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Behind Jan Brewer’s Tall Tales of Intimidation Hides a Dishonest Despot

January 27, 2012
By

There’s something wrong with Jan Brewer. Brewer has a history of abusing her power and making accusations that don’t correlate with reality.

Yes, Brewer acted the racist during her encounter with the President, pandering to the other TeaFools with her finger wagging and her white supremacist insinuation that the black man “threatened her.” Witnesses from both parties do not agree with Brewer’s fantasy assessment of her Drama on the Tarmac, but you didn’t expect reality to be at play with Jan Brewer, did you? It’s reported that she seemed stunned and confused after her encounter with Barack. Coming face to face with a person of high intelligence can do that to the lesser endowed.

Others suggest Brewer was tipsy, apparently a rather consistent item of gossip in Arizona. Who can forget her blank out during her debate performance?

What was that? Any way you slice it, Brewer made a right fool of herself wagging her finger in the leader of the free world’s face and then attempting to spin her way out of it by playing the victim. TeaFems like Brewer and Palin have a particular penchant for playing the Damsel in Distress against paper tigers of their own paranoid imagination.

Governor Brewer wanted our attention, and now that she has it, Brewer’s odd behavior, propensity for inaccuracies and abuse of power should be the focus.

Before Brewer was misleading you about beheaded dead bodies in the desert, she was engaging in some pretty crafty moves. Brewer’s son’s criminal records were sealed just weeks before she took office as Governor. Ms. Brewer has a son who has been in the Arizona State Hospital (reportedly off and on) for twenty some years. Ms Brewer’s son Ronald was deemed criminally insane in 1990 after being indicted for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Phoenix woman.

As such, he is not only the recipient of state funded mental health care, but he also received a Social Security check. There was an investigation, in fact, by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General as to whether Jan Brewer, as Ronald’s guardian, had received overpayments of Social Security to the tune of $75,000.00. In 1995, the law was changed to mandate that people institutionalized after being found not guilty of a crime due to insanity not receive the benefits. It is unclear if the Brewer’s continued to receive benefits or not because while many record requests were made in regard to this matter, they were not filled. The state paid $50,000 for a lawyer to respond to subpoenae and records requests.

Ronald Brewer’s criminal history and mental illness are not the point, but what Ms Brewer did about it is very much to the point. You see, early on she used her power as state legislator during the time her son’s case was pending to push for money in the State Hospital’s budget “to prescribe a new drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. The drug, Risperdal, was later used to treat her son’s illness, according to court and medical records.”

But later, things got much worse than using her power to push for taxpayer funded drugs that helped her son; that part only burns given her Tea inspired Death Panels. After Brewer found out she would be appointed as the Governor, she used her influence to get her son’s criminal record sealed. She then fought a newspaper’s freedom of information act requests, using the help of staffers from her campaign who were up for positions of great authority that she would be appointing.

Surely we could understand if she sought only to seal his psychiatric and medical records, but Ms Brewer sought to keep his criminal history hidden from the public. And that is not a privilege usually afforded to criminals, and certainly not to criminals who sexually assaulted a woman to the point that she feared for her life and who are apparently granted absences from the hospital.

In 2010, a judge ordered the release of the criminal records of Brewer’s son. The court noted that the newspaper had handled the case with sensitivity and that Brewer’s son Ronald’s request for privacy did not overrule the public’s right to know.

While claiming that her son’s criminal records were personal and should be afford the unusual privilege of being sealed from the public, Brewer used the staffers from her campaign to fight this battle against disclosure of her son’s criminal record.

One of those staffers is someone who was up to be an appointee to the State Supreme Court and another was a staffer who sat on the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, the body that selects the Supreme Court nominees.

The AZ Central wrote:

A week after Cooke asked the court to prevent The Republic from publishing anything from the case file, the governor’s campaign lawyer, Lisa Hauser, signed on to help keep Ronald’s case sealed.

Hauser, who also provided legal counsel for Jan Brewer’s transition team, is one of 13 applicants for a position on the Arizona Supreme Court – a position Brewer will appoint.

The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which chooses the Supreme Court nominees, met in Phoenix on Monday. The commission moved Hauser ahead, granting her one of nine interviews to be held Sept. 30.

Doug Cole, who runs Brewer’s campaign through the consulting firm High Ground and is one of the governor’s closest advisers, has been intimately involved in the fight as well.

Brewer also appointed Cole as one of 10 public members of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which selects the judicial nominees.

