The big irony is that she at the same time claims that Terry Goddard has no plan on the budget crisis or our economic woes. But Jan, you already solved these problems, right?

By the way, could conservatives agree on who invited Dolores Huerta? Tom Horne complained that the ethnic studies program brought her, while Glenn Beck seems to think Grijalva brought her. Ya know, they’ve been complaining about this incident for four years. You’d think they’d have their own story straight by now.

Glenn Beck Calls Me and Dolores Huerta A Couple of Racist Commies

In my years of public service, I’ve built up a network of supporters and friends that includes people from all walks of life. One of them is Dolores Huerta, the Hispanic labor leader and friend of Cesár Chávez. It’s no secret that I admire Dolores for her decades of commitment to helping migrant workers and others who lack a political voice. I spoke at her 80th birthday party and called her career “the biggest missed opportunity for this nation we’ve ever seen.” I mentioned her iconic role in feminist, labor and Hispanic history, and how much I respect her and appreciate her advice.

Now, Glenn Beck is trying to use our friendship to destroy both our reputations.

In a Sept. 1 segment, Beck highlighted Dolores’ role as an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, together with her appearance at Tucson High School in 2006 to talk about labor issues, to suggest that I’m facilitating the brainwashing of America’s children. This is the lowest kind of McCarthyism. Using someone of Dolores’ stature as a way to score cheap political points is . . . well, I’d call it a new low, but unfortunately it isn’t. Glenn Beck has no “new” low.

Here’s what happened: in 2006, the Cesár Chávez Coalition invited her to speak at a school in Tucson on the occasion of Chavez’s birthday. She talked about the importance of fairness in labor decisions, the value of good-paying jobs, and other themes that have meant a lot to her throughout her life. She also mentioned steps Hugo Chávez has taken with the proceeds of nationalizing Venezuela’s oil industry: building clinics, expanding roads, starting construction projects. She ended the speech by saying that her “theme of the day” is that “Republicans hate Latinos.”

Glenn Beck asserted without fact-checking that I was solely responsible for inviting Dolores to speak. In fact, the Chavez Coalition invited her. I didn’t agree with everything she said that day, but Beck suggested that I endorsed her comments. Do I think Hugo Chávez is a good model for the United States to follow? No. Do I think all Republicans hate all Latinos? No.

This was four years ago. He’s bringing it up now purely as a political hit job. He’s doing his usual best to promote the kind of unfocused, all-purpose anger and hatred that gets him his ratings and makes informed democracy more difficult.

A lot of people have done a lot of good work trying to put an end to Glenn Beck’s antics. They don’t need my word for it that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. People like Angelo, the law student who goes by @StopBeck on Twitter, are helping to reduce Beck’s corporate sponsorship and hold him accountable for his alternately silly and dangerous rhetoric. It never takes Beck long to call his latest target a racist or a commie — in my case, he did both at the same time. This man can no longer hide behind freedom of speech. His career in public broadcasting needs to end.

This latest segment is the kind of thing that gets conservatives motivated in November, whether they live in my district or not. Republicans and Glenn Beck fans everywhere are going to put money into Southern Arizona. If you can, please contribute today to make sure Glenn Beck’s scaremongering doesn’t get rewarded. The best way to make him sorry for what he’s done is to show him that his tactics are counterproductive.

Please contribute whatever you can today. When Glenn Beck targets progressives, progressives need to fight back.

Unfair to Stockdale, that is.

Stockdale was a hero who was willing to risk his life for his fellow prisoners of war and a figure of incredible intelligence who, much to the discredit of Ross Perot, was put into a political debate with no staffing. Brewer, on the other hand, is a career politician with little of substance to show for that career and whose handlers are among the most highly touted pros in this state. Maybe they were too busy with their vendettas against television stations to prepare her.

When even über-Republican Jason Rose pans your performance, things have got to be really bad. After watching this, can anyone really think Brewer has what it takes to lead this state?

And don’t even get me started on her misstatements. Well, I’ll actually get to those later.

For those who missed it last night, our governor’s opening statement. This is not edited. Seriously, I thought there was a problem with the video feed when I first saw it.

Proud yet?