Russell Pearce has had quite a career in Arizona. The Republican started as a fairly obscure state senator, before his anti-immigrant SB1070 pushed him into the national spotlight, which Pearce parlayed into a promotion as state Senate President.

His shooting star didn’t last – Pearce record and extremist associations undermined his standing, and in 2011, voters pushed him out of office in a recall election.

State Republicans probably should have allowed Pearce to fade from public view, but instead, GOP officials made Pearce the #2 leader in the state party. As Zach Roth reported, that didn’t turn out too well, either.



Just so we’re clear, by making Norplant a part of public assistance, Pearce was, fairly explicitly, talking about sterilizing low-income women.

By way of a response, the principal author of Arizona’s “papers please” law argued in a written statement that he was referencing “comments written by someone else and failed to attribute them to the author.”

It’s a rare sight: a politician trying to defend himself by relying on an admission of plagiarism.

Of course, the problem has nothing to do with attribution and everything to do with an intended message. No one cares whether Pearce was sharing someone else’s argument; everyone cares that he talked about sterilizing poor people.

Given that this was on the radio, which word could he have used instead?

But yeah, this guy is messed up. Arizona is the worst state.

Procreate.

“You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I’d do is get Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations…. Then we’ll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job.”

tubal ligations….

Is this even a word? Sounds like a term Archie Bunker would use.

Arizona is definitely giving Florida and Texas a run for their money.

Tubal ligation, commonly referred to as "having your tubes tied," is a surgical procedure in which a woman's fallopian tubes are blocked, tied, or cut.