There's someone to blame, all right, for the (expletive)show at the Arizona Senate

The Trump era of American politics began on June 16, 2015, when its grand swami rode a golden elevator down to the basement of Trump Tower and announced he was running for president of the United States.

What we didn’t know was the escalator had not finished its descent that day in midtown Manhattan.

Greater depths awaited.

To wit, two impeachments, electoral defeat, electoral denial, an attack on the U.S. Capitol and three straight cycles of GOP national collapse.

It continued this past week as Trump minions in the Arizona Republican Party, who had given him his first beachhead on the American electoral map, were still executing the MAGA playbook to destroy the country in order to save it.

Wendy Rogers should not be in office

Wendy Rogers, perhaps the most despicable person to hold state office (and no, I’ve not forgotten Evan Mecham), presided over a fever swamp we call the Senate Elections Committee.

An unabashed antisemite and conspiracy fabulist, Rogers provided the platform for another conspiratorial kook to accuse the governor, secretary of state, speaker of the House, mayor of Mesa, Mesa City Council, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, “two dozen judges,” state lawmakers and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for good measure, of joining ranks with a notorious Mexican drug cartel.

Elders Price and Cunningham, seen daily pedaling their bikes in white shirts and ties, may look pimple-faced and squeaky clean to you.

They’re actually laundering dope-money for the Sinaloans.

The only good news if you’re Rogers is that the Mormons are too nice to sue you.

Don't blame her or Liz Harris for this

On second thought, perhaps there is more good news. Rogers, a zealot who is usually impervious to facts, finally woke up and found a clown show even too Ringling Brothers for her.

“This was not the appropriate venue to discuss what could potentially be criminal activity,” Rogers said. “To our knowledge, none of the people named had charges filed, have prosecutions pending, nor had any convictions made against them.”

After the hearing backlash:Arizona GOP is blaming a new lawmaker

Which was another way of saying, don’t blame me – the chairwoman who presides over this circus maximus, controls its agenda, signs off on its speakers, and who told the speaker who had just accused half the state of running drugs that she is “brave.”

Instead, blame Rep. Liz Harris, R-Chandler, who invited said speaker to address the body.

Who's also not to blame for the GOP's mess

Frankly, I blame neither one.

Nor do I blame the couple who rolled out their grand conspiracy before state lawmakers. Oh, what a pair central casting sent us in these two.

Jacqueline Breger, who addressed the committee, and John Thaler, the tinkerer of tall tales behind the scenes, seemed to be playing the low-rent grifters in the motion picture “American Hustle,” she in the role of Lady Edith Greensly, with her lilting British accent (or was it Commonwealth?), and he as Irving Rosenfeld with his dodgy past.

Turns out Thaler’s law license is currently suspended – something to do with failing to complete mandatory continuing legal education.

Nor do I blame Senate President Warren Petersen for appointing Wendy Rogers to oversee the Elections Committee, thus guaranteeing it would soon turn into a (expletive) show.

The guilty one is looking straight at me

Actually, the fault for this debacle is mine.

I was born into a Republican family. Both my parents were Republicans, and my grandfather was a Republican officeholder in rural Pennsylvania. All of my siblings, there were five of us, joined the party, though many of our own kids are drawn to Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama.

Republicans like me lost the plot.

So did Republicans who, in an act of political hygiene, left the party.

So did Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who like many of us, thought you could ignore the imbeciles and whack-jobs taking over the state party and there would be no serious consequences.

Turns out we were wrong.

We thought we could ignore them. Wrong

Our greatest failing will forever be that we let people like Paul Gosar, the Ichabod Crane of Capitol Hill, and Kelli Ward and Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene take control of the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Eisenhower and McCain.

And without much of a fight.

We turned the keys over to Donald Trump, a coup leader who couldn’t even find his way to the coup on Jan. 6 or get his driver to follow orders and take him there. Such was his incompetence.

And such is our shame.

While Arizona Republicans have brought in the scoops and buckets to clean up the mess they made at the state Capitol, the Democrats are on the move.

Kris Mayes, who ran for attorney general because she craves the power to make things happen, is announcing new initiatives by the day when she’s not putting Mark Brnovich’s head on a pike.

Katie Hobbs is building a war chest to flip the Arizona House and Senate in 2024.

And in a moment of mirth, she smiled and told a press scrum that if they happened to hear the rumors that she’s in league with the Sinaloa crime family, they’re not true.

When the tape rolled on TV and the internet, only the Democrats were laughing.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Senate election hearing was a mess. Here's who to blame