Senator Kyl is an Embarrassment to Arizona

By Michael Bryan

Senator Kyl opened his mouth and allowed this to crawl out regarding the SB1070 ruling:

“I personally believe it was politically motivated,” Kyl told Fox. “Yes, it will be appealed, perhaps it’ll eventually end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, but it would be much preferable if the federal government just did its job in the first place so that states like Arizona don’t have to pass laws like this.”

 This from the policy leader and Whip of the GOP, the second highest position on the Republican side of the Senate, who is intent on blocking comprehensive immigration reform. Who, along with his delegation-mate Senator McCain, has pledged to hold hostage any reform to the unrealistic and impossible goal of completely securing the border. 

This from the Senator who not only voted to confirm Judge Bolton, but actually sponsored her nomination and recommended her to President Clinton. Who said of Bolton then:

"Well, there is one person in our state who’s a real expert on this in the judiciary, and that’s Judge Bolton. And because of her expertise and fairness, all of the contending interests from Arizona have been willing to place their concerns before her to be resolved, and she is right in the middle of this important litigation right now. They will be very sorry to see her leave in Maricopa County Superior Court bench. So, I have some mixed emotions in helping to nominate or to confirm Judge Bolton, but that’s how highly thought of she is."

Despite his previous faith in and support of Bolton, now she's a political hack because it has become politically convenient for Kyl to beat on the judiciary for preserving the constitutional order in the face of politically popular, but constitutionally problematic, state legislation. 

Kyl isn't acting like U.S. Senator; he's acting like a Tea Partier. And he's not even facing re-election this year…

What's most galling about the GOP's demagoguery on immigration is that it is so blatant, yet they are seldom called on it in the MSM. It is crystal clear that the GOP profits from not solving the problem, but rather by exploiting voters' feelings about it. 

You can generally tell what nefarious shit the GOP is up to by listening to what they accuse others of: Kyl lied that Obama told him that he was holding 'securing' the border hostage to comprehensive immigration reform. That is practically an admission that holding comprehensive reform hostage to 'securing' the border is the official GOP strategy. The GOP always accuses opponents of doing similar shady stuff that they are themselves are engaged in, the more ridiculous and specious the accusation the better. The allegations act to discredit the entire idea in the media.

Given opportunity to come to the table and negotiate real change, the GOP leadership, including Kyl, baulks and refuses to even begin the process of fixing our broken immigration system.

Harry Reid said:

“More than two months ago, Senate Democrats introduced a framework of ideas to fix our broken immigration system in a comprehensive way, and we extended an invitation to Republicans to work together on this important issue… We know that if we fail to act at the federal level, states and localities will continue to pursue a piecemeal approach to immigration that will not work. But instead of matching the leadership of Democrats to solve this problem and engaging in good faith negotiations, Republicans continue to engage in political grandstanding and polarizing rhetoric that encourages intolerance of our vibrant immigration population.”

Jon Kyl is a liar and a demagogue; in short, he is an embarrassment to Arizona and the office he unfortunately inhabits.