Hauser did not make it to the Court but she’s been fighting for Brewer ever since. In fact, she argued on Brewer’s behalf in November of 2011 when Brewer abused her power once again, and this time illegally.

In an attempt to further gerrymander the redistricting maps of Arizona that already favor Republicans, Brewer impeached the redistricting chair during the drafting phase. Her plans were to also impeach the two Democrats on the committee, but she got stymied in this glorious power grab.

Impeach the chair she did, though, citing “gross negligence.” But on this matter, the Supreme Court did not agree with her. Lisa Hauser then took it upon herself to explain to the court that whatever Jan Brewer wants, she can have (we shudder to think of Ms Hauser on the Supreme Court). The Home Brewed Theology reported:

Brewer’s attorney, Lisa Hauser, contended the governor can remove any member of the commission and set her own definition of what “gross misconduct” and “substantial neglect of duty” mean.

Oh, she gets to make up her own definitions so that she can spin reality to suit her agenda? Nifty trick.

The justices said that nothing the governor alleged in her letter firing Mathis met the level of “gross negligence.” Sounds sorta like Brewer’s accusation against the chair was right on par with her “he was threatening me” doesn’t it? Here’s the Supreme Court’s reaction to Brewer’s illegal power grab, courtesy of the East Valley Tribune:

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Governor’s actions were, in a word, illegal. The Arizona Supreme Court late Thursday ruled that Gov. Jan Brewer acted illegally in firing Colleen Mathis from the Independent Redistricting Commission.

It gets worse. If you’re wondering just what kind of despot hides beneath that intimidated little lady’s fingers, wonder no more. She sure isn’t scared of the law, the Supreme Court, or general limits of executive power. After the justices slapped her down, Hauser announced that Brewer was the sole authority of Arizona, the judicial branch be damned. The East Valley Tribune further reported:

Hauser told the justices that the governor, alone, gets to decide what constitutes a firing offense. And she said that decision stands if Brewer can get the consent of two-thirds of the Senate.

That claim brought raised eyebrows from the justices.

Acting Chief Justice Andrew Hurwitz asked Hauser if that means Brewer could remove a commission member solely because the governor did not like that person’s hair style. Hauser said she could — and the decision could not be appealed to the court.

In fact, Hauser told the justices that they were powerless to do anything, even if there actually was evidence that the facts cited by the governor in firing a commissioner turned out to be false.

Citing false facts seems to be a speciality of Ms Brewer’s, so it’s no wonder Hauser wants to make sure the court knows that veracity doesn’t count when it comes to Brewer. After all, once Brewer captured the nation’s attention with her beheaded bodies in the desert story, she was nowhere to be found when it came time to provide evidence. Shock and awe, baby, followed by duck and dodge.

Hauser went on using Palinesque language wherein she referred to Brewer as a possible rogue that neither the Senate nor Supreme Court could not stop. Theoreticially, she argued, until Ms Brewer gets the maps she wants, she can keep firing the chair with made up accusations that need not be remotely accurate. The Senate will serve as no check on her power, since it is comprised of 21 Republicans out of 30 and the courts have no authority over Ms Brewer (even George W Bush acknowledged the power of the judicial branch when forced to).

Brewer thinks her whim should rule Arizona with no checks. Comforting, eh? Republicans must be so proud.

With the temperament of an unruly two year old, a propensity for abuse of power, a history of lying about the actions of others and downright fantasy recollections of events added to Brewer’s obvious failure to understand the basics of American government, the media ought to be asking, “What’s wrong with Jan Brewer?”

Instead, they’re tentatively suggesting that maybe — gasp — Brewer’s version of the Tarmac Drama wasn’t quite what happened. Stunning, really, especially when you factor in Brewer’s history of story telling untethered by any ethical constraints.

Image: The Red Queen, courtesy of the Blog for Arizona

h/t to jezebel on Twitter as @38_28_38

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43 Responses to Behind Jan Brewer’s Tall Tales of Intimidation Hides a Dishonest Despot

  1. crystalwolfakacaligrl on January 27, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    Jan Brewer need to go to AA or NA like her compatriot Sarah Palin also,too!
    What a disgusting person. What a disgrace to her state?
    And what was a article I read yesterday? When she was in Leg she was p/u for DUI yet NOT ARRESTED?? She hit a vehicle while intoxicated!
    Are all “A” states corrupt?

    • Jane on January 27, 2012 at 9:27 pm

      DUI? Of course. She should be impeached. She’s not well. Mental illness runs in the family too. She’s a disgrace!

