Newspaper decline or not, today's Arizona Republic would have had the paper boys of yore shouting "Extra! Extra!": In a virtually unheard-of front-page editorial, the paper calls out by name almost every state leader for "pandering to public fear" on immigration policy and "allowing the debate to descend into chaos." In order of evisceration:
- Jan Brewer: "The governor's GOP primary race would have been tougher if she'd vetoed the bill, so she ducked her responsibility to the people of Arizona. She gets a bump in the polls, and Arizona gets beat up on the international stage."
- Janet Napolitano: "Ensconced in a Democratic administration, she forgot all the arguments she once used to demand that the Bush administration address immigration reform."
- John McCain: Also facing a tough primary, "the one-time maverick and former champion of comprehensive immigration reform, also came down with a convenient loss of memory and principle."
- Jon Kyl: It's tough helping Dems "achieve what Republicans could not, but Sen. Kyl's role in GOP Senate leadership should not be more important than fixing what's broken in his own state."
- JD Hayworth: "The mouth that spewed. Fear and anger are his sidekicks. Self-promotion is his noble steed. His diatribes helped validate a wickedly distorted image of all migrant workers as heinous criminals.
To see who else took a drubbing, click
here.
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