Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s staff left her in the dark on border event
“Every time I find out anything about our border, I read about it in the paper or I hear about it on television or I hear about it on the radio,” the governor said Thursday. [She left out, “Or I make it up”.]
If Jan Brewer is upset because she didn’t know Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano was going to be in Nogales on Thursday to talk border security, she has no one to blame but herself - or, at least, her staff.
Gubernatorial press aide Matthew Benson admitted Friday that Brian McNeil, Brewer’s deputy chief of staff, had been informed of the event. McNeil got not only a note but a phone call from Napolitano’s staff, he said.
That’s not all.
Matt Chandler, Napolitano’s press aide, pointed out that Robert Guerrero, who heads the border health office of the state Department of Health Services, actually took part in the Thursday event. And Chandler said Homeland Security invited a host of other state officials, including Gilbert Orrantia, Brewer’s homeland security adviser, and Department of Public Safety Director Robert Halliday.
Brewer lashed out at Napolitano’s agency and the Obama administration Thursday for staging an event in Nogales to update its border counternarcotics strategy without inviting her, or even telling her about it.
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Gov. Jan Brewer Michael Schennum