EJ MONTINI

Biggs at event where speaker says McCain should be hung

EJ Montini
opinion columnist
State Senate President . Andy Biggs

Used to be that politicians did most of their damage when the legislature was in session.

Now it doesn't seem to matter.

Or maybe that's just Arizona.

Maybe if the legislature had been in session Senate President Andy Biggs, a Republican from Gilbert, would not have had the time to attend a recent meeting of a group called the Oath Keepers, in which the founder called Sen. John McCain a traitor who should be "hung by the neck until dead."

You can watch the video here on the Right Wing Watch website.

The Oath Keepers refer to themselves on their website as a" non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to "'defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'"

Apparently, founder Stewart Rhodes was upset about how the Ron Paul delegates were treated during the 2008 Republican Convention -- the one in which McCain was selected as the party's presidential nominee.

He says of that process, "John Cain (Yes, he dropped the Mc from the senator's name) is a traitor to the Constitution. He should be tried for treason before a jury of his peers — which he would deny you, he supports your denial of a jury trial, he supported the NDAA saying that he could just have the president slam you into a brig in North Carolina or South Carolina or wherever else he wanted to, try you by military tribunal and have you executed. He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we will give him a trial for jury, and then after we convict him, he should be hung by the neck until dead. But that was their candidate!"

I called Biggs office to get a comment from the senator about the event and his feelings about what was said.

His spokesman said that the senator was speaking with another reporter about this and probably wouldn't have time to get back to me. That's okay.

Biggs told the Republic's Mary Jo Pitzl that he thought he was attending a "promise keepers' event didn't know what Oath Keepers is. He said he didn't speak up when the guy said what he said about McCain owing to the man's free speech rights.

Sure.

With any luck Biggs will face LOTS of other questions about this.

Then again, what if the people Biggs represents are okay with it?