BAD NEWS FOR ARIZONA BOYCOTTERS AND DEMOCRATS

Jim Clark and a friend were removed from their front row seats at an NBA playoff game between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs May 12 because they were wearing orange t shirts that had "Viva Los 1070" printed on them.

SB 1070 was the bill number of the new Arizona law which authorizes state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

Mr. Clark and his friend wore the shirts to protest the Suns’ protest of SB 1070.  Team owner Robert Sarver — with, he said, the unanimous support of his players — had the team wear jerseys with "Los Suns" emblazoned on them for a game on Cinco de Mayo, a minor Mexican holiday, to protest the passage of SB 1070.

"The result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question," Mr. Sarver said in a statement.

"If they’re going to shove politics down my throat, I’m going to make a message of my own," Mr. Clark told the Daily Caller when a reporter asked why he wore the t shirt.

Mr. Clark and his friend were asked to remove the shirts, or turn them inside out.  When they refused, four security guards escorted them from the arena.  But after speaking to a security manager, they were permitted to return.

Suns President Rick Welts later called to apologize, and gave Mr. Clark and his friend four free tickets to each of the next ten games.  So this story has a happy ending…at least for Mr. Clark.  But it illustrates the perils of politicizing sports.

I don’t doubt that Mr. Welts was sincerely upset by the way Mr. Clark and his friend were treated, and genuinely wanted to make amends.  But I also suspect it occurred to him that most people who buy tickets to Suns games support SB 1070 (polls indicate roughly 60 percent of Arizonans do), and that carrying political correctness to the point of denying paying customers their First Amendment rights could be bad for business.

The city councils in Los Angeles and San Diego passed resolutions calling for a boycott of Arizona.  Both are discovering their politically correct gesture is not without cost.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce reminded LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that his city receives 25 percent of its electricity from power plants in Arizona.

"I am confident that Arizona‘s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands," Mr. Pierce wrote.

San Diego depends heavily on the tourist industry, but the recession has hit it hard.  Typically, about two million Arizonans visit San Diego each year, so when the city council spit in their face, tourism officials were concerned.

"I’ve been approached by a number of hotels who are very concerned because they’ve received cancellations from Arizona guests," the executive director of the county hotel-motel association told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

A Fox News poll May 7 indicated Americans support the Arizona law, 61- 27.  Even a majority of Democrats (52 percent) said the Obama administration should see how it works out (the law doesn’t go into effect until July) before trying to block it.

A Rasmussen poll May 17 indicated that by a 55-33 margin, Americans want a law like Arizona‘s for their own state.  This poll is especially significant because it comes after weeks of withering criticism of the Arizona law by leading media and political figures.

Much of that criticism has come from Obama administration officials.  Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have questioned its constitutionality.  But it had to be embarrassing for them to admit they hadn’t actually read the law.

This criticism reached ludicrous proportions when Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner apologized to China for the Arizona law.  China, where there are no free elections; where protesters are imprisoned, and where prisoners often are executed so their organs can be harvested.

"To compare in any way the lawful and democratic act of the government of the state of Arizona with the arbitrary abuses of the Chinese Communist Party is inappropriate and offensive," Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said in a letter to Mr. Posner.

Slamming the Arizona law could be hazardous to the political health of Democrats in swing districts.  In the Rasmussen poll, 50 percent of respondents said immigration will be very important in how they will vote in November, and another 38 percent said it would be somewhat important.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.