Posted on 06/16/2003 10:30:24 AM PDT by hsmomx3
Golden Boy vs. J-Nap: Guv takes Crow to the mat advertisement
Political Insider is a tongue-in-cheek look at the past week in Arizona politics.
It was the slammed door heard round the Capitol.
Newly minted Arizona State University President Michael Crow has been a golden boy on a hot streak for much of the year. But Gov. Janet Napolitano took him to her woodshed Wednesday after he apparently cut a deal with Republican Senate leaders to "improve" a university research funding bill. After a short, very loud meeting, witnesses said Napolitano gave Crow the bum's rush from her office.
Just one night earlier Napolitano had gone to the wall for the universities as House Republicans threatened to vote down the 2003-04 budget if the university bill was not killed. Napolitano threatened to veto the budget if lawmakers monkey-wrenched the university bill, and the Republicans backed off.
So Napolitano was more than a little vexed when she heard the next day that Crow - with the presidents of Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona in tow - shook hands on Sen. Dean "I amend everything I touch" Martin's plan to use profits from future research discoveries to pay off the construction bonds instead of using all state money.
Napolitano believed the bill had enough support in the Senate to pass as is, and didn't like being blindsided by this turn of events. Crow might have gotten off with just getting barbecued verbally if he had sat quietly and taken his medicine. But he didn't, asking something along the lines of, do you want us to react to your anger or the facts?
That was when Napolitano got up and told Crow to "Get out of my office!"
She slammed the door so hard behind him that her Department of Public Safety security detail came spilling out of their room to see what the commotion was.
"It was a short meeting," was all Crow would tell reporters after emerging from the Ninth Floor.
•
And the clueless award of the week goes to (sound of envelope opening) Jim Irvin ... OK, you're beleaguered Corporation Commissioner Jim Irvin, who could get impeached by state lawmakers later this year for doing allegedly naughty things. You would think this guy - whose legal entanglements have already cost Arizona taxpayers millions of dollars - would know who his executioners are.
On Monday night, Republican Irvin showed up at a fancy banquet hosted by the AFL-CIO, not exactly a GOP-friendly crowd. His table included Rep. Leah Landrum Taylor, a bigwig in the House Democratic caucus, but Irvin thought she was a union rep. As impeachment trials go, the House acts as grand jury while the Senate runs the trial.
"He actually said to me, 'Are you one of the teamsters?' " recalled Landrum Taylor, who's in her third term at the Capitol. "Then he asked if I was in my first year in office. He never stopped talking, and his conversation revolved around one thing: Jim Irvin."
Apparently, Irvin was waxing eloquent about the "measly" salaries paid to public schoolteachers compared to the megabucks that athletes make. But one of the women at the table took offense at his definition of $35,000 as a measly salary and told the Commish about it.
Landrum Taylor told the Insider she left her table by dessert time because she couldn't take Irvin's rants any longer.
"Quite frankly, I got tired of his rhetoric," she said.
•
Hey Mr. Deejay, everybody wants to par-tay . . . Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not going to take this challenge by former KNIX-FM radio personality W. Steven Martin lying down. In fact, he's breaking out the heavy campaign artillery in the guise of (dramatic pause) . . . Jason Rose, Official Sheriff's Campaign Quipster.
With a radio jock as an opponent, Rose said it's time to start dialing in a few long-distance dedications for Martin, including these favorites:
All I Need Is a Miracle by Mike and the Mechanics, Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, Cruel Summer by Bananarama, Against All Odds by Phil Collins, I'm Goin' Down by Bruce Springsteen. And who can forget this timeless classic by the Bobby Fuller Four? I Fought the Law (And the Law Won).
While he's on the phone, Rose said he has a few requests for the Sheriff as well.
2 Legit 2 Quit by Hammer, Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar, Time Is On My Side by the Rolling Stones and, of course, I'm Still Standing by Elton John. How he failed to include Back on the Chain Gang by the Pretenders is anybody's guess.
I'm pretty sure it was California that was in the dark ages last year...yup, those liberal democrats sure know how to progressively drive a state into the ground...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.