Brewer joins list of politicians embellishing war records

Posted on 06/03/2010 @ 01:41 PM

In their words:

The Huffington Post reported:

Gov. Jan Brewer is the latest political figure to come under fire for making conflicting statements about military service. In this case Brewer appears to have misstated her father's military record.

Newsweek pointed out:

But she joins Blumenthal and Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk on the list of politicians who have recently felt comfortable being (at least) ambiguous about military service when it makes them look better.

Vanity Fair put their cosmetic spin on it:

Jan Brewer, imperial sun queen of Arizona’s chromatocracy, told the Arizona Republic that her father died fighting Nazis during World War II. The saga is very sad, except its tragedy is somewhat mitigated by the fact that it is extremely untrue.

While the Daily Kos observed:

Ah yes, claiming her father died fighting Nazis in Germany should, in no way, be construed as implying that her father died fighting Nazis in Germany.

The embellishment also got the attention of one of her Republican primary opponents, Buz Mills:

"While (Mills) strongly objects to those who use the Nazi label to describe (SB) 1070 and Governor Brewer, that does not give the governor the right to alter history for the purpose of an eye-catching quote."

Finally, the Arizona Republic's E.J. Montini posed the following question:

But I’m wondering if you would feel the same if the embellishments had been made by former Gov. Janet Napolitano? Because these days we seem to make excuses for those with whom we agree and condemn those with whom we disagree no matter WHAT the facts.