    • Martha on January 28, 2012 at 5:12 am

      As most Arizonans know, Governor Jan Brewer’s maiden name is Drinkwine.

      Wags had plenty of fun with that — and with Brewer’s married name — when last year the record of her 1988 booze-rela­­ted accident surfaced, an incident in which officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety wrote her up for driving while snockered.

      Arizona’s future chief executive, then a state senator, was handcuffed­­, driven home, and never charged with a DUI, though she admitted to DPS officers at the scene that she’d downed a scotch or two before ramming a van on Interstate 17.

      Call it “amnesty” for state legislator­­s. Not unlike the kind enjoyed by a fellow Republican­­, state Senator Scott Bundgaard, after his roadside fisticuffs with ex-girlfri­­end Aubry Ballard in February.

      http://t.c­­o/26m0VZe­W

    • Ellen on February 3, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      Hey, Arkansas resents that! Faubus is dead, Clinton & Huckabee have moved on to greener pastures. Our current governor is a progressive democrat who knows how to behave ethically. Please don’t lump us in with the crazy-bots!

  2. Cathy on January 27, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Start by calling her out on her lack of basic manners and continue downhill with all of her other character flaws. Arizona should be ashamed by this governor.

  3. KarenJ on January 27, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    The way this blog entry was headed, SarahJ –studiously AVOIDING any mention of the similarity of Jan Brewer’s despotism to that of the former governor of Alaska — I thought I’d have to write a comment about that.

    I’m glad you did mention Sarah Palin, albeit ever so slightly — “Palinesque” was too little and too kind to either of the Red Queens.

    • Jane on January 27, 2012 at 9:34 pm

      Jan brewer is the other red queen of mean!

  4. bk on January 27, 2012 at 9:42 pm

    Jan Brewer is such a 1% wannabee. She has seen how power can work and wants to have that power.

    Why did the people of AZ give her some of it?

    • Boscoe on January 28, 2012 at 1:45 pm

      Look into the history of the corrupt twisted incompetence that we routinely elect to office here in AZ. It won’t answer your questions, but it will show that there’s definitely a theme…

  5. Mo on January 27, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    No wonder $arah “Bullseye” Palin wants to move to Arizona.

  6. Kriski on January 27, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    Brewer’s soul is reflected in her lovely complexion.

  7. newmeximan on January 27, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    Those who complain the loudest are attempting to distract others from their own shortcomings. Palin loves to point out crony capitalists and crony bureaucrats, yet she, Rick Scott, Jan Brewer and other conservatives are the worst examples of that they deride in others.

    When will the MSM cry foul?

    • Shiva on January 27, 2012 at 10:18 pm

      Never, its not good news.

      In my opinion if they did it would get them more viewers

  8. D. L. MacKenzie on January 27, 2012 at 10:27 pm

    Sarah, I tip my hat to you. After 45 years in Arizona, I thought I knew everything there was to know about Jan Brewer. You sure dug up some juicy new bones. Well done!

    • SinghX on January 28, 2012 at 6:48 am

      Did you know…

      The attorney Brewer uses, one Linda Hauser, is the same one used by Pearce to get all the petitions against him disqualified?

      “It’s not the first time Hauser’s gone there. Her résumé on the website of her law firm, Gammage & Burnham, notes that she “represented ‘Bush for President’ before the Broward County [Florida] canvassing board during the 2000 presidential election recount.”

      Another vermin who has poisoned the well on her climb to the top…and Brewer was going to have her cretinous “Precious” sitting on the bench next to Scotty Bales?

      Oh hell no! I wonder if this one is connected to the one defending Arpio, one Eileen GilBride? Equally as “qualified” and chewed alive by the Az Supreme Court…

  9. Shiva on January 27, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    How on earth does a guy get 75,000 in SS? I singed up for mine 2 nights ago on the net, and I will not live long enough to get 75,000 big ones. And I have worked for SS wages since I was 16. Is his dad named Mittens by any chance? WTF?

    This sounds just like Walker. He has sole right to sell off Wisconsins power plants to anyone he wants for any prices he deems right. I am betting she works for the same people as Walker does.

    But if the people of Arizona elect her again, its proof that all of them except for DL deserve what they get

    • newmeximan on January 28, 2012 at 3:23 am

      I have a neighbor who has the diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia, has served several years in prison for grand theft and commercial burglary, and his benefit is $671 a month. During the 2 years he was in prison, SSI was not stopped until his conviction, and his father was receiving his benefit as his representative payee. Once the SS Administration calculated the period of payments while awaiting trial, they began to deduct a small amount from his future checks – as a recipient can not receive benefits while incarcerated. He is still having money taken out after 3 years out of prison.

