The Arizona Republic

Here’s why we should praise unhinged Sen. Rogers

- EJ Montini Columnist Arizona Republic USA TODAY NETWORK

Not long ago, Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, the unhinged Arizona lawmaker running the joint Senate Elections and House Municipal Oversight & Elections committees, welcomed the testimony of an unhinged woman making unhinged accusation­s about bribery and connection­s to a drug cartel against the governor, the county supervisor­s, Maricopa County judges and even against the unhinged lawmakers who invited her.

Now, Republican­s in the Legislatur­e are suffering from ligament damage and tendon injuries from all the finger pointing.

Meantime, members of the press, other elected officials, social media respondent­s and the vast majority of, you know, sane people, condemned this one-flew-over-the-cuckoo’s-nest extravagan­za as a horrible way for politician­s to behave.

I understand where they’re coming from but ... they are wrong.

Rogers and the rest of her mad mob should be celebrated, not condemned. Seriously, celebrated.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, Montini has lost his marbles.

The truth is, a person cannot have spent his adult life toiling away in the paragraph factory that is a daily newspaper and not have misplaced an Aggie or two, or had a precious Cat’s Eye knocked out of the circle. Still, in this instance, most of my marbles are accounted for and my opinion is sound ... ish.

Rogers and her conspiracy crazed Republican cohorts are doing exactly what they promised they would do and, unwittingl­y, exactly what those of us with sound minds should want them to do. Which is — nothing.

They can rant about all the debunked conspiraci­es they want. They can hold all the hearings they want. They can propose all the bizarre, irrational,

irresponsi­ble election bills they want. In the end, they will come away with – you guessed it – nothing. Think about it.

These people could be working on actual legislatio­n with actual consequenc­es, God forbid. Instead, they’re still obsessing on debunked election fraud, even after their own debunked accusation­s have been revealed.

Not long ago, state Attorney General Kris Mayes released an investigat­ive report and two internal memos from 2022, informatio­n that should have been released by then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, since it found that the exhaustive investigat­ion by Brnovich’s office “did not uncover any criminalit­y or fraud.”

It also noted that Brnovich’s agents said that neither Sen. Rogers nor Republican Sen. Sonny Borrelli, her election-denying buddy, offered any evidence to substantia­te their claims of election fraud.

It doesn’t matter to them.

They are the flat Earthers of politics. Astronauts circling the Earth cannot convince them the world is round. Nor a lunar eclipse. Nor the way ships disappear over the horizon from the bottom as they slip over the curvature of the Earth.

These particular politician­s are not in the problem solving business. They are in the problem causing business.

And that is what they’re doing. They’re causing problems.

For other Republican­s.

Reach Montini at

 ?? MEGAN MENDOZA/THE REPUBLIC ?? Sen. Wendy Rodgers attends a committee hearing at the State Capitol on Feb. 23.
MEGAN MENDOZA/THE REPUBLIC Sen. Wendy Rodgers attends a committee hearing at the State Capitol on Feb. 23.
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