'Today's Filing is Nothing More Than a Massive Waste of Taxpayer Funds'

Seemingly everything Obama touches is a massive waste of taxpayer funds, so why should that be a deterrent? Problem is here he's doing it while declaring war on one of our states in a thinly-veiled voter registration campaign for the Democratic Party and himself.

Solid B+, cuz.

Jan Brewer is ready for some hardball.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who is named as a defendant along with the state, called the lawsuit "a terribly bad decision."

"It is wrong that our own federal government is suing the people of Arizona for helping to enforce federal immigration law. As a direct result of failed and inconsistent federal enforcement, Arizona is under attack from violent Mexican drug and immigrant smuggling cartels," Brewer said in a written statement. "Now, Arizona is under attack in federal court from President Obama and his Department of Justice. Today's filing is nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayer funds."

State Republicans unloaded.

Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, the sponsor of SB 1070, called the federal lawsuit "patently insulting." He said states have the inherent authority to enforce federal law and questioned why the federal government doesn't sue cities with policies that restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

"It's outrageous," he said. "It is simply Washington putting their policy on the backs of this lawsuit trying to prevent the enforcement of our laws and continue their non-enforcement policy."

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, co-sponsored SB 1070, said he wasn't surprised by the federal action. But he was taken aback by the Department of Justice's legal argument.

"The Supremacy Clause argument requires proof that we are pre-empting either the U.S. Constitution or federal law, and we are not," Kavanagh said. "What we are pre-empting is not the law but the Obama administration policy of not adequately enforcing immigration law."

He called the federal lawsuit weak, nonsensical and one more distraction from the fight against illegal immigration.

"This is not a legal challenge but a political one," he said. "If I were the Obama administration faced with a poor economy, failed stimulus and oil leaking through the gulf, then I, too, would be trying to distract voters from all of the failures of my administration with a frivolous lawsuit."

The judge assigned to the case is a George W. Bush appointee.