TPM rounds up the news, from the Arizona Republic and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: A deputy from Arpaio’s “threats unit” and “posse” member Michael Zullo arrived at the Hawaii Department of Health Monday demanding proof of the existence of a document we’ve all now seen a thousand times. From the Star-Advertiser:

A Hawaii deputy attorney general gave the men information concerning the legal requirements to obtain such a document; the requirements are posted on the Health Department’s website. The two men then left the office, Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.

The two men showed Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office badges and identified themselves as Michael Zullo and Brian Mackiewcz, Okubo said. They are “authorized by the Sheriff of Maricopa County, who is conducting an official investigation,” a spokesman for the sheriff’s office said in an email.

The Arizona Republic notes that in addition to having a taxpayer-funded deputy now assisting the supposedly donor-funded “cold-case posse” (which has spent $40,000 investigating Obama’s birth certificate thus far), the citizens of Arizona foot the bill for airfare and lodging for the crack investigators. (Arpaio’s response to questioning: “”It’s one deputy, so what? We have security issues, too, that I can’t go into.”)

Zullo is the guy who, along with crackpot author Jerome Corsi, “proved” at a recent Arpaio press conference that the president’s long-form birth certificate is a forgery, because of pixels. TPM also notes that the Maricopa County sheriff’s office’s “Threats Management Unit” was previously best known for smearing and intimidating one of Arpaio’s electoral challengers.

I think we have long since passed the point at which I’d find this story believable in a fictional setting, so, sure, why not have two crack detectives flashing their worthless Maricopa County badges at the Hawaii Department of Health. (I just can’t decide if they should be hard-bitten noir characters or Clouseau-esque bumblers.) But yes a completely crazy person who is in charge of law enforcement for the most populous county in Arizona is probably going to attempt to arrest Barack Obama at some point. I guess at least he’s not directly involved with the Mitt Romney campaign, like Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, Romney’s Arizona campaign co-chair who’s currently leading a separate investigation into proving the president’s secret foreignness. (Though Arpaio was honorary campaign co-chair in 2008, when he was still a stalwart harasser of Hispanics, but before birtherism had been properly invented.)

Maybe Hawaii officials will throw the cold case posse in jail for, I dunno, criminal nuisance or something. That’d be fun.

The latest Arpaio political supporter to fall is former Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas, who was disbarred April 10 for engaging in unethical conduct to intimidate and smear his and Arpaio’s political adversaries.

A stinging 247-page opinion written by a three-member Arizona state Supreme Court disciplinary panel supporting the disbarment ruling also concluded there was “beyond reasonable doubt” that Thomas had violated federal civil rights laws.

While Thomas, a Republican, has not been criminally charged, the opinion made it crystal clear that his unethical and allegedly illegal conduct was the result of his “unholy collaboration” with Arpaio, also a Republican, to use their law enforcement powers to retaliate against critics.

Thomas and an assistant prosecutor, Lisa Aubuchon, were disbarred for violating perjury and intimidation laws when they filed criminal charges against Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe and two county supervisors, Mary Rose Wilcox and Don Stapley.

All three of the criminal cases, filed in 2008 and 2009, were later dismissed for lack of evidence and conflict of interest issues.

The Supreme Court panel’s opinion stated that evidence indicated Arpaio had conspired with Thomas and Aubuchon to file the charges against the judge and two supervisors.

The Thomas disbarment opinion comes at the same time the Department of Justice has been conducting a three-year grand jury criminal investigation into allegations that Arpaio abused his power to go after opponents.  And the federal grand jury criminal investigation is running parallel to a DOJ civil rights violations probe into claims that Arpaio’s deputies routinely targeted Latinos for arrest in an effort to round up and deport illegal immigrants.

Arpaio’s critics are now seizing on the Thomas disbarment opinion to put pressure on DOJ to bring criminal charges against Arpaio, or walk away.

“We draw your attention to the Bar’s findings which indicate that Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio worked in concert to commit the crimes for which Mr. Thomas has, to a degree, been held accountable,” states a letter sent Monday to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, signed by four former Arizona elected officials and prosecutors.

In the letter, former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, former U.S. attorney for Arizona Paul Charlton, former Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley and former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard requested that DOJ bring an indictment or dismiss the drawn-out case.

“I think it is time to make that decision,” Charlton, who was a George W. Bush appointee, stated in an email. “I have been a vocal critic of Sheriff Arpaio. But there comes a time when an investigation must come to an end. It is appropriate (for) DOJ to go forward now, or explain why it cannot.”

Thomas’ disbarment comes six months after Arpaio’s closest ally in the state Legislature was recalled from office. Angry voters ousted former Senate President Russell Pearce for his leading role in passing Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB1070. Pearce and Arpaio have a long history of working closely together. Pearce was once Arpaio’s chief deputy and is credited with coming up with the idea 20 years ago of housing thousands of county inmates in tents.

Maricopa County’s “Tent City” jails propelled Arpaio to national prominence and for years helped make him Arizona’s most popular elected official. Pearce delivered another powerful political tool to Arpaio in 2010 by passing SB1070, which gave local law enforcement more power to enforce federal immigration laws. Arpaio seized on this and began a series of high-profile criminal sweeps in largely Latino neighborhoods rounding up thousands of illegal immigrants.

The roundups triggered the DOJ civil-rights investigation of MCSO’s operations that found serious violations outlined in a report released last December. Negotiations between DOJ and MCSO to resolve the civil rights issues broke off last week, and DOJ is widely expected to file a civil suit against the department in the near future.

