If Janet Napolitano becomes President Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security, the only shame will be that the cabinet post was not eliminated. The very name sounds un-American, like something out of 1984. The department has represented more bureaucracy, more money for politically connected private contractors, more dangers to civil liberties...and, gee, I don't know about you, but I don't feel safer.
The ambitious Arizona governor has long hoped to get an escape route through a Democratic administration in Washington. She had little hope of winning a Senate seat, and Arizona is more hopeless than when she came into office, as a surprise winner because of the state's scary downturn at that time -- by today's standards it looks like a upswing -- and a weak GOP rival. She won and retained her office by never taking on the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
On the other hand, she mentioned inconvenient truths, turned back the worst excesses of the Kookocracy, and did some good for poor children. Until Arizona Democrats take the Legislature, this is probably as good as it gets. That may be a long time coming, because outside of congressional gains -- largely due to national issues and extra-crackpot GOP rivals -- the Arizona Democratic Party seemed to gain little from having a "popular governor." As for Napolitano, perhaps she learned that even if you are the smartest person in any room, that isn't necessarily a career builder in today's Arizona. Now she joins a large cohort of fortunate ex-pats with means, who can come back to the state in the declining number of pleasant days, but not have to actually live there.
And I guess Kookocracy darling and Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who brought extreme partisanship to a job that oversees the integrity of elections, will get to run for governor as an incumbent. You go, Arizona.
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