Jan Brewer Gets Her Snit On

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano was back in the state this past Tuesday when she and a couple of important guests toured parts of the International Border with Mexico near the city of Nogales.  Napolitano, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, was accompanied by David Aguilar, the Deputy Commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection Bureau and US Senator Tom Carver, the incoming chairman of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  One dignitary whom Napolitano did not have in tow was Jan Brewer, the current governor of the Scorpion State - and therein lies the rub.

Napolitano and Brewer are both receiving criticism in the local press regarding what some see as political posturing around the border situation.  Napolitano apparently announced she was coming and then promised the press more information regarding the visit before she actually arrived.  The next thing that reporters supposedly heard from her office was a recap of the trip – after it had happened.  Napolitano is stressing that border security is at its strongest point in years, with illegal crossings down 78% since 2000. 

Governor Brewer, on the other hand, is having none of that.  She, like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, routinely depicts a border rife with holes where drug dealers and criminals stroll through with impunity.    Brewer recently visited with some ranchers along the border and collected anecdotal data of border transgressions.  Some members of the local press are irritated because she won’t release the names of the ranchers who provided her with information – and thus they are unable to confirm her statements.  The journalists feel the governor might be selectively choosing her sources.

Brewer is upset that she wasn’t invited to participate in Napolitano’s visit to Nogales.  She complains that Napolitano and the President ought to be seeking her opinion on border issues.   This is the same Jan Brewer who raced onto an airport tarmac just over a year ago to get her picture snapped as she stuck her finger in her President’s face – and now those people from Washington are ignoring her! 

Maybe if Governor Brewer left the cheesy publicity stunts to Joe Arpaio and concentrated on governing, she would be allowed to run with the big dogs.  Short of that, however, she will have to be content playing to the teabaggers in Sun City and imagining that she is a political leader of consequence.