Ridicule is appropriate, but Kari Lake also should pay a price
Mar 16, 2023, 11:32 AM | Updated: 1:31 pm
Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Karie Lake attends the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 2, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Kari Lake was ripe for ridicule by “Saturday Night Live” — and others — during, and immediately after, losing the election to be governor of Arizona. But Lake keeps adding fodder to the comedic cannon as she continues claiming she couldn’t possibly have lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
In fact, she blames Hobbs for her loss — not because Hobbs ran a better campaign (cuz, honestly, Hobbs ran a mediocre-at-best-kinda campaign) but, instead, Lake claims, because Hobbs cheated when she was secretary of state. And Lake claims Hobbs was joined by current Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in that cheating.
Since Hobbs and Fontes are Democrats, those claims are believable enough for some people to keep giving Lake lots o’ cash.
I really seriously worry, though, about the Republicans who believe Lake’s claims that Republican politicians helped the Democrats cheat Republican candidate Lake out of the governorship.
That makes Lake laughable to most people.
But the majority-Republican Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, along with Hobbs and Fontes, stopped laughing long ago about Lake’s copious claims — when they were made in court against them. And this week they asked the state’s highest court to throw Lake, her lawsuit and her lawyers out on their ears.
But Hobbs and Fontes are going even further. They are asking that the Arizona Supreme Court sanction Lake and her lawyers. That could potentially take thousands of dollars out of their pockets.
I think they’d be more successful if they could get their Republican co-defendants to also seek some monetary pain against Lake’s lunacy.
The effect on the public would certainly be more profound if Republicans helped bring focus to Lake’s crazy claim that Republicans criminally colluded — with Democrats — to get Democrats elected.
Even then, the effect would be limited. The claim that Republicans conspired against her — which causes the average voters’ eyes to roll — makes Lake’s sycophants’ eyes glaze over like they are in a trance. So the minds of only some persuadable Republicans will be moved.
But it will never persuade Lake to back down.
Because any monetary penalty the court could hand down would be a mere pittance compared to the millions Lake has amassed peddling poop-loads of prevarication to the people.
(Try saying that five times fast.)
