Last weekend, The Arizona Republic, the largest daily in Arizona and a newspaper known for a conservative editorial stance, lambasted public figures for their failure of leadership on the issues of Immigration.

The banner headline on the front page of Sunday’s (2 May 2010) paper read—in what might be viewed as a case of typography-as-commentary—in black & white, and gray: STOP FAILING ARIZONA; START FIXING IMMIGRATION.

We need leaders. The federal government is abdicating its duty on the border. Arizona politicians are pandering to public fear. The result is a state law that intimidates Latinos while doing nothing to curb illegal immigration. This represents years of failure. Years of politicians taking the easy way and allowing the debate to descend into chaos.

The Arizona Republic has been calling for comprehensive immigration reform continuously since 2002. For a brief time, our congressional delegation led the nation on this front. But no more.

Now, it seems our elected officials prefer to serve political expediency instead.”

—The Arizona Republic

The paper then went on to catalog the leadership failures of ten prominent Arizona politicians: Jan Brewer, Janet Napolitano, John McCain, Jon Kyl, J.D. Hayworth, Phil Gordon, Russell Pearce, Raúl Grijalva, Joe Arpaio, and Andrew Thomas. (You can read the editorial here.)

Linda Valdez serves on the editorial board of the paper; she describes the decision to run the full-page editorial on the front page of last Sunday’s edition.

Right-click here to download an .mp3 of this segment.