Behind the scenes, Arpaio has also quietly lost the support of a longtime political ally in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Last December, under pressure from Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, Napolitano terminated an agreement with MCSO that gave the department access to the immigration status of detainees that could lead to their deportation.

Until then, Napolitano, a Democrat, rarely challenged Arpaio’s authority, even while she served as the U.S. attorney for Arizona (1993-1998), the Arizona attorney general (1998-2002) and as Arizona governor (2003-2009).

In her last days as a U.S. attorney in October 1998, Napolitano signed an agreement with Arpaio that ended a DOJ investigation into jail operations in the wake of several inmate deaths. Arpaio later appeared in a television commercial praising Napolitano during the 2002 gubernatorial election when she narrowly defeated Republican Matt Salmon.

As governor, Napolitano could have shut down Arpaio’s Tent City jails by ordering the state Fire Marshal not to renew waivers of state regulations prohibiting the housing of people in tents beyond six months, but never did.

Arpaio has also lost key support staff within his office, including his longtime chief deputy David Hendershott, who was fired last year for his role in an unfolding Arpaio campaign finance scandal that is the subject of another federal criminal investigation. For years, Hendershott oversaw operations in MCSO and was involved in initiating criminal investigations of Arpaio’s critics, including an Arpaio opponent in the 2004 Republican primary.

The highly publicized fall of Thomas, Pearce and Hendershott, along with eroding support from other powerful politicians such as Napolitano, combined with loud demands for a federal indictment have many believing that Arpaio’s two-decade reign will come to an end.

“We are witnessing the end of the Joe Show,” says prominent Phoenix attorney Michael Manning, who requested a federal civil rights investigation of the sheriff in 2008. “I believe he will be indicted within the next 30 days.”

But even a federal criminal indictment may not work against Arpaio in the upcoming general election, where he is expected to face an independent and Democratic candidates. Despite the steady drumbeat of news reports of serious problems within Arpaio’s sheriff’s office, there hasn’t been a huge public outcry demanding he step down.

“The groundswell of people coming out protesting, we haven’t seen it,” says Randy Parraz, a community activist who led the Russell Pearce recall effort. “It’s a mystery. Anywhere else with this kind of stuff, he wouldn’t survive.”

“None of us agreed to allow a federal monitor to come remove my authority as the elected sheriff of Maricopa County,” Arpaio said. “I feel that turning my office over to the federal government would be a dereliction of my duty.”

The breakdown sets up the likelihood that the Department of Justice will file a lawsuit against MCSO, which Arpaio said on Tuesday he welcomed.

Politically astute and a master of media manipulation, Arpaio never misses an opportunity to dust off his best John Wayne impression and cast himself as the courageous lawman calmly plunging into the firestorm to protect genteel citizens. No stinking judge, flimsy court order or federal bureaucrat is going to stop him from delivering Joe’s Justice.

This bravado has made him a national figure. But something most people don’t realize is how much of Arpaio’s gusto is defensive in nature. He learned long ago the best way to deflect criticism is to launch a criminal investigation of his critics, whether it’s the press, political leaders, judges or fellow cops.

He’s initiated criminal investigations against reporters, including this writer. He’s launched investigations into Arizona’s former attorney general, several members of the County Board of Supervisors, a couple of Superior Court judges, and a former Mesa police officer who was his opponent in the 2004 and 2008 elections. Famous for his aggressive prosecution of animal abuse, Arpaio opened a criminal investigation of a Chandler police officer whose dog died after being left accidentally in a car.

There is no limit to who will become a target. In an apparent attempt to deflect a separate, ongoing criminal probe that Arpaio has used his office to retaliate against political rivals, the sheriff is now investigating the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate.

Not everything goes Joe’s way. When pressed against the wall by a steady stream of pesky civil suits alleging wrongful deaths in his jails and other atrocities, such as the worst case of racial profiling in U.S. history, his office simply destroys evidence, even in the face of federal court orders to deliver the goods.

Despite the well-publicized problems engulfing the sheriff’s department, including misspending $100 million and botching scores of sex-crime investigations in Latino neighborhoods, the majority of voters in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, simply haven’t cared whether Arpaio abides by the law or even runs a competent department.

The Republican-dominated county loves his brash talk, and so do many independents and even some Democrats. Arpaio’s been elected five times without a serious challenge and is running for his sixth term this fall and is expected to coast to victory in a three-way race.

Encouraged by a fawning and frustrated electorate, Arpaio’s refusal Tuesday to comply with the Justice Department will likely generate even more campaign contributions from across the country. Arpaio has raised $6 million since 2009, with $1.1 million donated in 2011. The vast majority of Arpaio’s 2011 contributions – 80 percent – came from out of state.

Arpaio is claiming the DOJ civil rights allegations are nothing more than election year politics by the Obama administration as it tries to shore up flagging support from Latinos who helped deliver Obama the Oval Office in 2008.

For once, Gutierrez found himself in agreement with Arpaio. Latinos, he said, feel “betrayed” by Obama because he failed to deliver on a campaign promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform and has done little to support passage of the DREAM Act.

“Somebody in the Obama administration read the polls showing declining support from Latinos for Obama, so they finally decided to do something on this,” Gutierrez says. “But these complaints about MCSO have been before the Justice Department for years.”