      The father, a staunch conservative, used the SSI benefits to pay an attorney, and feels no responsibility to make up the shortfall in his son’s benefits – even though as the payee he should have notified SSI that his son was in jail awaiting trial, and not spent the money on a lawyer.

      By my estimate – Brewer’s son had a high paying job just before his illness induced rampage. Likely a state government appointment from mommy. He may have been eligible for $5 K a month in benefits.

      More evidence of a broken system – when the son of government employee who can afford to support her son and the cost of his illness instead relies on the Federal government, that she publicly mocks.

      • Jane on January 28, 2012 at 3:28 am

        He wasn’t ever employed was taking social security ever since he was a kid and then as adult because of his disability of being insane. Brewer didn’t tell the Feds he was in mental hosp just kept taking the money for years. She was supposed to be paying the hospital that money but that didnt happen either. Typical bagger !

        • marpwv18 on January 29, 2012 at 10:01 am

          She’s gotten away with so much, she now believes she’s completely above the law. And it would appear that she is.

    • Churchlady on January 28, 2012 at 11:06 am

      Remember – she was NOT elected governor but ascended when Janet Napolitono moved to Homeland Security in 2009. Brewer has proven herself unfit to BE governor. Now it’s up to AZ citizens to throw her OUT of office. She likely won’t be – her anti-immigrant position is very popular – but her theatrics and lies might undermine even that. Let’s see if the voters of AZ are as smart as they think they are.

      • sdcloke on February 5, 2012 at 8:05 pm

        She did get elected in 2010 on the popularity SB1070 (the anti-immigration bill). The video above was from the 2010 election’s one and only debate.

  10. Margo on January 27, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    It is a mystery to me how some people get elected. I suspect there must have been a lot of dead headless people voting her in as Governor!

    • john r on January 28, 2012 at 12:00 am

      I remember when she cut out organ transplants from the medicaid budget budget.. therefore coining the term “janacide”

    • SinghX on January 28, 2012 at 7:05 am

      Well, originally, she wasn’t…she was an “appointee”…and actually, the “Honorable Glendale Community College grad in Radiology” was appointed by sheer luck…

      “…As State Senator, Brewer sought legislation with the intention of creating an office of Lieutenant Governor in the state, arguing that holding the office of Secretary of State does not make a candidate qualified for Governor, and that the office should be filled by a member of the same party, should a vacancy arise…”

      And the “vacancy” arose…everybody knew that Napalitano sold out AZ for her own gain, as she always has*

      …how the cretin Brewer got re-elected is beyond the beyond!

      *Napalitano sold out all the little children in and around Warren Jeffs compound in the 90′s–the law was after Jeffs and his “family” knowing what was going; there were something like 17 cases of high level child abuse surround his “family” and Napalitano swept it all under the rug, to the disgust of the AG’s office (whom, after she left Terry Goddard went after Jeff’s aggressively along with the other AG’s in border states).

      Napalitano didn’t want to “upset” her chances for the Mormon vote in her bid for Governor…then, after she gets elected, she starts a “thing” on how much she loves all the little chill’dren and is going to revamp CPS, which has been a disaster ever since…

  11. sachet on January 28, 2012 at 12:56 am

    what a despicable, vile, base, racist person Brewer is. Arizona should be embarrassed.

  12. Reynardine on January 28, 2012 at 1:35 am

    When an alcoholic’s brain gets too wet, the alcoholic comes down with Korsakov’s Psychosis, which creates a compulsion to lie and lie.

  13. Arizona's Crazy Governor - SLUniverse Forums on January 28, 2012 at 3:41 am

    [...] Crazy Governor A look at the batshit insane Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer: Behind Jan Brewer __________________ "I miss the days when you had to be wary of push attacks and could potentially [...]

  14. Martha on January 28, 2012 at 5:10 am

    Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s role in the collection of her son’s Social Security benefits was under investigat­ion for more than a year by federal authoritie­s trying to determine if about $75,000 in benefits was improperly paid on behalf of her son.

