Republicans are no longer wanted in Arizona’s GOP

It would be like the AFL/CIO censuring Joe Hill, Cesar Chavez and Mother Jones.

Or like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences censuring Steven Spielberg, Jimmy Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor.

Or the WWE censuring Hulk Hogan, John Cena and Charlotte Flair. (Don’t ask how I know this.)

Apparently, the Arizona Republican Party has decided that it no longer wants to be affiliated with ... Republicans.

There is really no other explanation for the party on Saturday reelecting Donald Trump cultist Kelli Ward as the state chairperson and, then, passing resolutions to censure Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain.

And it comes after national attention has zeroed in on Arizona Republican Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs have been in the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

They were among the most vociferous proponents of election fraud conspiracy theories, part of the Trump cabal spreading wild, unproven claims about rigged voting machines, missing or stolen ballots and who knows what else.

Then, video surfaced of “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander saying, “I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and then Congressman Andy Biggs. We four schemed up of putting max pressure on Congress while they were voting so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”

Biggs denied it and Gosar has avoided questions. Now come the censures of McCain, Flake and Ducey from the AZGOP.

“These resolutions are of no consequence whatsoever, and the people behind them have lost whatever little moral authority they may have once had,” Sara Mueller, Ducey’s political director, wrote in a statement after the vote.

Flake on Twitter said, “If condoning the president’s behavior is required to stay in the party’s good graces, I’m just fine being on the outs.”

McCain previously pointed out that Ward “managed to turn Arizona blue in November for the first time since 1996,” adding, “Maybe she should be reminded that my husband never lost an Arizona election since his first win in 1982.”

After voting against the censures, Trey Terry, a state committeeman, said of Ward, “She has set the party up for failure. It’s her circus now, and the clowns have come out.”

Not in the happy, zany, face-painted

version you see under the big top, however.

I’d imagine it’s more like the Judy Collins-sings-that-Stephen-Sondheim-song version.

“Isn’t it rich?”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@ari zonarepublic.com.