Another chapter of Tom Horne investigates himself!

It's been more than a month since Sarah Beattie dropped the bombshell, reporting that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne was, among other corrupt practices, operating his reelection campaign on the taxpayer dime, without shame, and in his official state office.

Of course, that's a no-no.

Now we have Tom Horne initiating an investigation of himself.

Clever, isn't it?

In the category of, "there's no new thing under the sun," Arizona voters and taxpayers should take a lesson from Georgia (the one in the United States).

Former Dalton, GA Mayor David Pennington was next: “Nathan Deal’s abuses of power, ethics flaws, and strong-arm, good old boy politics no longer have a place in our state. If we Republicans actually want to defeat Jason Carter this November, we must ensure an ethical conservative is on the top of the ticket.”

Republican Gov. Nathan Deal's 2010 campaign was hit with allegations of ethics violations. People who tried to do an actual independent investigation were forced out of their jobs because Deal was able to exert undue influence on the process.

The power structure is somewhat different here in Arizona, but the concept of an apparently mentally ill elected official ostensibly conducting an "independent" investigation of himself is no less absurd here than in Georgia or anywhere else.

Anyway, Horne's chief deputy, Eric Bistrow, hired Horne campaign contributors John Kaites and David Derickson, for a fee not to exceed $50k, to conduct the investigation and write the report that will exonerate him. And, of course, the investigation MUST be fair and independent.

By the way, one "out" Bistrow may have given Derickson is when he wrote that the scope of the engagement "shall be limited to determining whether Tom Horne, Margaret Dugan, Kathleen Winn, Debra Scordato, Brett Mecum, Garrett Archer AND Sarah Beattie..." engaged in conduct in violation of election law statutes. Does the passive aggressive (client advocate) attorney say that well, since A, B, and C committed violations, but D, E and F did not, then taken as a whole, Horne's off the hook?

Anyway, here's what Derickson, a former superior court judge, and Kaites, a long-time lobbyist, former Republican state lawmaker and all around political hack wrote to Beattie's attorney, Tom Ryan.

Thus far, Bistrow's letter to Derickson, and Derickson's letter to Beattie's attorney, Tom Ryan, are written in classic "straight man" schtick, apparently hoping Beattie's attorney is a rookie, greenhorn, wet behind the ears, new law school grad.

But Ryan sees through the schtick immediately. Here's his reply:

Back to Georgia and its Republican corruption problem (as an example):

Shortly after the bombshell verdict came down, state school Supt. John Barge was demanding that Deal withdraw from the Republican primary (where he is opposed by Barge and former Dalton Mayor David Pennington). “The governor is in the middle of all this mess,” Barge said. “It is time for the governor to step aside, settle for one term and let us get Georgia back on track.”

In Arizona, it's time for the attorney general and the superintendent of public instruction to step aside. Rest assured, neither will do so of their own volition, however.

As such, it's time Republicans learned the REAL lessons given by Machiavelli*. The people of Arizona, this year, are going to put an end to this chapter in the GOP book of oppression.

In the meantime, Ryan says "history will prove that the Tom Horne 2014 campaign headquarters are as mythical as the legendary Mogollon Monster and as ephemeral as La Llorona.

h/t and thanks to Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times for the letter from Bistrow to initiate the "independent" investigation.

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* NOTE: a key excerpt from the article on Machiavelli,

OurKingdom: Graham Smith and David Owen argue in a response to your book, published in The Good Society, that the Tribunate function might also be carried out by trade unions and labour parties. What’s wrong with this approach? Are there other possible approaches to thinking about the kind of institutions that could perform the Tribunate function?

John P. McCormick: I think its an excellent point, and I would include a free press within the ensemble of agents who have performed tribunician functions within modern democracies—it is no accident that many newspapers established during the Progressive Era in the United States invoked the Roman tribunate in their names, for instance, “The Chicago Tribune.”  However, both organized labor and a free media have, over the last generation or so, declined as potent agents of democratization in contemporary representative regimes. And, in any case, there’s something to be said, I think, for giving common people their own institutional branch through which they might assert their interests against other institutions more readily at the disposal of wealthy elites.  I justified the establishment of such “plebeian” institutions on the grounds of “affirmative action for common citizens.”

McCormick's conception of the Tribunate is an institution which excludes the wealthy and traditionally powerful citizens. This will allow for egalitarian public policy and for holding public officials accountable. We have seen examples of how this can work over the last year in our state. The HB2305 referendum was key and carried out by an organized citizenry not willing to tolerate GOP oppression over voter suppression.

The outrage and outcry over SB1062 this year is another extremely poignant and salient example of this concept.

I believe that despite the Republican legislature and governor repealing HB2305 this year -- for the obvious reason that they wanted to mitigate voter outrage come November -- they continue to trip over themselves doing stupid things that will make it impossible for them to successfully run enough misdirection this year to allow them to maintain their improperly attained and exercised dominion over the citizens. Horne and Huppenthal are cases in point.

Instead, the citizens will put a stop to the oppression. Period.

Of course, that fight will never be completely finished. It will remain a struggle for all time.