Janet Napolitano Set To Be Homeland Security

Gov. Janet Napolitano will be the new secretary of Homeland Security, CNN reported late Wednesday, just hours after the governor insisted she is “not campaigning or seeking a job’’ in the Obama administration.The network quoted multiple Democratic sources close to the president-elect’s transition team.

If Napolitano goes to Washington, that would make Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer the governor for the balance of Napolitano’s four-year term which runs through 2010. And Brewer already has told Capitol Media Services that things would be very different if she were in charge.“I’m certainly not a tax-and-spend elected officials,’’ she said.

The CNN report comes just hours after Napolitano expressed annoyance at questions about Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell who specifically disavowed any interest in stepping down during the middle of his term. Rendell said through an aide that such a move would elevate a Republican to the state’s chief executive, putting the state in the hands of those “who have diametrically opposed philosophic views on the role of government.’’“Look, let me just say it and get this out of the way: I believe it for the president-elect to make his Cabinet appointments in the way he sees fit,’’ Napolitano said.“It is his prerogative,’’ she added. “I am not campaigning or seeking a job. I like the job I have right now.’’