trips to the Bahamas from savings and loan swindler Charles Keating and tried to protect the fraud king from government regulators, making McCain “the most reprehensible of the Keating Five.” The collapse of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan eventually cost taxpayers $3.4 billion to clean up. Nor was this a one-off. The sleazoids, kooks and other questionable individuals McCain cozied up to over the years make quite the rogues gallery: disgraced Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Silicon Valley con artist Elizabeth Holmes, Tucson devel- oper Don Diamond, vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, convicted bootlegger Jim Hensley (his father-in-law), onetime Arizona Republic publisher and stolen valor-dictorian Darrow J. “Duke” Tully. And more. Add these to McCain’s list of sins: taking a $1 million donation from the murderous Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for his McCain Institute while carrying water for the country in the Senate; attempting to cover up his wife’s theft of opioids from a non- profit she ran and retaliating against a whistleblower; and playing cheerleader in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, one of the many countries McCain has urged the United States to attack. Saint McCain? Please. 12 (More) of the Worst Politicians in Arizona History. Sen. John McCain enjoys a burnished reputation in Arizona that doesn’t match reality. (Miriam Wasser) Democrat Janet Napolitano abandoned the state in 2009 to a nativist, GOP majority in the legislature to join the Obama administration, paving the way for Republican Jan Brewer to become governor and sign Arizona’s infamous Senate Bill 1070. (Gage Skidmore/ Flickr/CC-BY-SA 2.0) BY STEPHEN LEMONS
