Barack Obama picks Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as Head of Homeland Security

[kingcap72]

POLITICO
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.
Napolitano brings law-and-order experience from her stint as the Grand Canyon State’s first female attorney general. One of the nation’s most prominent female elected officials, she made frequent appearances on behalf of Barack Obama during the campaign. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006.
Transition insiders have long expected that she would be offered a Cabinet slot, although she had also been mentioned for other posts, including attorney general.
Napolitano, 50, endorsed Obama in early January, just as the primaries were kicking off, and the female up-and-comer's decision to back the Illinois Senator got widespread coverage.
In 2005, TIME magazine named her one of America’s five best governors, calling her “A Mountaineer on the Political Rise.”
TIME reported: “The one issue Republicans think they can use against the popular Napolitano is illegal immigration, because the huge number of border crossings have left many Arizonans feeling overwhelmed and powerless. Her critics claim she came to the problem late, but she seems to have navigated it deftly. … Napolitano opposed … several bills that targeted illegal immigrants. Instead, she looked to the systems and people that make illegal immigration possible: she ordered state contractors to ensure that their employees are legal [and] set up an undercover unit to catch forgers of identity documents … In mid-August she declared a state of emergency in Arizona to direct more funds to protecting border areas from illegal crossings.”
The Democratic officials said Napolitano has not been officially offered the job but is likely to be named and to accept. The selection was first reported by CNN.
Her official bio says: “Janet Napolitano was sworn in as Arizona’s 21st Governor on January 6, 2003. She is the first woman in the nation’s history to serve as U.S. Attorney, State Attorney General and Governor in immediate succession. Prior her election as Governor of Arizona, Napolitano served one term as Arizona Attorney General and four years as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. Born in New York City and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she is a distinguished alumna of Santa Clara University and the University of Virginia Law School. She has lived in Arizona since 1983, when she moved to Phoenix to practice law.”
Arizonan will head Homeland Security

Napolitano seems like a good choice.

But I love the fact that she's the Governor of Arizona. That's another slap in the face to McCain. And being a female governor it's a slap in the face to Palin.

[visitor42]

Another good choice, but why is it a slap to Palin? It's not like Obama would have picked her.

[ymeman]

She's deluded enough to think being able to 'see Russia from her house' gives her qualifications to be president, so it wouldn't surprise me to think that she might guess Obama would pick her for something.

[kingcap72]

Originally Posted by visitor42

Another good choice, but why is it a slap to Palin? It's not like Obama would have picked her.

It's a slap to Palin since she's a female governor that thought her 'executive experience' made her more qualified than Obama, Biden and McCain. Plus, Napolitano isn't a bimbo skating by on her looks and winking like an idiot.

[Belinda]

I was hoping Obama would pick her as his Attorney General but glad she's in his cabinet.

[KristiB]

I like her.

A Democratic (rumored)lesbian Attorney General named Janet would have been total Deja Vu.

[Belinda]

^ That's right. I forgot about Janet Reno. Bush's craptastic AG choices are clouding my memory.

[Str8_uncut-jock]

What happens with her governorship? Does the Lt. Gov step up to bat?

[lurkur]

Napolitano opposed … several bills that targeted illegal immigrants. Instead, she looked to the systems and people that make illegal immigration possible: she ordered state contractors to ensure that their employees are legal [and] set up an undercover unit to catch forgers of identity documents … In mid-August she declared a state of emergency in Arizona to direct more funds to protecting border areas from illegal crossings.”

She seems like she has a more reasonable and logical approach to illegal immigration. As far as dissuading employment of illegal immigrants, an illegal immigrant has 'nothing to lose' but a company or employer does.

It could be an indirect slap to Palin, but moreso to McCain, being that she's Arizona's governor. Indirectly, it draws a comparison to McCain's choice of a female governor and Obama's choice of a female governor. You could also read in that it's for the position of Homeland Security, which reminds me of those hateful jabs about 'palling around with terrorists.' Napolitano actually has experience with border-to-border interaction and the dynamics of both rural and dense urban areas.

