• Kicking off a rural tour from his childhood home in Searchlight on Monday, Sen. Harry Reid said, “If Obama fails, our country fails.” Not. If Obama SUCCEEDS, our country fails. That’s why Reid and Obama must be defeated.
• “Democrats feel they have grabbed political momentum, but the party still faces several dangers that could wipe it out in November,” writes Alexander Bolton in The Hill today. “Democratic strategists and independent political experts identify roughly five stumbling blocks that the party must overcome to avert big losses.”
• One of those stumbling blocks is ethics, thanks to allegations against Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.), and the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). However, “Democrats have a powerful counterargument to make by raising the alleged misconduct of [Republican] lawmakers such as S. John Ensign (R-Nev.)….”
• And still, no GOP leaders are for calling on Ensign to resign? Pathetic.
• Can Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval be trusted not to raise our taxes if elected? I’m having my doubts.
• In a radio interview last week, host Dawn Gibbons asked Sandoval straight up: “Is there any situation in which you would consider raising taxes?” To which Sandoval answered plainly and simply: “No.”
• Now, to most of the English-speaking world, that emphatic “No” means Mr. Sandoval has “tied his hands” when it comes to the issue of tax hikes should he be elected, right? Right. Yet when asked by Las Vegas Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz yesterday if he would sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promising voters to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes,” Sandoval’s campaign spokesman said no.
• “He prefers not to sign something that will tie his hands behind his back,” said Mary-Sarah Kinner.
• This is trying to have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t say no, there’s no situation in which you would consider raising taxes – and then say no, you won’t sign a simple statement to that effect because it will tie your hands. Those diametrically opposed propositions say one thing: Brian Sandoval’s verbal commitment is no commitment at all. It’s an objective, not a pledge.
• It’s a Tiger Woods-like promise on your wedding day that you’ll “try” to remain faithful.
• But the most absurd aspect of this is the notion that somehow anti-tax hike activists such as myself would somehow go easier on Sandoval if he only breaks his verbal promise rather than a written promise. Puh-lease.
• It’s pretty hard for GOP primary voters to read Mr. Sandoval’s lips on tax hikes when he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. A candidate this wishy-washy and discombobulated on the simple issue of tax hikes probably ought to be considered suspect on a whole rash of other, more complicated issues as well.
• And finally, two new names are being floated from the grassroots level as potential candidates for chairman of the Nevada GOP when the party meets in Reno on May 15.
• SpongeBob Ruckman, the Chris Comfort mini-me currently running the Clark County Republican Party, and James Smack, a Ron Paul activist from northern Nevada who ran for vice-chair at the last GOP meeting where Captain DisComfort was coronated.
• Not sure if either could put together enough votes on the Central Committee to beat Mark Amodei, that Carson City state senator who is quickly becoming the establishment’s choice for the job.
