Gov. Jan Brewer may be best known for her extremist policies, from draconian immigration rules to banning gay marriage and state recognition of domestic partnerships. But she’s also known for extremely erratic behavior, and yesterday was no different as she charged up to President Obama and angrily jabbed her finger in his face:
The unusual confrontation–which included Brewer pointing her finger at Obama, and Obama walking away–centered on Brewer’s newly published account of a meeting she and Obama had at the White House in June, 2010, officials said.
Obama descended the stairs of Air Force One and was greeted by Brewer, who was waiting for him along with other politicians in a traditional receiving line. Brewer offered Obama a letter, which she later said was an invitation to sit down with her to discuss Arizona’s economic “comeback” and to join her for a tour of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The president told Brewer he would be happy to meet with her, a White House aide said, but also informed the governor that he thought she had been inaccurate in describing their earlier session in the Oval Office.
Brewer’s book, “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure the Border,” details her conservative approach to dealing with the state’s illegal immigration challenges. An review published in the Arizona Republic said that Brewer casts Obama as “condescending” and skewers him repeatedly. Although she originally described their Oval Office meeting as cordial, the newspaper said, “in the book she calls the president ‘patronizing’ and said ‘he lectured me.'”
As Charlie Pierce put it, “The president engaged her for a while and then politely walked on, as we all try to do when confronted by crazy people at places like airports and bus terminals.”
I certainly wouldn’t call the incident unusual considering Brewer’s history of erratic behavior. Brewer has lied in an attempt to inoculate herself from criticism, claiming she’d been compared to Nazis & that it was offensive because her father died fighting Hitler – when in fact her father was not even a veteran and died of cancer in 1955. And there was her behavior in 2010’s gubernatorial debates:
But Arizona elected her anyway, proving once again that Arizona has higher standards for immigrants than it does for elected officials.
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