A DISGRACE TO HER STATE: Brewer Gives Obama The Finger by Elizabeth Searle

An ‘Arizona Greeting,’ the AZ Republic dubbed it: Gov. Jan Brewer, poking a finger in President Obama’s face and hectoring/’lecturing’ him on an AZ airport tarmac (allegedly about her claim that HE once ‘lectured’ HER).

Visiting my family in The Valley of the Sun this week, I got a true and warm ‘Arizona Greeting’ when I read from my novel with wonderful Melissa Pritchard at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe, AZ.  Arizonans are growing weary of Brewer’s antics.

A prize-worthy photo captures the meltdown moment as Brewer becomes the poster-girl for right-wing rage and disrespect against this President.  Brewer, AZ’s cool New Times newspaper laments, has ‘humiliated’ Arizona ‘yet again.’

Her tarmac temper tantrum may have upped her Amazon book sales in the short term– but it has prompted widesrpead disgust as many in the media shake their collective fingers at Brewer.

Ed Rendell on The Last Word put it best– what Brewer did was ‘dumb and disrespectful.’   Former Gov. Rendell points out that as a Governor, you do not serve your state well by dissing the sitting President.  The Mayor of Phoenix rightly states that when you greet a President in your state, you are ‘an ambassador of the community.’

Obama graciously claims on ABC that the testy exchange was ‘no big deal.’  But as a graduate of AZ’s Chaparral High and a former Arizonan with family ties to this beautiful state, I wish I had a chance to get in Gov. Brewer’s face.  WDYT?

photos: freerepublic.com, ap.com, latimes.com

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