Monday, December 1st, 2008...12:37 pm
Obama on Napolitano
From Barack Obama’s remarks at today’s press conference:
Janet Napolitano offers the experience and executive skill that we need in the next Secretary of Homeland Security. She has spent her career protecting people – as a US Attorney, an Attorney General, and as Governor of Arizona. She understands the need for a Department of Homeland Security that has the capacity to help prevent terrorist attacks and respond to catastrophe – be it manmade or natural.
Janet assumes this critical role having learned the lessons – some of them painful – of the last several years, from 9/11 to Katrina. She insists on competence and accountability. She knows firsthand the need to have a partner in Washington that works well with state and local governments. She understands as well as anyone the danger of an unsecure border. And she will be a leader who can reform a sprawling Department while safeguarding our homeland.
17 Comments
December 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pm
oh, boy, progressives in Arizona are now well and truly fucked.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Hey, she safeguarded Arizona from wacko republitard legislation for 6 years, maybe she can shield the nation from terrorist attacks (which are not as scary as some of the repub legislation she has blocked).
Good Luck, Janet.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
You gotta love it. CNN says she is a supporter of Joe Arpaio in his “humiliation of prisoners.” This may make her unsuitable for office, they propose.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
hahahahha you are joking, Georgia? Are you?
All laughs aside, I have not been this depressed in years. For me personally, this is likely to be the beginning of the end for my stay in Arizona (not of my choice mind you) and likely to be the beginning of the end of many programs at the U. of A. No joke….including my own.
Unbelievable.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Our Gov. will do us proud in this position. It will be a great team to protect this country. I am also thrilled with Hillary and Susan Rice. I heard Susan speak at a women’s conference in DC a year ago and she was brilliant, I took pages of notes wanting to remember everything she said.
I to am so, so, so sad to see our Gov. leave this state. We will be her first disaster.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:42 pm
No, I really heard it discussed at 1 p.m. today, with pictures of Joe and everything. Seems the commentator thought she owed her governor’s position to Joe because he endorsed her.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
The real question is whether or not the Governor will insist that her new boss (and everyone else who doesn’t know her from Eve) learn how to pronounce her name?
December 1st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Dark days are coming for Arizona with the new Governor Brewer. Get ready folks.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Yes indeed, Carol. All of us in education should just bend over and spread our butt-cheeks because we are gonna take it in the arse hardcore for the next two years. If you are poor, they won’t even bother to use lube.
This is gonna hurt for a long time!
December 1st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Before the grandstanding Arpaio started his racial round ups he and the Governor had a good relationship, but not anymore. In fact he did endorse her the first time she ran as Governor against Matt Salmon. Big deal.
What an honor for our Governor to be selected to hold this important position. Perhaps she can get a workers permit program going in the name of National Security. She won’t have to listen to the mamby pamby complainers in the AZ legislature any longer, but will have the ability to work with a majority of Democrats on the federal level–nice change no doubt.
Just think, in her position in Washington she can shut down Arpaio and take away thunder from Brewer regarding the immigration issue. Why would she not go with an advantage like that?
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
Bridget — all of these “advantages” you cite pale in comparison to the impending destruction of Arizona’s already-poor education system. And I would imagine that a bill banning abortion will be introduced as soon as Janet is gone.
It’s gonna get real ugly, real quick. We know from the experience with Bush and a Republican Congress how quickly Republicans can destroy.
Rebuilding takes much longer.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
Andy, it’ll be introduced before she’s gone. Within the first two weeks of start of session, for sure. Cathi Herrod is practically foaming at the mouth, salivating at the prospects.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Well gee Andy, we can all sit around pouting and crying, like most who post comments here do, or we can start looking for “advantages” and some bright spots in our new situation.
I am hoping Obama tackles the abortion issue on a federal level–first by changing sex education in schools to include more than just abstinence programs, and second by providing money to clinics like Planned Parenthood. There are plenty of pro-choice Republican women in this state–I don’t think Brewer will touch abortion–besides, that is just a “tool” republicans use to get people to the polls. Actually resolving that issue isn’t ever going to happen if a Republican is in office.
I am also looking to Obama to solved a lot of the school funding issues as well by removing the bullshit that goes along with Every Child Left Behind and providing the funding that is suppose to go along with it. It isn’t just Arizona that has education problems, it is a national issue.
There’s plenty of ugly coming our way–just saying Jan Brewer makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
But rebuilding is what is going to save our country and set things up for a brighter Green future so let Brewer wrecker ball administration finish the job Bush started.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
This is worse, by far, than what the Bush administration looked like with respect to ideology and with respect to shear ability. Our state legislature is under-educated, part-time, and there is not enough Democrat bodies to effectively block the type of conservative, ideological ravings that we are about to see.
Remember guns in bars? Also, I would implore you to take a look carefully at the agenda on http://www.azpolicy.org. The website of the Center for Arizona Policy. THIS it what the legislative agenda in this state will indeed look like. Read it.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
kralmajales is exactly right about CAP’s radical anti-family agenda being the legislative agenda for the next two years. And I would bet money on Brewer signing any anti-choice bill to cross her desk, pro-choice Republicans be damned. There’s little that can be done at the federal level to alleviate the impending harm. Or at least, it’s unlikely that the political will is there to do so, especially when it comes to issues like choice and equality.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Weren’t all the “pro-choice Republicans” (except for Carolyn Allen) purged in the primaries? The “mushroom coalition” faction of the GOP is a relic of the past and those now in charge have an agenda that has already been cited by others in this thread. Kral should also provide a link to the Club for Growth website so we can garner another glimpse at the upcoming Brewer-led onslaught.
Our outgoing governor knew more about these folks and their priorities than anyone else, which is why she should have told Obama she was staying put until she finished her term. Bridget may turn out to be right that the absolute power now wielded by the GOP will turn out to be their ultimate undoing. However, they will get the chance to do a lot of damage before that happens.
We CAN take heart in the fact that the Democratic legislative leadership looks solid and the changing demographics of our state bode well for the future. The Democratic congressional delegation will also provide Arizonans with an alternative agenda to what they will see coming out of Phoenix. The past is now prologue and we need to fight what is coming with both logic and passion.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:06 am
There are many pro-choice republicans in the voting blocks where they are most useful if the Democrats play their cards right.