I think it's also bad for Palin indirectly because the more high-profile women there are in the government, the less of a novelty she is.

[kingcap72]

Napolitano is no stranger to Washington scandals

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's likely pick for Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is no stranger to headline-making Washington scandals and controversies.
Napolitano was a U.S. attorney in Phoenix, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, when the Justice Department decided against prosecuting Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, for the theft of prescription drugs from her medical charity.
Mrs. McCain went public in 1994 about her prescription drug addiction, admitting she stole medicine from the charity several times between 1990 and 1992. A doctor wrote prescriptions at her direction for medical missions around the world, and she sometimes increased the amounts, keeping some for herself. The Justice Department decided against prosecuting Mrs. McCain after she agreed to undergo drug treatment. She said in 1994 that she had kicked her addiction.
While at a Phoenix law firm in 1991, Napolitano was part of the legal team representing Anita Hill, a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission colleague of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas who accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Hill's accusations jeopardized but ultimately failed to derail the Senate's confirmation of Thomas.
Napolitano's representation of Hill became an issue in 1993 when the Senate considered Clinton's nomination of Napolitano for the U.S. attorney's job. Napolitano refused to answer questions about a private conversation with one of Hill's witnesses, Susan Hoerchner. At issue was whether Napolitano persuaded Hoerchner, Hill's corroborating witness, to change her testimony.
Hoerchner initially told the Senate Judiciary Committee during its Thomas hearings that Hill had told her in the early 1980s that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas. After Napolitano requested and had a private conversation with her, Hoerchner told the committee she wasn't certain of the date Hill told her about the alleged harassment. Napolitano said she couldn't answer questions about the talk because Hoerchner wouldn't waive her right to confidentiality.
Some Republicans accused Napolitano of stonewalling the committee and contended it could cause a dangerous precedent if the panel confirmed a nominee without having all the information it needed. Democrats defended her, saying Napolitano wanted to be forthcoming but couldn't due to attorney-client privilege.
Some senators said at the time that Hoerchner had admitted before talking with Napolitano that she was just guessing about the date Hill first said she'd been harassed by Thomas. A book published after the Thomas hearings said the date Hoerchner guessed, September 1981, was before Hill went to work for Thomas.
Napolitano is no stranger to Washington scandals

The only real mark I can see against her is that her legal team wasn't successful in keeping Thomas' dumb ass off of the Supreme Court.

[lurkur]

Cindy should have been prosecuted for the drug theft no different from how Leroy the Plumber would have.

Napolitano representing Anita Hill is a plus in my book. But calling an emergency for the border seems over the top, and she's pro-death penalty, which I disagree with. I suppose that helps make her seem 'tougher' on crime to potential critics.

The first I remember about Joe Biden was the SNL skit about the Anita Hill hearings. Back inna day.

[Sweetie]

Originally Posted by ymeman

She's deluded enough to think being able to 'see Russia from her house' gives her qualifications to be president, so it wouldn't surprise me to think that she might guess Obama would pick her for something.

Dear God people, please research stuff before you speak of it. She never said you can see Russia from "her house", she said:

When talking about what she says is her foreign policy experience, Sarah Palin told ABC news “…you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”


Which is true. Not that it means she was experienced, but at least quote her correctly.

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - You CAN see Russia from here! « - Blogs from CNN.com

[Grimmlok]

but Tina Fey does a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin.

god, I wish they had trotted her out to meet world leaders and see if they could tell the dif

[KristiB]

Originally Posted by Str8_uncut-jock

What happens with her governorship? Does the Lt. Gov step up to bat?

AZ doesn't have a Lt Governor. It will go to the Secretary of State, Jan Brewer who is a Republican.

[Str8_uncut-jock]

^interesting that he would select her when a repub is waiting in the wings. I assumed any Pres would only select people who would be replaced by people like them (i.e. a dem governor who would be replaced by a dem governor...or a senator from a dem controlled state who would be replaced by another dem).