Backwash from racist voice mails may swamp a legislator's career

[DoYouEverWonder]

October 31, 2006

MIAMI - A high-ranking Republican state representative is fighting for his political career, a week after he left crude and racist remarks on another representative's voice mail.

State Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, telephoned state Rep. Gus Barreiro on Oct. 21 and left two messages, calling Barreiro a "b----" and "my n-----." A day earlier, Barreiro had filed a House complaint against Arza, claiming Arza used the n-word repeatedly when referring to Miami school superintendent Rudy Crew, who is black.

Since the messages, nearly every Republican of note has weighed in on Arza's conduct. Gov. Jeb Bush called for Arza to resign. On Monday, House Speaker Allan Bense announced he has formed a committee to investigate, but he called Arza's conduct an "embarrassment."

Incoming House Speaker Marco Rubio - a friend of Arza's - has also demanded his resignation. Democrats and black lawmakers promise a walkout if Arza shows up in Tallahassee.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/31/State/Backwash_from_racist_.shtml


I love the smell of Republicans imploding in the morning. What is wrong with these people?

[ixion]

1. What is wrong with these people?

That's a very good question. Seems like most of them have the mentality of an emotionally disturbed third grader. By and large, when off camera, they act like punks and thugs and really not too much more, apparently.

[saigon68]

2. They are Thugs Hoodlums War Criminals and a sole Chimpanzee

They are Bullies and Racists. Mostly the children of privilege, they feel the world OWES THEM.

They are the social climbers we all knew in school, whose parents bought them new sports cars for their 16th birthday. The show "sweet sixteen" is all about them.

They are Draft Dodgers and they are very very rich. They will steal their way to wealth. Legally through the system. They tend to be selfishly attractive and they run in cliques.

Like this Butt Wipe boy Pierce Bush

Nephew of the Chimpanzee

[boilinmad]

9. Oh my god....

.....theyre cloning chimps down in texas.........

[depakid]

17. Other than the dentistry....

[xchrom]

3. when it comes to the republick party -- that's just

the tip of the iceberg.

racism is a thinly veiled charater trait in any conservative group in this country -- with the possible exception of corporatists.

[ninkasi]

10. Hey, xchrom, can I borrow that?

I love the "republick" party name. I'm so sick and tired of all of them being deliberately disrespectful by labeling us as the "Democrat" Party, instead of using the "Democratic" Party. It has become so common that even some democrats are doing it. I'm going to refer to Lucifer's party from now on as the "republik" party, with your kind permission.

[xchrom]

14. sure -- i borrowed it from someone else.

but i forget who.

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. Backwash?

Shouldn't that be "backlash?" I suppose his constituency may consist of Colbertian backwash......

[bleedingheart]

5. perhaps they mean it is something that slipped out of his mouth

and now it is coming back to wash over him???

[NorthernSpy]

6. a pattern of harassment

Repeatedly filling someone's answering machine with intimidating messages -- and enlisting other people (the nephew) to do the same -- is arguably stalking.

Just thought I'd point that out.

[brentspeak]

7. "Who is: Ralph Arza?"

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/2005-04-14/news/feature3.html

"Long before he established himself as a tenacious member of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation in Tallahassee, 45-year-old state Rep. Rafael "Ralph" Arza (R-Hialeah) was the king of Doral. In 1996, after losing a bid for the county school board, he was appointed to the Doral Community Council by former county Commissioner Miriam Alonso (now facing felony charges related to laundering political contributions)."

[Scurrilous]

8. Miriam's in the pokey:

Miriam Alonso: A saga of greed, power, thievery

<snip>

"Autumn in Miami and the demagogues are falling.

Miriam Alonso, whose campaign for mayor pivoted on the rightness of being Cuban, walked out of a county courtroom Thursday in handcuffs.

She wore a blue pantsuit and a brave smile, and on the way out she worried a slip of paper in her shackled hands. In the courtroom, the petty thieves and drug pushers, awaiting their own appointment with the judge, turned and stared.

