Gosh! There are Democrats in Arizona! Who knew?

by David Safier

I just received a press release from Paula Aboud, incoming Senate Minority Whip, about the War on Ethnic Studies. The first few paragraphs say it all:

The actions of Attorney General Tom Horne and Superintendent John Huppenthal are nothing more than political opportunism against Arizona’s schoolchildren when there are more pressing state issues like protecting the education budget, fighting for the rights of our children and protecting vulnerable citizens in these difficult times.

“What we are seeing here is political bullying by elected officials holding schoolchildren and a Tucson school district hostage by withholding education dollars as ransom,” said Tucson Senator Paula Aboud, incoming Senate Minority Whip.

Immediately before leaving office as Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne (and newly elected Superintendent John Huppenthal) targeted TUSD and students by threatening to withhold education funds from the school district as a retaliatory action towards the THS students who committed an act of disobedience towards the Superintendent.  This attempt, along with Senate President Russell Pearce’s attack on minority children’s status as legal citizens, is nothing more than political bullying by Arizona’s Republican officials.

Gee willikers, these Democrats say some pretty neat stuff! I'll bet a journalist could even use some of them fancy words as quotes once in awhile.

Political opportunism. Political bullying. Holding schoolchildren hostage. Withholding money for education as ransom. Pretty strong stuff, I'd say. You'd never know it from reading the papers, but I guess Arizona Democrats possess spines after all. But that's not how the media story goes, so we wouldn't want to ruin a good story line by allowing Democrats to answer the likes of Horne, Huppenthal, Pearce, et al, in print, now would we?

NOTE: The press release quoted above is just one of many I receive from Arizona Democrats on a daily basis, many of which have very quotable quotes. They go to all the media outlets. Reporters can quote Dems without even picking up the phone.