The sun is shining slightly brighter in Arizona this week, as the state celebrates a week-long vacation from Governor Jan Brewer and her latest gaffes.
The self-described "Scorpion eater" has left the Capitol building -- or at least until Saturday, according to the office of Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is serving as Acting Governor while Brewer is mysteriously out-of-state.
Perhaps Arizona can become the "Grand Canyon" state again. Or, at least, earn a reprieve from Brewer's most recent gaffes and acts of embarrassment for the state.
On top of getting snubbed by her fellow colleagues at the Western Governors Association meeting last week, Brewer ignored the fallout over Hurricane Sandy and fellow Republicans like Governor Chris Christie and reminded Phoenix TV reporter Dennis Welch and the nation of her disbelief in climate change and intent to make Arizona the last holdout of denial: "Everybody has an opinion on it and I probably don't believe that it's man-made. I believe, you know, that weather elements are controlled, maybe, by other things."
Last week, the California-transplanted Brewer, who once infamously claimed a majority of undocumented immigrants were drug smugglers, and had to recant her charge of beheadings in the Arizona deserts, doubled down on her confrontation with the nation's move toward providing driver's licenses for eligible immigrant youth in a FOX TV interview, and compared undocumented youth to drunks.
"The state is the one who licenses the people to be able to drive, it's not the federal government," Brewer said in the interview. "And we don't license kids under 16. We don't license DUI drivers. And our laws are very clear and I took an oath to uphold that."
In 1988, Brewer was briefly detained by Phoenix police for a suspected DUI and car crash.
While it is not clear if Acting Governor Bennett, who once challenged the validity of President Obama's birth certificate in Hawaii, can refrain from carrying on Brewer's weekly gaffes, the state is hopeful.
Or at least pleasantly confused by Brewer's absence.
Questioned by a Hill reporter in Washington, D.C., retiring U.S. Senator Jon Kyl responded to Brewer's current absence: "Where is she?," he asked. "I don't know."