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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / A Real Impeachable Character

A Real Impeachable Character

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Here’s the thing, folks.  If you give fanatical Republicans too much power, they do completely crazy things with it because they are basically insane.  Case in point: one Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona.

Gov. Jan Brewer and the GOP-controlled state Senate on Tuesday touched off legal and political battles as they took the unprecedented step of removing the chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

On a 21-6 party line vote, the Senate gave the Republican governor the two-thirds majority vote she needed to oust Colleen Coyle Mathis, citing “gross misconduct” in her role at the helm of the independent panel. The commission is in the midst of drawing new political boundaries for next year’s legislative and congressional races. As the Senate voted in early evening, commission attorneys left one court and rushed to the state Supreme Court to try to block the Senate’s action. They were too late to get immediate relief, but said they will petition the court today to allow Mathis to remain as commission chairwoman.

“It’s my view that she is most certainly still the chairman,” said Paul Charlton, Mathis’ attorney.

However, Senate officials and Brewer’s office said Mathis’ eight-month tenure as chairwoman ended once the Senate endorsed the governor’s action.

The conflicting views will fuel a legal battle over the extent to which the five-member commission is independent.

Bottom line:  the independent redistricting board came up with a redistricting plan that didn’t shuffle all the state’s Democrats into one new district and give Arizona Republicans the other eight.  In the eyes of Jan Brewer, it’s “gross misconduct” for making the plan even-handed and non-partisan, enough so that at this point the chair of the commission has been impeached and removed from office as far as the GOP is concerned for the crime of not giving the Republicans everything they wanted.
And yes, in Arizona, that’s apparently an impeachable offense now, daring to include Democrats and Latino voters in the political process where Republicans are in charge.  After all, our founding fathers never really intended to let them vote anyway, right?
Still waiting to see how this is an example of small government, hands-off, common sense Republican values.

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The depressing thing is, apparently the majority of voters in AZ have no problem with this sort of thing, which smacks of Lenin pulling a coup on the actual majority government in October of 1917.

  2. 2.

    Davis X. Machina

    The organs of the State exist to serve the Party, and not the other way round, for it is the Party, and not the State, that is the Vanguard of the Revolution.

    All power to the soviets of preachers and hedge-fund managers!

  3. 3.

    David in NY

    Is AZ anything like the US? Under the US const. an impeachment is just a charge, like an indictment. There then has to be a trial. What’s up with AZ? Different rules or are the reporters just idiots, or does the “impeachment” suspend her pending trial, or what?

    Ed: OK, apparently the governor impeaches and the Senate ratifies, and nobody knows whether the impeachee (?) has any rights to defend herself. Sheesh.

  4. 4.

    jayjaybear

    @Davis X. Machina:

    All power to the soviets of preachers and hedge-fund managers!

    And ancient codgers wasting way too much money and water to recreate a Michigan lawn in the middle of the desert.

  5. 5.

    calliope jane

    Oh for FUCK’S SAKE. What the hell is the matter with this state? Plus, AZ is a covered state under the Voting Rights Act, so we have extra rules governing our redistricting anyway …(trying and failing to remember specifics, but redistricting in the past has gone to the courts anyway). Fuck. I was in a good mood, too. Damn it.

  6. 6.

    soonergrunt

    Still waiting to see how this is an example of small government, hands-off, common sense Republican values.

    You’re going to die of old age waiting for that shit.

  7. 7.

    Martin

    The CA GOP is equally unhappy with the state redistricting commission but lack the votes to change anything, so they’re just suing the commission instead.

  8. 8.

    Sad But True

    Apparently, the “i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t” in “Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission” is meant to be silent….

  10. 10.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    @Martin: Judicial activists! Oh wait, that was meant to be in response to Mathis’ suit. Republicans are suing in CA so “Yay court system!”

  11. 11.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    Back when people were saying things like “permanent Republican majority” in a perfectly serious manner, I would reply in an equally serious manner, “what the Hell, it worked for the Soviets.”

    That never went over well.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    Listened to this story on the radio this morning and felt compelled to find a desk against which to bang my head. There’s a burnished shamelessness with which they do these things that makes them all the more appalling.

    Here in California, the Republicans are sufficiently dissatisfied with the redistricting maps crafted by the redistricting commission the Republicans worked hard to put on the ballot and create, that they’re now crafting a ballot measure to overturn the commission’s maps. Aren’t they supposed to turn into butter after running around the tree so many times?

  15. 15.

    Social outcast

    Arizona’s government is pissed that it still isn’t the most crackerish state in the union. Look out, Alabama- Brewer knows that if you ain’t first, you’re last.

  17. 17.

    The Moar You Know

    A more cynical person might say that this is the legislative equivalent of “verdict shopping”, but I am not that person.

  18. 18.

    Davis X. Machina

    I’m presuming Hewitt’s other book, “If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat” was about the 2008 presidential election….

  19. 19.

    Rome Again

    The headline to the newspaper I delivered this morning said Mathis was “ousted”.

    This is all apparently due to the fact that Russell Pearce (author of SB1070) may be about to receive a primary challenge due to the new district boundaries. This is Jan Brewer helping her friend.

