for its divisive politics and extreme rhetoric, it's no wonder that the eyes of the nation are on us.
It is even less surprising that Arizona politicos started jumping into the fray -- issuing obvious statements or overstating their relationships with U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords or using the opportunity to shine as hypocrites.
One of this weekend's offenders was political stuntman Jason Rose, who was quoted in the New York Times lamenting that Arizona was just "starting to emerge from the P.R. trauma of the immigration law, and ... we offer up our state as the land of Oswalds."
"Democrats positioning politically to use giffords tragedy as obviously and flagrantly as gop used 9/11 shock," Rose tweeted on Sunday.
Then, there is Senator Jon Kyl, who was on Face the Nation Sunday cautioning the public against rushing to speculation about the reason for the mass shooting. He was reacting to Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's characterization of Arizona as "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
Kyl said: "We really don't know what motivated [this] young person, except to know that he was very mentally unstable."
Not knowing what motivated the shooting death of Arizona rancher Rob Krentz in March didn't stop Kyl -- and other politicians -- from leaping to conclusions. There was rampant speculation that an illegal immigrant who was possibly connected to a drug-smuggling cartel was responsible for Krentz death. That murder remains unsolved.
Why didn't Kyl urge people not to rush to judgment in that case? Like many of his colleagues, he used Krentz's death as the backdrop to call for more National Guard troops on the border and expand illegal immigration enforcement operations.
And Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, during a press conference over the weekend, declared that Giffords was a friend, someone she had "grown to love."
Maybe they were tight, but when Brewer was asked about their friendship, the governor described their ties as Giffords' serving in the Arizona Senate at the same time Brewer was Secretary of State, the two women campaigning in the same areas, and the two "always often appearing together on the same stage"
Brewer also was asked whether she and Giffords worked on any legislation together. Brewer thought they might have but couldn't remember, saying she would have to go through her records.
Yep, regular BFFs, those two.
