Brewer still thinks it's 2010

(PNI) Gov. Jan Brewer vaulted to national attention when she signed Senate Bill 1070. She's not about to let go now.

Much of her Republican Party, recognizing that a tough enforcement-first stand leads to political irrelevance, have begun to push for a different future. Brewer has turned down every opportunity to join them.

She offered little encouragement to Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake when they helped broker an immigration-reform framework. She gave no support to a budding statewide coalition seeking to change Arizona's image on this issue.

And this week, she reiterated her stand that young immigrants granted legal status by President Barack Obama cannot get Arizona driver's licenses.

It is a coldhearted decision that slaps the most-sympathetic faces in the immigration debate: those brought into this country at a young age and who, because of that, are American in every way but one.

Other GOP governors with an eye on the future have altered their stances. But not Brewer. She seems content to remain in 2010.

We wish she could make the pivot so many other Republicans have. Brewer could be a gust in the sail of those seeking to remake Arizona and the GOP's image. Instead, she's an anchor holding them back.

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