OK, let’s say you’re a “gravely ill 95-year-old woman.” You’re dying of leukemia. In addition, because of your medical condition and old age, you already suffer the indignity of being forced to wear an adult diaper. And knowing the end of your life on this planet is near, you’re flying from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida to Detroit, Michigan because you want to be buried in your native town of Hastings, Michigan.
And let’s say on your way to catch your plane at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport, you have an accident in your adult diaper. And let’s say you’re wheeled up to the airport security checkpoint run by the government Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the crack TSA agent on duty announces that you need to be patted down because you can’t go through a scanning machine because you’re in a wheelchair.
And let’s say during the pat-down, the crack TSA agent notices a “mass” on your upper thigh; “a hard spot that had become heavy and concentrated because it was wet” from the accident. And then let’s say a team of crack TSA agents tell you they cannot search the wet diaper while you’re wearing it, so you have to remove it if you want to get on the plane….and you almost miss your plane because of the search.
As unbelievable as it sounds, that actually happened on June 18 to Lena Reppert….a dying, 95-year-old leukemia victim in a wheelchair with a wet diaper going home to die.
If this incident doesn’t make your blood boil, I don’t even want to know you.
In a column critical of NPRI’s 2011 ratings of Nevada legislators today, Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston wrote about the conservative think tank’s “disgust” with the budget deal, “as if there were some massive expansion of government that occurred.”
“I repeat the facts,” Jon writes. “In 2009, lawmakers approved a $6.9 billion general fund budget; in 2011, they approved a $6.2 billion general fund budget.”
But that simultaneously is half the picture and not the whole picture. Continue reading »
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement in response to comments made by President Obama at a press conference calling for higher taxes instead of larger spending cuts as part of his request for a debt limit increase.
“The President’s remarks today ignore legislative and economic reality, and demonstrate remarkable irony. His administration has been burying our kids and grandkids in new debt and offered no plan to rein in spending. Republicans have been leading and offering solutions to put the brakes on this spending binge. The President has been AWOL from that debate.
“The President is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the House. The votes simply aren’t there – and they aren’t going to be there, because the American people know tax hikes destroy jobs. They also know Washington has been on a spending binge for many years, and they will only tolerate a debt limit increase if we stop it.
“The new majority in the House is going to stand with the American people. A debt limit increase can only pass the House if it includes spending cuts larger than the debt limit increase; includes reforms to hold down spending in the future; and is free from tax hikes. The longer the President denies these realities, the more difficult he makes this process. If the president embraces a measure that meets these tests, he has my word that the House will act on it. Anything less cannot pass the House.”
Four European nations – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom – will honor the 100th birthday of President Reagan with a series of tributes from June 27-July 4, 2011, including Ronald Reagan statue unveilings in London and Budapest. The events are part of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation’s year-long Centennial Celebration.
The rabid SEIU and hyper-liberal Daily Kos teamed up to do a poll which reportedly shows that “49 percent of registered voters – and 48 percent of independents – say they’d be less likely to vote for a candidate who is ‘associated with the Tea Party.’ ”
Considering how much the SEIU and the Daily Kos hate the tea party movement and what it stands for, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. That said, tea partiers risk being marginalized electorally if they don’t show some campaign maturity and an ability to win general elections in swing states and districts.
As expected, Republican congressional candidate Mark Amodei drew Democrat state Treasurer “Calamity” Kate Marshall as his opponent in the September special election to replace Dean Heller. He should be fine; this is a solid GOP district.
But Kirk Lippold, a fellow Republican, continues to campaign and could be a fly in the anointment should the Nevada Supremes throw the election back open to all comers. As such, he’s not earning many points with the party regulars and establishment leaders.
Then again, he’s not trying to.
I know Republicans are only supposed to support Republicans, but conservatives can and should support the more conservative candidate in Democrat primaries, as well. The lesser of two evils and all. As such, Byron Georgiou appears to be a far preferable alternative to Harry Reid’s anointed candidate, Rep. Shelley Berkley, in next year’s U.S. Senate race against Dean Heller.
Hmm, I wonder if he’d come speak at the Conservative Leadership Conference?
