BREWER IN AFGHANISTAN? On State Business? Is She "Presidential Aspirant" NOW?

On Monday, Arizona's Politics reported on the news that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had been one of five Republican governors to have one-on-one meetings with GOP mega-millions man Sheldon Adelson, and how it had morphed into media outlets calling Brewer a potential Presidential candidate in 2016.  It was right after that that the "Where In the World Is Jan Brewer?" game started.

And, with today's new news (kudos to Bloomberg News) - not a sighting, but word from someone "familiar with the Governor's schedule" - that Jan Brewer is in Afghanistan visiting Arizona-based soldiers there, we can at least begin to surmise that she might consider herself to be a "Presidential aspirant".

(photo NOT from current trip)

There are a couple of interesting aspects of this story that deserve fleshing out: First, yesterday afternoon, both U.S. Senators from Arizona (of the same party as Brewer) proclaimed emphatically that they did not know where she was.  Why would our Governor take a foreign trip to a war zone without notifying either John McCain - who has been there several times - or Jon Kyl?

Second, the "Where in the world?" articles have all noted that the Governor's spokesman, Matt Benson, says that the trip is "official business".  That would lead to the reasonable assumption that Arizona taxpayers are picking up the entire tab for this trip.  After all, this is not a trade mission that is expected to bring financial benefits back to the state and can be expected to get the tab picked up by private interests. She is not going to hold a fundraiser in Kabul for Jan PAC.  Arizona's Politics has asked the Governor's Office for an answer.



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