Michael Bryan

By Tom Prezelski

Reposted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Yesterdays news is that Former Governor Janet Napolitano will be resigning as Secretary of Homeland Security to accept a a position as President of the University of California System.

I had a friendly working relationship with Janet when I was in the
legislature, so it would naturally follow that I have mixed feelings
about her tenure in Homeland Security. On the one hand, she made some important steps
to clean up an unmanageable mess of an organization. On the other, it
does not seem like enough. In her defense, however, the gnashing of
teeth and rending of garments that occurred every time she made a modest move
toward reasonableness was a reminder of what she was up against. Even
her order to the Border Patrol to exercise a modicum of common sense and
discretion by focusing their efforts on nabbing traficantes rather than chasing desperate campesinos met with resistance from rank and file agents and demagogues in Congress, and there was scant little vocal public support for such restraint to balance out the vitriol.

By Tom Prezelski

Re-blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Lets make it clear that, contrary to the impression one gets from
MSNBC, Speaker John Boehner is not a hapless idiot. He is a politically
savvy and sincerely pragmatic guy who suffers from the lack of good
material in his caucus. While he is no Sam Rayburn or Henry Clay, he is
also no Andy Tobin, and under slightly more favorable circumstances, he
might be known as a competent manager of the legislative process. One
does not get to be in his position by being a doofus.

What has had MSNBC personalities particularly animated over the last 24 hours is the possibility that Boehner may invoke the so-called “Hastert Rule” regarding the immigration bill
and increasingly strident rhetoric from The Professional Right on the
issue. The concern is that the House will either pass its own bill, or
amend the Senate bill to the point where it is unrecognizable. This,
they believe, will kill the possibility of reform, a notion based on a
misunderstanding of the process.

By Tom Prezelski

Re-Blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion.

I try to make a point not to read the Arizona Republic for a variety of reasons, but David Safier’s post over here prompted me to check out yesterday’s eloquent op-ed by Senator Alfredo Gutierrez.

Because I am a masochist, I checked out the comments and found them
to be mostly positive. The exception would be a thread started by former
State Senator Jack Harper, who disparaged Gutierrez as a “race baiter,”
though his own record as a demagogue gives him little room to criticize
anybody, particularly given that Gutierrez has far more to show for his
legislative career than the clownish Harper does. Predictably, this
prompted a number of comments citing the same out-of-context quote that
always gets repeated by his detractors whenever Gutierrez makes a public
appearance these days. Of course, this all helps prove Gutierrez’s
point.

Senator Gutierrez mostly discusses his personal experience growing up
in Miami (not Globe), one of the central Arizona Copper camps that
birthed so much of the state’s Mexican-American political leadership
from the 1970s to the 1990s. Along the way, he makes a passing reference
to a “wealthy Californio” of the 19th century named Pablo de la Guerra.
Though de la Guerra is tangential to the story that Gutierrez is
telling, some elaboration is called for.