It was announced on Monday that sales tax revenues were up again in April….further evidence that extending the sunsetted tax hikes was premature and probably unnecessary.
NPRI (Nevada Policy Research Institute) released its ratings of the 2011 Legislature today.
GOP Sen. Don Gustavson earned the highest score in the Senate (89.10%) and GOP Assemblyman Ed Goedhart chalked up the highest score in the Assembly (85.08%). The worst Republican score in the Senate was earned by liberal Sen. Joe Hardy (46.89%) and the worst Republican score in the Assembly was racked up by Assemblyman Lynn Stewart (43.98%).
My distinguished friend, Assemblyman Mark Sherwood – who desperately wants folks to believe he really, really, really and truly is a conservative – certainly didn’t vote that way. He posted only an anemic 53.97%….a mere ten points higher that Stewart’s embarrassingly low score for someone (falsely) claiming to be a conservative.
But while the ratings are interesting in and of themselves, author Geoff Lawrence’s play-by-play executive summary, detailing all of the shenanigans that went into the budget sausage-grinder, is a must-read for conservatives. Catch it here
By the way, Geoff will be speaking about the 2011 session and his ratings at the Conservative Leadership Conference in Las Vegas on July 9.
A group calling itself “Catholic Advocates” sent out a frantic email fundraising appeal this week decrying that “Late Friday night, the New York State Assembly voted to legalize same-sex marriage, without the consent of voters, (my emphasis) making it the sixth state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”
Bear in mind, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriages, it was done by court order. And at the time, anti-gay marriage folks called it “judicial activism” and said such a decision should have been made by legislators, not judges. But now that legislators in New York have OK’d gay marriages, the anti-gay marriage folks don’t even want the legislators they elected to, you know, legislate.
You just can’t please some people.
The Amodei for Congress campaign opened its HQ in Reno today in the Sierra Marketplace Center located at 3652 South Virginia, Suite C-7. It’s located next to the Washoe County GOP Headquarters. And no, it does NOT offer a free Chinese food buffet every day for volunteers.
Two days after suggesting that state school boss Keith Rheault should vamoose immediately, it’s announced that he won’t seek reappointment when his contract is up in March 2013. Not good enough for the kids who would suffer between now and March 2013. He should resign NOW.
At 28, Gov. Sandoval has the third-highest number of vetoes in state history…a fact that has retired state archivist and tax-hike champ Guy Rocha crying in his beer. “I don’t see the pragmatics of politics anymore,” Rocha said to Anjeanette Damon of the LV Sun. “Now it’s that idea of compromise as a sellout.”
Wrong.
It’s not that compromise is automatically a four-letter word. It’s that compromise has meant over the last dozen years that Democrats get the feast and Republicans get the table scraps. Just like this year’s budget deal. There’s nothing wrong with compromise….but if Republicans are going to give up something huge, like raising taxes, they should get something huge back in return.
What part of this is so hard to understand? Continue reading »
Today is former Rep. Barbara Vucanovich’s 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Congresswoman!
Herman Cain was the first GOP prez candidate to confirm his participation at the 2011 Conservative Leadership Conference and Presidential Debate yesterday. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, announced yesterday that he would NOT participate in the July 10 Las Vegas debate. No reason was given.
Despite issuing statement today declaring that “we must stop spending money we don’t have,” Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nevada) has not yet signed the “Cut, Cap & Balance” pledge sponsored by the Club for Growth.
Read and sign the pledge yourself HERE.
Urge Rep. Heck to join you in signing the pledge HERE. Continue reading »
OK, so I left the Nevada GOP meeting in Reno on Sunday morning and headed south to Carson City with Gia and the kids. We had to pick up our girls’ BFF – who will be spending a couple weeks with us on her summer vacation – on the way home to Las Vegas.
Before leaving Carson City, I gave the kids a choice: We could go visit the ghost town in Bodie, CA or the Ichthyosaurus fossil park in Austin, NV. The ghost town beat the dinosaur bones unanimously. So we headed south on 395 and crossed the Nevada-California border right there at Topaz Lake.
