Obama, Brewer in Angry Faceoff

It was a showdown on the tarmac. A greeting yesterday between President Obama and Gov. Jan Brewer quickly soured with a frowning Brewer angrily jabbing the air with her finger in the president's face. Brewer first handed Obama a letter on the tarmac, asking him for a meeting, then engaged the president "intensely" for several minutes, according to the pool reporter. Both camps said the interchange involved Brewer's book, Scorpions for Breakfast, reports ABC News.

In the book, Brewer complains about a meeting she had at the White House last year during which the president was "condescending, professorial, and patronizing." Obama chided her on the tarmac about the characterization, according to Brewer. "I was very surprised," she said later. "I was shocked by the sternness of it." The governor said she tried to say she was sorry he felt that way, "but I didn’t get my sentence finished." An administration official said the president simply noted that Brewer characterized the previous meeting "inaccurately." Brewer did not appear with the president later at a Phoenix factory, but did make several media appearances to discuss the tarmac faceoff, calling Obama "somewhat thin-skinned and a little tense, to say the least.” (More illegal immigrants stories.)