Arizona GOP Chairman Randy Pullen says the party base is incensed over a U.S. Senate compromise bill, drafted in part by Sen. Jon Kyl, according to the Arizona Daily Star:

"We have people coming in every day, tearing up their registration cards and throwing them on the floor, or coming in and changing their registration from Republican to independent," said party Chairman Randy Pullen during a press conference at the state headquarters in Phoenix.

Pullen held up what he called a "graphic" representation of how Republicans feel. It was a drawing of a hand with the middle finger pointing up and highlighted.

"This is basically the outlook that many of our party faithful are feeling right now about the Republican Party," he said.

First, if that's Pullen's idea of a "graphic" representation, then maybe he shouldn't leave home after dark anymore. Graphic to me is more akin to a lifelike illustration of someone spewing forth chunky vomit. (Wouldn't that have made a more memorable representation of how Republicans feel? They're "sick to their stomachs" over this immigration bill, Pullen could have said. Ha ha.) A drawing of a hand flipping the bird? Please, girl--I see that kind of stuff bandied about on the drive to work.

Second, reporter Daniel Scarpinato's tasteful choice of language reminded me of an article in The New York Times on Rosie O'Donnell's departure from The View, in which Donald Trump described how Rosie finally sent him over the edge:

He contended that “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was Ms. O’Donnell’s performance at the Waldorf-Astoria luncheon on Monday, where she was said to have grabbed her crotch when uttering Mr. Trump’s name and to have invited him to perform a sex act on her; also attending were Ms. Walters, Meredith Vieira, Cindy Adams and Rupert Murdoch.

My roommate and I had a brief discussion about how funny it would have been if Rosie had actually grabbed her crotch and said, "Donald, I invite you to perform a sex act on me." Thank God for alt-weeklies. It's nice being able to read the unsanitized versions of what people actually said.

The Washington Post reports that Arizona Sen. John McCain got pretty hot during a debate with Texas Sen. John Cornyn on the immigration reform package:

Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. "Wait a second here," Cornyn said to McCain. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."

McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).

"[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room," shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn't be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.

In what is an unprecedented moment in history, former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter is lashing out, saying the Bush administration is the worst in history.

(It's about time!)

Tucson Weekly editorial designer Arek Sarkissian II has left the building. Arek is off to the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg to sharpen his journalism skills so he can follow his bliss and get back to being a reporter.

Arek and I spent his last night in town wolfing down heavy-duty burgers at Kingfisher before heading over to the Loft Cinema for the late-night showing of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, one of his favorite flicks. The movie is a lot like Arek--a non-stop barrage of comedy. It's often low-brow and idiotic, but it comes at you so fast that you can't help but laugh, at least most of the time. I'm going to miss his outrageous jokes, his impersonations, his odd little songs and his general mistrust of authority. Best of luck, you little lunatic!

P.S. Naked Gun is showing again tonight at 10. Go see it!

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We've finally seen the Big Reveal on the Senate's immigration reform package. At first glance, it seems a mite bit tougher than the STRIVE Act, the proposal that's now floating around the House of Representatives. For example, the STRIVE Act has a $500 fine for people who have entered the country illegally; the Senate plan has a $5,000 fine.

While we're still sorting through the details, we note that both plans call for strengthening border security before enacting a new guest-worker program, which has the left complaining that it leans too heavily toward militarizing the border. Both also allow people who have entered the country illegally to remain here for at least a few years with a new Z visa (provided they pass a background check), which has the right complaining that the plan amounts to amnesty. One local blog, Sonoran Alliance, has a bulletin from Mothers Against Illegal Immigration calling for Sen. Jon Kyl to resign for being part of the negotiating team that has come up with the Senate plan. That seems a little extreme at this point in the process.

More on the Senate plan in next week's Skinny. In the meantime: Let's debate what amnesty means!

States crack down on soldier T-shirts.

Let's hope Gov. Napolitano vetoes this bill if it reaches her desk, and that the laws in other states are somehow rescinded.

Well, it's National Bike Week and I noticed that the League of American Bicyclists has proclaimed Tucson and the eastern Pima County region a "Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Community." Hmm.

It looks good on paper, but I'm not convinced. A key factor that seems to be missing from their criteria is the existing driver attitude toward bicyclists. Infrastructure and public education programs are great, but the message doesn't seem to be getting across to many local drivers (as evidenced by their behavior on the road). I have seen bicyclists cut off, tailgated and verbally assaulted by drivers; news stories on auto vs. bicycle fatalities are sadly frequent fodder for the evening news.

Never mind the fact that bicycle theft seems to be a UA area pastime. My locked bike was stolen out of my backyard (!) several years ago, so it does make it difficult to enjoy the city's bike paths.

If this is "friendly", I shudder to think of what's going on in the Bronze cities.

What do you think?

If there's one thing that gets the attention of Gov. Janet Napolitano, it's bad press. The story of Amy Gile, a CPS caseworker who ended up dating the abusive dad she met while watching out for his kids, got enough bad ink to lead CPS to send out a press release saying that the agency is reviewing its guidelines regarding personal relationships between employees and the people they investigate.

The release reads in part:

Department of Economic Security Director Tracy L. Wareing today called for an immediate review of DES policies regarding Child Protective Services case managers and appropriate professional standards, including a review of any related state personnel rules.

Wareing said this stems from a current internal review of a past personnel situation regarding a CPS worker personally involved with a former client.

“CPS case managers are professionals and must be held to the highest professional standards,” Wareing stated. “Our internal review of the personnel situation has led us to question whether current rules and policies are sufficient to allow the agency to take action against those who violate those standards, and whether the standards themselves go far enough in providing clear direction to staff on what their involvement with former clients should be.”

Neither Wareing nor Ken Deibert, DES Deputy Director of the Division of Children, Youth and Families (which oversees CPS), were with DES at the time that the situation in question was investigated. The internal investigation conducted in 2005 found no merit to the allegations because any alleged relationship between the parties involved in the complaint occurred over one year after the client’s initial involvement with CPS ended. Accordingly, DES did not take any disciplinary action against the employee. Wareing said she is not second-guessing that investigation, merely questioning whether the rules and policies that governed those decisions are sufficient.

State personnel rules and agency policies do not prohibit CPS case managers from being personally involved with clients with whom they are no longer professionally involved. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, which all CPS case managers are held to, disallows personal involvement with current clients and discourages relationships with former clients.

House Speaker Jim Weiers is a regular Dr. Frankenstein. Earlier today, he managed to restore the spark of life to the House budget that died yesterday by leaning on Rep. Trish Groe to vote for reconsideration, which is now scheduled for next Tuesday. In the meantime, the House budget is in a political superposition--like Schrödinger's cat, it's simultaneously alive and dead. Wonder what'll happen when we open the box next week?