Napolitarianism Under Fire
Even Democrats want to dump the University of California’s corrupt anti-conservative zealot.
From 2009-2013, Janet Napolitano headed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security but as president of the University of California she has been unable to prevent violent thugs from quashing free speech on UC campuses. Napolitano has also remained silent during the smear surge against UCLA professor Keith Fink, but that should come as no surprise.
Janet Napolitano made her public debut in the 1991 smear campaign against Clarence Thomas, in an effort to keep the conservative African American off the Supreme Court. The lead smearer, Anita Hill, accused Thomas of sexually harassing her and Napolitano, then with a Phoenix law firm, represented Hill in the matter.
The false accusations of Napolitano’s client supplied ammo for white Democrats Howard Metzenbaum, a former Communist; Ted Kennedy, who sought support from the USSR against Reagan; and Robert Byrd, a former high-profile Ku-Klucker. Napolitano’s representation of Anita Hill came up in 1993 when president Clinton appointed her as a U.S. attorney.
In the confirmation proceedings, Napolitano interrupted Hill’s witness Susan Hoerchner, who after an off-the-record conversation, “suddenly developed amnesia,” about parts of her story that contradicted Hill. Napolitano refused to answer questions whether she had persuaded Hoerchner to change her testimony.
Napolitano’s great achievement as Arizona attorney general was to ban Christmas displays on public property. As Arizona governor, she inclined to cronyism, appointing to the state supreme court her campaign attorney Scott Bales, a liberal Democrat who also worked at her former law firm. Napolitano vetoed seven bills intended to fight illegal immigration but her anti-conservative zealotry came to the fore during her stint as Department of Homeland Security boss.
Like the 44th president, Napolitano believed that radical Islam was not the primary threat. She expunged the word “terrorism” from the DHS lexicon and purged experts showing the connection between terror and jihad. She put out the DHS report Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, a sweeping indictment of conservatives for preferring limited government and constitutional measures such as the Second Amendment.
Napolitano’s DHS failed to track Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s bomb training and despite warnngs failed to keep him out of the country. In 2009 Farouk Abdulmutallab, a protégé of Anwar al-Awlaki on a terrorist watch list, managed to buy a one-way ticket with cash and board the plane with a bomb in his underwear. Napolitano claimed “the system worked” in this case.
Napolitano began releasing detainees from immigration jails and distorted the numbers. She claimed that the border was more secure than ever when it wasn’t, attacked state efforts to step up enforcement, and ridiculed the idea of a border wall. On her watch the number of those crossing the border illegally increased and her tenure at DHS, said Sen. Jeff Sessions, was “defined by a consistent disrespect for the rule of law.”
Napolitano’s JD is her only advanced degree and she has never been an educator. On the other hand, her record as a politically correct liberal Democrat made her the ideal choice to head the University of California. In that post Napolitano maintained the same disrespect for the rule of law she showed as DHS boss.
In 1996, California voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), barring racial and ethnic preferences in university admissions. Napolitano derided the measure as a “legal barrier,” to “diversity.” The UC system, like the state, has always been diverse but Napolitano means the politically correct orthodoxy that all groups must be represented according to their proportions in the population. That ignores factors such as personal differences, effort and choice, which is why such proportionality is nowhere evident.
Napolitano appears to believe she is president of the United States, hailing a “partnership” with Mexico and, in effect, acting as an agent of the Mexican government. She made the UC a sanctuary system, founding and funding the UC Center for Undocumented Student Legal Services. President Napolitano has ruled that UC campus police will not cooperate with federal authorities.
As a result of this sanctuary policy, the 4,000 or so illegals now in the UC system are the most protected and pampered in the country. They pay in-state tuition and Napolitano granted them a $25.2 million aid package running through 2019. On the other hand, Napolitano has made no cuts in the UC’s vast and bloated bureaucracy.
She beats the drum for tuition hikes but as the state auditor recently revealed, maintains a secret slush fund of $175 million. As Republican assemblyman Dante Acosta pointed out, Napolitano’s office spent the money “on things such as administrator bonuses and renovating the homes of campus chancellors.” Napolitano even interfered with the auditors and when this emerged she lamely claimed “we could have handled this better,” and so forth.
“President Napolitano is not worthy of the public’s trust,” explained Democratic assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva. “It’s time she resigned.” The case is strong and the slush fund is hardly the only reason.
President Napolitano has done nothing to counter the Jew-hatred now raging across UC campuses. Violent thugs attacking conservative speakers and smashing up buildings have nothing to fear from the inept former Homeland Security boss. And when politically correct UC cadres smear free-speech champions such as Keith Fink, the president looks the other way.
Janet Napolitano got her start smearing Clarence Thomas, so she doubtless approves of the current smear campaign and all the oppressive measures on her watch. Call it Napolitarianism. This is what happens when you hire a corrupt political hack to run a once-great university.