Thread: Sheriff Joe's latest book rips McCain

Sheriff Joe's latest book rips McCain
May. 14, 2008 10:51 PM

In his soon-to-be published new book, the toughest sheriff in America has some straight talk for Sen. John McCain - and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee won't like it.

"You don't think?" Sheriff Joe Arpaio said when I asked about the political payback he unleashes in Joe's Law, which is scheduled to reach bookstores later this month.

"I toned it down a little," the sheriff added with a chuckle. "I didn't say everything." advertisement




In one passage, Arpaio discusses McCain's reaction to the sheriff's 2000 decision to endorse then-Gov. George W. Bush in the presidential race.

"The senator did not take my position with good humor," Arpaio writes. "He has a reputation for holding a grudge (not to mention an angry, bitter temper that's regularly directed at staffers and others around him), and he quickly developed a world-class doozy against me."

Arpaio's new book is part autobiography, part law-enforcement philosophy and part retribution. The subtitle is "America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs, and Everything Else That Threatens America."

But once Arpaio (through ghostwriter Len Sherman) decides to dish out the dirt, everything else goes by the wayside. He speaks of what happened after he appeared in an advertisement that condemned a political attack against Democrat Janet Napolitano.

"All this set the stage for McCain to gain his revenge," Arpaio writes. "He endorsed a candidate running against me in the Republican primary, a candidate who was both personally and professionally unqualified, with a history more than a little strange and undeniably sordid."

That last bit was a slam of Arpaio opponent Dan Saban. The sheriff takes an equally negative swipe at former County Attorney Rick Romley (without naming him) and casts a stone or two, or three, at Phoenix New Times and others.

But McCain, with whom Arpaio has feuded for years, gets the most attention. Discussing McCain's endorsement of Saban over him, Arpaio says, "To the outside observer, not to mention a number of people inside Arizona's political crowd, it seemed a bit weird, almost unseemly, that a United States senator would get so involved in a county race for sheriff."

Arpaio even theorizes on why McCain managed to patch up his differences with President Bush after their nasty 2000 campaign fight but has not made peace with the sheriff.

"The real point," Arpaio writes, "is that McCain forgave Bush because his ambition could not afford his anger, no matter how righteous, while I remained high on his hit list, year after year, because his ambition was not adversely affected by his well-celebrated anger, and so he could let the demon out to play and run free."

Earlier this week, I e-mailed quotations from Arpaio's book to representatives on McCain's campaign staff and to his Washington, D.C., office, but the senator hasn't responded. And why should he? As Arpaio said of McCain last month, "I'm sure the senator realizes all the polls that have been taken ... (that) support my operations."

Besides, the sheriff told me that although he was a Mitt Romney supporter, he now backs McCain. Even after what he wrote about him.

"Right now I'm supporting him. I'd campaign for him, too," Arpaio said, adding, "although, he hasn't called me."

Arpaio actually uses an endorsement from McCain on his book cover. It reads: "Sheriff Joe Arpaio's no-nonsense, straight-shooting, commonsense approach to law enforcement has made him the object of widespread admiration in Arizona and around the world."

Then again, McCain spoke those words over 10 years ago, in support of Arpaio's first book.



Reach Montini at

602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... 0515.html#

Do you think they will publish it in Spanish? :P