    Sources familiar with the investigat­ion said the case was referred to federal prosecutor­s, who have declined to pursue charges. However, sources said, Social Security officials are considerin­g efforts to recover the money through administra­tive procedures­. One described the case as “highly political.­”
    The precise scope of the probe could not be ascertaine­d because state and federal officials would not reveal the informatio­n, citing federal secrecy statutes and patient-co­nfidential­ity laws.”

    http://www­.usatoday.­com/news/n­ation/stor­y/2011-12-­08/jan-bre­wer-son-so­cial-secur­ity/517316­78/1

  15. Martha on January 28, 2012 at 5:14 am

    The incident if anything, perhaps provides a glimpse into the pitfalls of public figures who are suspected of drinking while they politic, it can cause unintended consequenc­es, at least when the leader of the free world is winging into town, the pesky national press corps is just everywhere­.

    One can understand how the main stream media considers waving a finger in the face of the President unseemly, especially for a public official, like say a Governor.

    ~~ The problem is most of the main stream media, is unaware Governor Brewer’s nick name around the State capital is~~ Otis~~, a reference to the town drunk from Mayberry.~­~~
    http://t.c­o/P58x2WIx

    • gsb on January 28, 2012 at 11:43 am

      “Otis” that is good, very good..

  16. Hrafnkell Haraldsson on January 28, 2012 at 8:07 am

    Too bad the mess isn’t as easy to clean up as it was in the day of Wyatt Earp – even the cops are crazies: Arizona cop investigated over bullet-riddled picture of Obama

  17. SinghX on January 28, 2012 at 8:42 am

    OH-MY-GAWD!!!

    The real picture of these “gangsta’s” can be seen if you scroll down to the comments (with out the faces removed). These are under-aged young white males, teens, holding AK’s, Oozie-looking weapons, etc…and who took the picture? The person who gave them the guns in the first place? This is not just “intimidation” or a mere political statement, this is a death threat! These teens need to be tried as adults and locked up–who ever “supplied” the weapons, throw the key away…imagine if a brown skinned teens were photoed doing the same…would the law “post the picture” as if it’s “cute” and call it a “political free-speech”?

    • KatzKids on January 28, 2012 at 11:23 am

      It was a good ol’ boy Arizona COP who took the picture & posted it on his Facebook page.

  18. Destiny on January 28, 2012 at 9:32 am

    Typical white woman syndrome when the meet an intelligent, articulate black man who does not bow down and takes them to task for their foolishness. She is an example of this sick society and the “wickedness in high places.” She got her two minutes of fame and continues to look and sound foolish with her sick pathetic antics. No wonder this country is in such a mess!

    • KatzKids on January 28, 2012 at 11:26 am

      Hey, don’t insult typical white women. I’d say typical RWNJ women.

  19. F Joy on January 28, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    You know what they say about Karma!??? She refused to allow organ transplants on those who needed them. She’s been extremely racist regarding immigration. The disrespect to the President was paramount, but there’s been so much disrespect of President Obama by the extreme right that they see it as normal now. I remember when Napolitano first alerted the public to the extreme right domestic terror groups and militia increasing and they came down on her really hard. I know there’s a lot of Arizona people who believe wholeheartedly in Sarah Palin and anything on the right. The best thing that Arizona has produced is the brave congresswoman who was gunned down by one of Arizona’s madmen. Her courage and spirit will rise above the Jan Brewer’s and Sarah Palin’s of the world and bring the power of positive humanity back to the forefront of the US. The one good thing about all this blatant racism raging over the airwaves these days is that it makes it clear. People can see it is what it is. There’s no doubt. Hopefully it will help our beloved President on election day. Please rise above the hate. Let’s get our President reelected and vote out the Tea Party everywhere possible.

  20. 1voice1vote on January 28, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    Bless every member of the “secret people” :) and my heartfelt thanks to them for keeping our First Family safe.

    Brewer has called up scorpions for breakfast; may she have them for lunch and dinner as well.

  21. [...] to support racial profiling.  The history of Jan Brewer reveals additional comparisons between Palin and Brewer. Perhaps we now understand why Palin bought her second home in [...]

  22. NewsLinks | Intrepid Report.com on January 30, 2012 at 12:02 am

    [...] Behind Jan Brewer’s Tall Tales of Intimidation Hides a Dishonest Despot [...]

  23. ObamaWins on February 2, 2012 at 12:47 am

    Gov. Brewer is an embarassment to Arizonians.

    Here is the write up re: DUI

    http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2010/10/27/jan-brewers-dui-and-car-crash/

  24. mike on February 3, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    Ha! The name matched with the picture is what drew me here… Couldn’t have done any better… Having lived a few years in Arizona politics there are a little strange to say the least. When I was a resident in Az the Gov was Evan Meecham… And with Sheriff Joe still running around if I were still living in Az today I would just blame it all on the heat.. But let’s not forget there is no global warming :)

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