by David Safier
As BlueMeanie noted, the [Fools]Goldwater Institute is launching a suit against Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan, mainly because Team Antenori failed to gather enough signatures for its referendum drive to block the legislation. Antenori, meanwhile, is crowing about his victory, saying he's got the signatures of 80,000 people who will work to boot out the RINOs who voted for the expansion. [Note: So far as I know, Team Antenori never turned in the petitions, meaning we have to take 'Don't make me angry' Frank's word his folks collected 80,000 signatures. Based on the veracity of his past utterances, the number is probably far lower.]
And then there's Governor Brewer, who never shies away from a fight. Granted, she's usually Strong and Wrong, but she doesn't waver once her mind is made up. She threw her support behind Medicaid expansion and fought for it with dogged determination. And now she's headlining a fundraiser for 13 Republican legislators who stuck with her and voted with the Democrats for the expansion: Heather Carter, Doug Coleman, Jeff Dial, Adam Driggs, Doris Goodale, John McComish, Kate Brophy McGee, Ethan Orr, Steve Pierce, Frank Pratt, Bob Robson, TJ Shope and Bob Worsley.
Brewer has taken that digit she raised in front of Obama's face and poked it in the eye of the Goldwater Institute and far right Republicans everywhere who never, NEVER, support anything with Obama's name on it. The fracturing of the Republican Party in Arizona and across the nation continues apace.
The saner, or less crazy, Republicans are still pretty damn conservative, but they do have their moments of clarity, and they sometimes believe in governing for the good of the American people. It looks like Brewer has joined that camp, party from choice, and partly because she may never again be accepted by the crazies.