"Is that the politician lady in the news?" asked a sex offender in the back row. "And they say that it's only the lower classes who do things like this. Look at her, she had it all."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15876309.htm

[Judi Lynn]

12. This is wonderful news, except for the sentence. The sentence for her crimes

would NEVER have been handed out to someone without her political influence as a long-standing Republican Miami City Commissioner. She has behaved like a wild beast for ages, and she would have been thrown into the slammer so hard long ago had she not been powerful, with similar powerful "friends."



A normal person wouldn't want to be known as someone who stole money from the taxpayers and handed it out to her daughter for a down payment on a home, or to furnish her own house, etc., etc., etc.

Renting Under the Influence
The county cut off rent subsidies to Commissioner Miriam Alonso, then reversed itself. What a coincidence!
By Kathy Glasgow
Article Published Aug 19, 1999

~snip~
Could Rodriguez's action have anything to do with Miriam Alonso's considerable political clout? After all, as recently as January 1998, county water department supervisors restored service at the Alonsos' west Miami-Dade home just fifteen minutes after it had been interrupted because of an unpaid $400 bill -- then apologized to the couple and punished the employee who cut off the water.
(snip)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15876309.htm




http://miamipages.4t.com/localgovernment.htm

[Divernan]

13. Is he one of those rabid anti-Castro Cubans?

More from the article:

Arza served as the council's powerful chairman until 2000, when he gave up the seat to run for the legislature from District 102, which includes most of Hialeah, parts of Miami Lakes, and a small portion of Broward County. He won easily. Last year he ran unopposed for his third term. Despite the lack of an opponent, Arza collected $200,000 in campaign contributions, $40,000 of that from real-estate investors and developers.

In his four years as a representative, Arza has become a player in the state House, especially regarding education issues. (For two decades he's been a history teacher at Miami Senior High School.) He is chairman of the legislature's PreK-12 committee, is vice chairman of the House Education Council, and sits on the Education Appropriations Committee. In 2001 Frank Bolaños, a close associate, was appointed to the Miami-Dade School Board by Governor Bush. Arza takes credit for engineering the appointment, much as he helped his brother-in-law, Agustin Barrera, win election to the school board in 2002.

[annabanana]

11. DAMN!. . . . What year is this anyway?. . . . . n/t

[Solly Mack]

15. Under Reagan racists and other sickos felt emboldened to

say and do as they pleased. It was the climate Reagan fostered. One that encouraged the worst of America to crawl out from under their rocks and preen about.

Under Shrub the same thing has happened - only worse.

[ozymandius]

16. Good assessment of Republican appeal.

Since the days of Lee Atwater Republicans have created a message that resonates with bigots of all types. It is a message that says it's okay to be selfish, greedy, disparaging of others unlike yourself. Worst of all - the Republican message of "tax cuts forever" bribes people with their own money for support of Katrina-style policies.

[Solly Mack]

20. Well said, ozymandius

"Worst of all - the Republican message of "tax cuts forever" bribes people with their own money for support of Katrina-style policies."

Sad, init?

Hard to appeal to people who would tolerate dying just to save a buck.

[ozymandius]

22. unbelievably sad

My heart aches for what this nation was supposed to be.

I forget which historical figure said this: "The Republic will end when the American people can be bribed with their own money."

[lpbk2713]

18. And people like Gingrich are still carrying his torch to this day.

They will always be able to find a receptive audience of small minds to infest.

[Solly Mack]

19. Newt's one of the worst offenders - because Newt wrote the book

on how to more effectively promote the worst of America

[Lochloosa]

23. you rush is really disturbing....

[BlueManDude]

21. Bigotry and Greed - the two pillars of today's GOP.

[bobthedrummer]

24. It's not just Florida, the hatred and bigotry are an evil rainbow coalition

that the extreme Republican RW has always had in its heart and cynically played like Abramoff, Gingrich, Allen, Schwartzenegger, Thompson, Cunningham, Ney...