And that’s where the trouble began. Continue reading »
There is a menace terrorizing the entire Las Vegas tourism and gaming industry. According to a recent column by David Schwartz, director for the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV, this menace poses a ginormous threat to what he calls our “economic ecosystem” – whatever that is.
And “just like (how) kudzu and other invasive species crowd out native plants and obliterate existing ecosystems,” this menace on the Strip and at the Fremont Street Experience “is having a negative impact” on the very economic lifeblood of our community.
What is this menace threatening to bring on economic Armageddon if left unchecked? Prostitutes? Drug dealers? Pick-pockets? Purse snatchers? Nope. It’s…. Continue reading »
Members of the Nevada Republican Central Committee are meeting in John Ascuaga’s Nugget hotel in Sparks, Nevada this morning to nominate their candidate for the upcoming special election to fill the vacancy created when then-Rep. Dean Heller was appointed to replace former-Sen. John Ensign.
Acting Chairwoman Sherry Dilley called the meeting to order at 8:07 a.m. After a short prayer delivered by Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, Dilley noticed that Assemblyman Mark Sherwood (R-Henderson) had slipped in the back door and was making his way forward to his seat. Halfway up the aisle, Dilley asked Sherwood if he would come up on stage and sing the National Anthem.
Unbelievable.
Sherwood made his way up to the stage and ascended the steps, seemingly walking on air. He took the microphone from Dilley and paused briefly while the crowd removed their hats.
Sherwood began singing the Star Spangled Banner and….well, it may well have been the best rendition ever delivered. I kid you not. The guy never missed even a single note. If Roseanne’s version is the worst version ever delivered, Sherwood’s may go down as the best ever. I mean, it was simply angelic. Who knew?
But what happened after that was even more unbelievable.
Sherwood asked Dilley if he could “say a few words.” Well, after that performance, who could say no?
Sherwood began by thanking everyone for coming and participating in such an important decision. He then explained how critical it was for Republicans to come together and unite; how it was important to support all Republican candidates, saying that even the most liberal Republican was better than a conservative Democrat.
Borrowing sentiments from former Sen. Bill Raggio, Sherwood then warned against outside “agitators” who have been critical of GOP legislators such as himself who voted to extend the $600 million worth of tax hikes that otherwise would have sunsetted at the end of the month.
“Now, most of you know who I’m talking about,” Sherwood intoned to the hushed crowd. “I’m talking about that Idiot Muth. Please, stop reading his blog. Don’t even open his emails. He’s what I call a RHINO…R-H-I-N-O. I made that up myself. It stands for ‘Republican He Is Not, Oh?’ And Idiot Muth is not a Republican.”
Every head in the crowd was nodding in agreement. Thank goodness there were no tar-and-feathers in the room!
Sherwood concluded his remarks by calling for party unity.
“Please, let the healing begin right here, right now,” he said solemnly as he walked off the stage and into the crowd. He then grabbed the hand of longtime Central Committee member Mike Weber and held it up. “Come on everybody, grab the hand of the person sitting next to you and let’s raise our hands together in victory.”
And….they….did. It was surreal. But not as surreal as what happened next.
Weber then took the microphone and nominated Sherwood for the CD2 seat, declaring that even though the assemblyman from Henderson didn’t live in the district, “there is simply no finer Republican to represent our party in Congress.”
At which point Sen. Raggio, attending his first Central Committee meeting ever as Sherwood’s guest, seconded the nomination from the far left side of the room.
That’s when Dilley reclaimed the mic and worked her way back up on stage. She explained that they were, indeed, going to go ahead and move immediately to nominations, but ruled that since Sen. Raggio wasn’t a member of the central committee, he couldn’t second Sherwood’s nomination.
Almost immediately a voice in the back of the room boomed, “SECOND!”
It was uber-lobbyist Pete Ernaut.
Ernaut, of course, isn’t a member of the committee either….but as the most powerful man in Nevada politics, who was gonna tell him “no”? No one, that’s who.
At that point, Kirk Lippold rose from the third row on the far right side of the room and was recognized by the chair. “In light of Assemblyman Sherwood’s remarks, and in the interest of party unity, I hereby withdraw my candidacy,” he announced to the stunned crowd.
