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February 25, 2008
Quick Quiz: Evan Mecham
Paul Slansky knows it's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but he gives himself permission in the case of newly deceased reactionary Evan Mecham, who ran for governor of Arizona four times, finally won in 1986, and, fifteen months after being sworn in, was indicted, impeached and removed from office.
1) True or false? When a reporter asked Evan Mecham for the "true version" of a controversial incident, the car salesman-turned-governor replied, "You wouldn't know the truth if it came crashing through your windshield."
True.
False. What he actually said was, "Don't ever ask me for a true statement again."
2) Which statement refers to Evan Mecham's relationship with black people?
He canceled the state's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, telling a local black leader, "You folks don't need another holiday. What you folks need are jobs."
He explained that the black people who worked for him were there "because they are the best people who applied for the cotton-picking job."
Both of the above, and he called black children "pickaninnies."
3) Why did Evan Mecham say he always had the radio on in his home or his office?
He liked to listen to left-wing talk shows "to know what the enemy is thinking."
He found that it helped to "drown out the din" of the protesters outside demanding his impeachment and imprisonment.
He'd come to believe that he was being eavesdropped on by laser beams, and had convinced himself that having the radio on somehow "keeps the lasers out."
4) Eight of these statements refer to Evan Mecham. Which one refers to Ralph Nader?
He demanded a list of all homosexuals in the state government.
He addressed a convention of the John Birch Society.
He nominated a man who'd been court-martialed to investigate government corruption. A man who'd been court-martialed twice.
He told an audience in a synagogue that America is "a great Christian nation."
He blamed high divorce rates on working women.
He said that when Japanese golfers were told how many courses Arizona had, "suddenly they got round eyes."
His education adviser said "the teacher doesn't have the right to try to prove otherwise" if parents choose to tell their kids the world is flat.
A staffer overheard him in his office having a conversation, then entered the room and found him alone.
He peculiarly decided to spend his senior years undoing all the good he did as a younger man.
5) Complete Evan Mecham's statement about America: "I'm not sure but what maybe we have become ______________________"
a bit too much a democracy.
a little too well-educated.
too tolerant for our own good.
