Republican State Rep. Anthony Kern made the news a while back when he was outed by Phoenix New Times for having been fired by the El Mirage Police Department.

This week he’s taken to Twitter to compare welfare recipients to parasitic birds.

We’ll get to that in a minute.

If you know the Arizona Legislature, currently in control of Republicans, you’d probably guess that having been fired by a police department for lying didn’t cause party leadership to remove Kern as chairman of the Committee on Rules and vice chairman of the Committee on Public Safety.

Kern's troubles got him placed on what is called the “Brady List,” a compendium of public safety types who commit no-nos. According to public records, he was dumped as a civilian code enforcement officer after he lied to a supervisor about repaying the city for a lost tablet computer. He'd faced a number of other disciplinary problems.

He also asked a fellow lawmaker to introduce a bill that would have helped him get off the naughty list, although he didn't tell that specific lawmaker that he was on it.

It figures that Kern likes Trump

Kern is a big supporter of President Donald Trump, a man known to have problems with the truth.

After the Mueller report was released, Kern jumped on the Trump bandwagon (actually, he never jumped off) and immediately trumpeted the company line.

"I just think the Democrats again have shown that they'll do anything to destroy this president, and I think that's more on their agenda than what's good for the country," Kern said.

Do you think he read the full 400-plus page report first?

Me neither.

Why denigrate the unfortunate?

As for Kern’s own current agenda, it seems to involve using social media to denigrate families that are down on their luck.

He posted a tweet that shows a “do not feed the birds” sign that says doing so creates a dependent population that’s a potential health hazard and makes a costly mess. The words “You mean like welfare programs?” are underneath the sign, next to a photo of a young woman whose race and/or ethnicity doesn’t appear to be lily white.

Gee, does that mean that in addition to being dismissive and insulting to our brothers and sisters in need there is also a hint of racism or bigotry in the tweet?

You can decide that on your own.

No matter what, I wouldn’t expect the Republicans who control the Legislature to alter Kern’s leadership status.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.