Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
After reading Craig's post The Legislative Crazy Train Is Up To Speed…, it is clear that no matter how many new players get added to the team it is always the same crazy game. We are right back where we were at this time last year when Rep. Judy Burges (R-Skull Valley) was trying to lay claim to the title of "birther queen."
I want to see proof of an entirely different qualification for office. I said it before and I will say it again: New Rule: Mental Competency Exams for Politicians:
The utter ignorance of her statements aside (Judy will not be a contestant on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? anytime soon, she couldn't make it out of the qualifying round), when someone advocates conspiracy theories that are without any factual basis or merit and which have been disproved and debunked numerous times by independent reporting and rejected by the courts numerous times as a "frivolous" claim (i.e., without any basis in law or fact), that individual is delusional and mentally incompetent. Let's just call a spade a spade. Judy is a danger to herself and to society.
The mentally incompetent are not permitted to vote in Arizona. [And they are not permitted to own a gun.] They sure as hell should not be serving in the Arizona Legislature. Which means we have a serious problem. When someone who is clearly delusional as Judy Burges can be elected to office (and she is not alone, there are others as delusional as her in the Arizona Legislature), we need a new rule: mental competency exams for politicians as a pre-qualification to run for elective office.
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a mechanism for succession when a disability renders the president or vice president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Arizona should similarly provide a mechanism for the removal from office of elected officials "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his or her office" due to disability, i.e., the lack of mental competency as adjudicated by a court of law.
Until Arizona adopts such a law, there is only one remedial option — recall. The voters of this state should not have to suffer the ignorance of anyone who sponsors this bill. Enough is enough. Just pull the paperwork for a recall of anyone who signs on as a cosponsor of this birther queen's bill. Send a statement that "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" It's time that we use the constitutional remedy of recall to fight the stupid.