Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Somehow, I missed this, but they caught it over at Box Turtle Bulletin. Joe Sweeney, such a constant candidate for congress that the word “perennial” doesn’t begin to describe the frequency and number of his campaigns, had an interview with the Tucson Citizen which was posted last monday.

Sweeney, no surprise, is against gay marriage. But, Sweeney being Sweeney, he manages to relate it to illegal immigration. In particular, well…you just have to read this (transcription courtesy Box Turtle Bulletin):

Sweeney: Well because it’s addictive and it creates social chaos, social problems.
Q: Just out of curiosity, what would you base that on?
Sweeney: Well I would base that on the fact that people come together with their genital drives, and they either bridle their genital drives — and that’s what a marriage contract is supposed to be about — or they just go around acting like they can go whoring down in Nogales or prostituting anywhere they want, they can do whatever they want with their bodies. They don’t have any higher responsibility other than their own gratification. Hedonism, which is maximizing pleasure over pain. And that’s what happens at Nogales every night when they go down there whoring and causing all the social strife. Now they got those kids in the whorehouses in Nogales coming up here to Tucson to be anchor babies. You know I’ve witnessed that stuff.
Q: Okay, so there’s another question following that. You guys both have said marriage should be between a man and a woman. What about a transgender person who used to be a man, now became a woman and wants to marry a man.
Sweeney: Well, I’ve got a friend like that. And… you know… That’s what he wants to do with his social activity and his life, his social functioning, that’s up to him, you know? But to say that we have to validate that, the rest of society has to validate that kind of behavior, you know, let him conduct his behavior the way that he’s going to conduct his behavior. You know, I don’t agree with prostitution in Mexico, but they have laws that say it’s a way of functioning, socially functional society five feet the other side of the border that allows that to happen. We think the repercussions of that totally outweigh the responsibilities.
Q: Just out of curiosity, what do you think that homosexuals have to do with whorehouses in Mexico?
Sweeney: Oh, I don’t know. We’ve got the only Southwest weekly newspaper, we’ve got more homosexuals down here than we’ve got a lot of other kinds of people.
Q: Again, what does that got to do with whorehouses in Mexico?
Sweeney: Well, what happens is you get what I call a hedonistic attractiveness to do anything and everything with your genital drive.
Q: Again, are the homosexuals frequenting the whorehouses?
Sweeney: I wouldn’t be surprised. Anything can happen around this town. We’ve got gay bars down on Fourth Avenue.

So, um, gays shouldn’t marry because they, um, are encouraged by the Tucson Weekly to visit prostitutes in Nogales, who, in turn, eh, have babies here in Tucson?

Now, I’m not all that concerned about Sweeney’s candidacy. I don’t know what it would take before he actually was sworn in as a congressman, but I think that whatever it took, it would be closely followed by four horsemen showing up.

However, I have to wonder why this guy continues to garner support from folks. He actually got nominated in 2004 (after getting more than 70% of the primary vote!), and even managed to get nearly 40% of the vote when he ran against Ron Drake, who was probably the strongest candidate that the Republicans have found in that district (faint praise, I know). I always hear the excuse that he’s got name ID, but if this guy can continue to do well in Republican primaries, I have to conclude that either the Republican primary electorate in CD 7 will vote for a candidate simply because every dumpster in the district has his name wheat pasted on it or that they actually agree with Sweeney’s bizarre brand of racism and paranoia.

NB - I found Sweeney’s comments about “gay bars on Fourth Avenue” (there is only one, actually) funny, given he frequents a Fourth Avenue bar that is owned by a lesbian couple. He has also been seen there on the nights when they have burlesque shows, I mean, that’s what a friend told me. I’d never go to those.