A Wiser Republican Party?

Having returned from my Easter hiatus, I comment once again on the body politic in America, such as it is.

It seems that the Republican party, much to the chagrin of its many detractors, might regain enough of its collective sanity to, if not get President Barack Obama voted out of office, hold on to the House and take the Senate. The battle for the Senate is the easy part; they only need to gain four seats from the Democrats, and they are defending less than half as many seats as the Democrats - and those ten Republican seats are all considered ultra-safe, even Scott Brown's in Massachusetts. The House is less clear. Democrats only need 25 House seats to retake control, but added seats in Republican states at the expense of seats in Democratic and swing states - many of which happen to currently be under Republican governors and have Republican majorities in one or both houses of their legislature - could give the GOP an advantage in the redistricting based on the 2010 census, which is handled by elected officials in the states. But Paul Ryan's Medicare "reform" proposals could complicate things for the Republicans. The Democrats' chances of re-taking the House should become clearer once the redistricting is finalized.

Two Western Republicans, realizing the stakes, have reacted for the good of their party. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer wisely vetoed a bill that would have required presidential candidates to present their birth certificates to be allowed on state ballots. Calling it "a bridge too far," and obviously wanting to dissociate herself from the GOP lunatic fringe, Brewer would have none of this. She clearly wants the party to focus less on the "birther" theories circulating about Obama in Republican circles and concentrate on the issues.

She also vetoed, by the way, a bill that would have allowed students at colleges and universities to carry concealed firearms, calling it "poorly written." In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson in January, it was poorly proposed as well. Brewer has her faults. Many of them. But fanaticism is not of them.

Meanwhile, Nevada senator John Ensign announced his resignation over the weekend regarding corruption charges referred to earlier on this blog. Nevada's Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, will likely appoint U.S. Representative Dean Heller to the seat. Heller, who had already planned to run for Ensign's seat when Ensign announced he would not seek re-election next year, now has the power of the incumbency and should be able to secure an already safe GOP seat. But maybe not. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com crunched the numbers, and he declared that appointed senators of either party historically have only a 50 percent chance of winning a term in their own right.

It looks to be an exciting election cycle next year . . ..

Trouble Brewing In Arizona

Jan Brewer, the accidental governor of Arizona who demonized immigrants and health care reform and was elected to a full term in her own right because of all that, is suddenly a victim of buyer's remorse. A movement has been started to recall the governor in part because of her refusal to fund medical assistance for the state's poorer residents, including life-saving organ transplants. Such budget cuts have been likened to the very sorts of "death panels" that Iowa senator Charles Grassley continuously warned that President Obama's health care law would bring.

In Arizona, Brewer is pulling the plug on Grandma to save money. She proposes getting 20 percent of the state's Medicaid patients off the rolls, which, Brewer says, would help save $541.5 million in the coming year. But the cuts will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for many Arizonans to get the medical care they need. Brewer, in fact, is the only governor to stop the funding of transplants, including those for hearts and livers. As Reuters reported, Douglas Gravagna, a carpenter in the Phoenix area, has to rely on a pacemaker and a defibrillator, along with fourteen prescription medications, to keep himself alive. Denied state Medicaid funding for an organ transplant, Gravagna, a heart patient, says that Brewer's decision has pretty much sealed his fate.

"She's signing death warrants - that's what she's doing. This is death for me," says the 44-year-old Gravagna.

The last time Arizona had a governor this contemptible was when Evan Mecham was in charge. Mecham., who died in 2008, became governor of Arizona in January 1987 and quickly gained notoriety for rescinding the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in his state and making racist comments about blacks and Asians. Petitions for a recall election were certified and the election was scheduled for May 1988. Mecham was spared the indignity of being voted out early in his term, ironically, by legislative removal from office. It started when, in January 1988, the state House of Representatives impeached him. He was charged with obstruction of justice and misuse of public funds resulting from failing to report a loan from a real estate developer to his gubernatorial campaign, as required by campaign finance laws - and lending public money to his own Pontiac dealership. That's right, Arizona elected a car salesman - a profession considered even slimier than that of professional politician - as its governor.

Mecham was concurrently indicted by a grand jury - along with his brother - for three counts of perjury, two counts of fraud and one count of failing to report a campaign contribution. Though that body would ultimately acquit Mecham that June (I don't know what happened with his brother), the Arizona State Senate decided they'd had enough of the man from the motor trade. Mecham was convicted and removed from office in April 1988, and the entertaining and morbidly fascinating saga of America's most famous Latter-Day Saint car dealer was over. (So much for Mormon ethics!)

Brewer hasn't done anything illegal, but her budget proposals are inhumane and unfair. Her opponents have to get at least 432,000 signatures by the end of May to set up a recall election, but it could be difficult. It seems she's rather popular among Arizonans, no surprise given her landslide election victory in November.

She's intoxicated with power, which is appropriate for a woman whose married name is "Brewer" and whose maiden name - I am not making this up - is "Drinkwine."