The Arizona Republic, the state’s largest newspaper, published a full-page editorial on its front page Sunday that blasted local, state and federal leaders for failing on immigration. The Republican and Democratic politicians singled out included Gov. Jan Brewer (for “looking out for her political future, not Arizona’s best interests”); Homeland Security Secretary and former Gov. Janet Napolitano (for forgetting “all the arguments she once used to demand that the Bush administration address immigration reform”); Sen. John McCain (for coming down with “a convenient loss of memory and principle”); and J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging McCain in the GOP primary (for whom “fear and anger are his sidekicks” and “self-promotion is his noble steed”). “Arizona can no longer afford to tolerate elected officials who show so little interest in solving one of the state’s most pressing issues,” the editorial said. “We need leaders who will push to enact comprehensive reform.”
Not only did Kris Kobach, a Kansas GOP candidate for secretary of state, help write Arizona’s misguided immigration law, he is getting paid $300 an hour to help train deputies of controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on arrest procedures, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Kobach said he wasn’t paid to help write the new law. He was asked to help by Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, who came under fire in 2006 for sending an e-mail to supporters in which he copied an article from a white separatist group. Pearce said he didn’t realize what the contents of the article were, and Kobach described him as a “very good man.”
Gun-loving guitar hero Ted Nugent’s ode to Sarah Palin — featured in Time magazine’s roundup of the 100 most influential people of the year — reads like a mash note. “If Sarah Palin played a loud, grinding instrument, she would be in my band,” he wrote. “The independent patriotic spirit, attitude and soul of our forefathers are alive and well in Sarah.” He concluded: “We who are driven to be assets to our families, communities and our beloved country connect with the principles that Sarah Palin embodies. We know that bureaucrats and, even more, Fedzilla, are not the solution; they are the problem. I’d be proud to share a moose-barbecue campfire with the Palin family anytime, so long as I can shoot the moose.”