You could hear a pin drop.
And then it was Sen. Greg Brower’s turn.
“I have to agree,” Brower said, rising from his chair in the center of the room. “What this party needs is unity and leadership. What this party needs are more great Republicans like my colleague Mark Sherwood, whom every Republican in the Legislature looked up to and went to for advice in this last, extremely difficult session. So I, too, am withdrawing my candidacy.”
The room was literally buzzing with excitement as everyone started to fully comprehend what happening right in front of their eyes!
Former GOP chief Mark Amodei then strode up on stage and took to the podium.
“Never have I heard more eloquent words delivered with such pitch-perfect perfection,” Amodei said. “Madame Chair, I, too, am withdrawing my candidacy for the second congressional district seat and move that nominations be closed and Mark Sherwood be elected by acclamation!”
Ernaut boomed out from the front row, where he was now standing and holding hands with Weber, “SECOND!”
Dilley took the mic back from Amodei.
“We have a motion and a second to close nominations and choose Mark Sherwood, a man of great courage and intellect and truly the most unifying force in the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan, as our nominee for CD2,” Dilley said. “All in favor, say ‘aye’.”
“AYE!!!” shouted the crowd in unison.
At that point Ernaut and Weber hoisted Sherwood on their shoulders and began parading him through the crowd as the members chanted over and over again, “Sherwood! Sherwood!” Some were literally reaching out to touch his sleeve, perhaps hoping some of the man’s greatness would rub off on them.
It was the most thrilling experience in young Sherwood’s life, and he smiled broadly from Ernaut and Weber’s shoulders, beaming proudly for doing what no one in history had ever accomplished….uniting Nevada Republicans and driving that Idiot Muth from politics once and for all!
And then…
He woke up.
As a former GOP party chairman and executive director; as someone who has been training political activists, party leaders, candidates and campaign managers all over the country for more than 15 years now; I have just a teensy-tiny bit of experience from which to draw regarding this weekend’s decision by Nevada Republicans on who should be their organization’s next Grand Imperial Pooh-bah….or put another way, the GOP’s GIP.
As I’m not a registered Republican, take this for what it’s worth, Central Committee members.
One of the lessons drummed into me as a teenager by one of my first employers was: “If you haven’t written it down, you haven’t thought it all the way through.”
To their credit, both candidates for party chairman – Patrick McNaught and Amy Tarkanian – have put on paper….well, on websites….outlines of what their plans are for rebuilding a Nevada Republican Party that has been outraised, out-organized, out-communicated, out-recruited and, frankly, out-hustled by Harry Reid’s Nevada Democrat Party for years.
Both plans are extensive. Both are detailed. Both are credible. But that brings me to another lesson drilled into me by Joe Gaylord – Newt Gingrich’s political guru – at the Campaign Management College a dozen or so years ago: “The planning is easy; the execution is hard.”
And after reading both plans and speaking with both candidates, I’ve come to the conclusion that Patrick McNaught is more likely to be successful in putting his written plan into action.
This isn’t to say a single bad thing about Amy Tarkanian. I think Amy would make an EXCELLENT legislative candidate; probably better than Patrick and her hubby combined. She’s certainly a helluva lot more charming and has exceptional people skills. But being a candidate and a party boss are two entirely different animals….which require two entirely different skill sets.
The party boss’ job is to toss out red meat and throw sharp partisan elbows. Diplomacy is far less valuable than a hard-headed, damn-the-torpedoes, take-no-prisoners mindset. After all, politics ain’t beanbags….and the Democrats, the unions, the trial lawyers and their “amen” corner in the media play hardball.
In addition, one of the unfortunate consequences of being a former party chairman is often baldness. Patrick’s already there.
Kidding aside, while I’ve pledged to work cooperatively with whomever the party elects this weekend – as long as it’s not another jackass like Captain DisComfort or SpongeBob Chairpants – I believe Patrick has the right skill set, the right philosophy, the right plan, the right ideas, the right connections…and most importantly, the ability to execute. As such, I’m personally endorsing Patrick McNaught for chairman.
Now, about that CD-2 race….