  20. 20.

    calliope jane

    Oh, and this is fun– Brewer is out of the state (promoting a book? Blech) which means the acting governor is the sec of state (no lt governor). The sec of state, of course, is the top election official. It’s so delightful seeing up close what republicans view as “democracy”. I’m looking at the letter– yep, it’s the sec of state who wrote it.

    Fuck, this is depressing.

  22. 22.

    General Stuck

    I suspect, like in Texas, Arizona has experienced increased population growth, primarily from increases in Latino voters.

    So of course, in the wingnut lizard brane cortex, that means the extras House seats should go to gawd fearin’ anglo GOP voting gasbags instead of icky libtard fornicating terror baby minorities, It’s all right there in the Permanent GoP Majority pamphlet with Karl Rove’s stubby finger prints all over it

  24. 24.

    PhoenixRising

    If you give fanatical Republicans too much power, they do completely crazy things with it because they are basically insane.

    The amount of power at which this rule engages is not in fact governor, nor Sec of State, nor county clerk, but closer to elementary school crossing guard.

    Bless their hearts.

  25. 25.

    cat48

    AZ better be careful b/c Holder will be contacting them and even “crazy” Bob Bauer, Atty, who recently left the WH employ, and is now working for Obama for America may visit AZ to check out Voter Suppression, etc., per WSJ:

    By this spring, the Obama re-election campaign will mount what Mr. Bauer called an unprecedented “voter protection” effort, fielding thousands of volunteers in battleground states to help navigate new election laws, months earlier than past efforts.
    …
    “We will look at what the state has done, look for ways to counter it, through litigation sometimes, through administrative interpretation sometimes. But beyond that, you have to have a program that actually goes out and shows voters what they need to do,” a senior Obama campaign official said.
    …

    The GOP thinks this action by Bauer/Obama is “unprecedented”! They’ve never seen anything like this from a campaign! Just wait until FL ties on election day! Crazy Bob will be there before them!

  26. 26.

    kestral

    I… Just… Sheesh.

    And you know what the worst part of this whole boondoggle is? Even if someone runs against Brewer during the next election, the lizard-brains up in the Valley will just vote her right back into office.

    What did we ever do to the Repubs in this state to get kicked around so much?

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Martin:

    The CA GOP is equally unhappy with the state redistricting commission but lack the votes to change anything, so they’re just suing the commission instead.

    And the CA Supreme Court has already turned them down. Their only hope now is to qualify an initiative on the 2012 ballot.

  28. 28.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    Here’s the thing, folks. If you give fanatical Republicans too much power, they do completely crazy things with it because they are basically insane. Case in point: one Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona.

    I’d say it’s much simpler than that: They do it because they can. And they know that they’ll WIN votes because people don’t pay attention.

    The line’s gonna be ‘Dem’s made the committee biased!! We had to!’ and without a concerted pushback, the people will believe them and YAY, SUPER GOP MAJORITY AGAINST THOSE EVIL CHEATING DEMS!! Fuck, people still think that because the entire GOP in Congress votes against Obama, it’s proof that Obama and the Dems are the real evil super-hyperpartisans. Because obviously only Dems ever cheat.

  29. 29.

    Rome Again

    @kestral:

    According to what TZ has told me (since he’s the lifelong Phoenician with authority to speak on such matters, while I’m just a transplant), as he has informed me, Arizona let a bunch of Mormons in. God fearing Republicans think the GOP is God’s own party!

  30. 30.

    Cacti

    A big thank you to GED Jan for affirming that Arizona should continue to be subject to the Voting Rights Act for the foreseeable future.

  32. 32.

    piratedan

    this is the second time that Cactus Barbie has taken a recently voted in statewide referendum and “modified” it to suit the purposes of the party. The first was the increase of that state tax increase that was earmarked to help support AZ schools, which she then turned around and slashed more money from the state budget for because of the “tax revenue” balancing, which left schools with less money than they had before… now this… which in fairness still favors the Republicans in most districts, but makes them “too competitive” for the tastes of the folks thinking about taking their local grifting to a whole new level.

    here’s a good source for all things in AZ Politics:

    http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2011/11/brewer-and-her-star-chamber-remove-the-independent-from-the-independent-redistricting-commission.html

  33. 33.

    Holden Pattern

    @Roger Moore, trollhattan, Martin:

    The CA GOP is equally unhappy with the state redistricting commission but lack the votes to change anything, so they’re just suing the commission instead.

    And, fun fact, the redistricting commission was created by an initiative largely funded and promoted by Republicans (and, fair enough, some goo-goo groups and a few Dems) because the Republicans didn’t have the 1/3 superminority veto over redistricting that they do over anything financial. So they though the Dem majority in the legislature was going to screw them.

    Demographics are a real bitch if you can’t do voter suppression, huh, conservatives?.

  34. 34.

    MeDrewNotYou

    @kestral:

    What did we ever do to the Repubs in this state to get kicked around so much?

    Simple. VWB- Voting While Brown
    ETA-Added the quote

  37. 37.

    genghisjon

    Not only do they want all the slices of pie,now we can’t evan keep the box to keep us dry while they piss on our heads.

  38. 38.

    Origuy

    @Roger Moore: Some woman stopped me at Safeway and wanted me to sign the petition. I hadn’t heard anything about it and didn’t have time to talk, so I brushed her off. I bet they’ll have trouble getting signatures.

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