Sick in What Way?

It is a scant three weeks before election day and the gloves have come off in the Arizona gubernatorial race. That unhappy fact is not unique in modern (or even historic) American politics, so on its face, it isn't worth the ink that was spilled onto page 2 of the Arizona Republic's Valley and State section this morning.

The content of the exchange, however, makes it worthy of closer examination. It all began when John Dougherty, the respected rapscallion who dutifully (and fearlessly) typed for the Phoenix New Times for all those years, floated an unsubstantiated Facebook rumor stating that incumbent Jan Brewer "is seriously ill and may not be capable of finishing a four-year term."

Brewer flatly denied the allegation, claiming to have had "a complete checkup" prior to the start of the race. It should have ended there, but in keeping with what we know about Brewer's judgment, it didn't.

Her campaign's top man, Chuck Coughlin, launched a cyber-missile of his own, using his consulting firm's website as the launchpad. He dredged up a 20-year old court transcript in which an unidentified subject suggested that Terry Goddard, Brewer's Democratic opponent, might be gay.

Not there's anything wrong with that - Coughlin's point was that there is no more validity, or relevance, to such a rumor than there is to Dougherty's rumor about Brewer's health. The two things are equal on the scale of media scrutiny, he claims.

There are only a few problems with his thinking on this. First off, Goddard didn't float the rumor about Brewer's health; John Dougherty did. Then there's the fact that being gay does not in any way impede one's ability to hold public office, whereas the same thing cannot be said about being gravely ill.

Most important, there's the fact that impugning someone for being sick is in no way a form of discrimination, but decrying one's sexuality can only be seen as such. So, memo to Chuck Coughlin and his sick boss, there are a few differences between the two things.

And that's natural, because there is also a difference between the two candidates. One would possibly make a fine governor for Arizona. The other is Jan Brewer.

pH 1o.13.1o