애리조나주 휘닉스 공항 활주로에서 설전을 벌리고있는 주지사 Jan Brewer와 오바마 대통령

미국의 언론보도를 서핑 하다가 미 방송과 신문들이 크게 다룬 뉴스가 있어 살펴보니 지난 1월25일(수요일) 오바마 대통령이 본인의 경제정책을 설명하기 위하여 미 애리조나주 휘닉스 공항에 도착하였다 합니다.

    그런데 공항 에 미 공군 1호기가 도착하고 대통령이 내려오자 이때 영접을 나갔던 공화당 소속의 잰 부리워(Jan Brewer) 여주지사가 작은 편지봉투를 대통령에게 전하고는 활주로에서 오바마대통령 면전에 손가락 질을 하면서 한동안 설전을 벌리는 장면이 카메라에 잡혀 세인들의주목을 받고 있다는 얘기입니다.

    LA Times 기사를 보니 설전의 내용은 대충 이러했습니다.

    2010년 6월 미 애리조나 주 잰 부리워 지사가 수행원들을 대동하고 당시 연방정부 이민정책과마찰이 증대되고 있던 애리조나 주 이민법 관련 건으로 백악관을 방문 오바마 대통령을 만났다합니다.

    문제는 당시 오바마 대통령을 만나러 갔던 잰 부리워 주지사가 백악관 오벌 오피스 밖에서 주지사 자신을 비롯하여 수행원들이 비밀 경호원들에 의하여 휴대전화를 수거 당하고 사진 촬영을 금지 당하는 등의 냉대를 받았다고 털어 논 것입니다.

    이러한 얘기는 잰 부리워 주지사가 지난 11월에 펴낸 “전갈을 아침식사로’라는 책에서 밝혔다는것입니다. 또한 잰 부리워 여주지사는 그녀의 책에서 당시 백악관에서 만난 오바마 대통령은 마치 교수같이 자기얘기만 늘어놓으며 잘난 체를 했다고 덧붙였다 합니다. 아무튼 이국(異國)의 국외자(局外者)로서 자세한 내막은 모르지만 하여간 대통령 면전에 삿대질(?)까지 해가며 설전을 벌리는 사진을 보면서 많은걸 느끼게 됩니다. 민주주의가 무르익은 대국임을 보여주는 증표라 생각됩니다.

    아래는 관련 영문기사입니다.

Longstanding tension between Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Democratic President Barack Obama flared into the public spotlight Wednesday just after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix.

Brewer, who was on the tarmac to greet Obama, hand-delivered a letter before engaging the president "intensely" for several minutes, including pointing her finger directly at him, according to Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown, acting as a pool reporter for other media outlets.

Accounts from both camps later said the terse talk focused on Brewer's book - "Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border."

The book, which was released in November, describes a June 2010 Oval Office meeting between Obama and Brewer aimed at diffusing conflicts surrounding Arizona's controversial state immigration law and the administration's immigration policy.

At the time, the White House called it a "good meeting," while Brewer's staff said it was "cordial."

But Brewer paints a much different picture in her book.

Brewer complains in "Scorpions for Breakfast" that she and her staff were treated coldly by White House aides, prevented from taking pictures in the holding room outside the Oval Office and that their cell phones and cameras were  "confiscated" by Secret Service.

"Too bad we weren't illegal aliens, or we could have sued them," she writes.

During her meeting with the president, Brewer said Obama was "condescending" and professorial, "lecturing" on his efforts to promote comprehensive immigration reform.

"It wasn't long before I realized I was hearing the president's stump speech," she said. "Only I was supposed to listen without talking. Did he care to hear the view from the actual scene at the border? Did the opinions and observations of the people of Arizona mean anything to him? I didn't think so."

"He was patronizing," she said. "Then it dawned on me: He's treating me like the cop he had over for a beer after he bad-mouthed the Cambridge police, I thought. He thinks he can humor me and then get rid of me."

Obama raised his objections to Brewer's account face-to-face with the governor Wednesday.

"He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told reporters after the meeting broke. "I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt."

Obama told Brewer "that he didn't feel that I had treated him cordially," Brewer said. "I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn't get my sentence finished.

"Anyway, we're glad he's here. I'll regroup," she added.

A senior administration official later told reporters that Obama's comments were in response to Brewer's request for another one-on-one meeting.

"The governor handed the president a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The president said he'd be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book," the official told reporters, on condition of anonymity.

Brewer, who said in her letter to Obama that she wanted to discuss "Arizona's comeback" with him, did not attend the presidential event at a Phoenix factory today. But she did make several subsequent media appearances to talk about her tarmac encounter.

In an interview with KFYI radio in Phoenix, Brewer said Obama was "somewhat thin-skinned and a little tense, to say the least."

"I was very surprised.  I was taken aback.  I really was," she said.  "I was shocked by the sternness of it all."