• A member of Congress resigned today for having an extramarital affair with a female member of his staff. No, silly, not Sen. John Ensign. You’d have to feel shame and think of people other than yourself to do the right thing and resign in such a situation. That clearly isn’t John Ensign. No, we’re talking about Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.).
• Interestingly, Politico reports that Souder “informed Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) of the affair Sunday” and that “Boehner told the Indiana Republican he should resign, according to GOP sources. ‘Boehner has been perfectly clear that he will hold our members to the highest ethical standards,’ said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman.”
• Too bad Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t hold his troops, especially Ensign, to a similarly high set of ethical standards.
• In a textbook example of how to shoot your political campaign in the foot with two dozen words or less, Kentucky Secretary of State and GOP U.S. Senate establishment candidate Trey Grayson said the following yesterday: “I’m not running to be the candidate of the Tea Party. I’m running to be the candidate of this Republican Party of Kentucky.”
• Grayson is running against Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul, who said he would happily accept support from both. The primary election is being held today.
• Meanwhile, Wonkette – DC’s premier political gossip columnist – described Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons thusly in her blog today: “drunken idiot slimeball waitress-assaulting…red-faced beady-eyed turd so stupid and crooked that even Nevada’s Republicans have spent the past three rotten years mocking and attacking his incompetent, missing-in-action term as governor.”
• Lord help Gov. Jim if Wonkette ever stops sugar-coating it.
• State Sen. Dennis Nolan (RINO-Las Vegas) is being blistered by his primary opponent, Elizabeth Halseth, for serving as a character witness for a friend who was ultimately convicted of raping an under-aged girl about a year ago. His excuse, articulated on Jon Ralston’s Face-to-Face program last night, was that he was subpoenaed and, therefore, didn’t have any choice but to testify.
• Bull.
• He wasn’t subpoenaed by the prosecution or the state; he was subpoenaed by his friend’s defense lawyer who KNEW Nolan would defend his friend. Defense lawyers don’t subpoena people as character witnesses for their client unless they know for a fact that the witness is going to say nothing but good things about their client. I mean, come on.
• In fact, Nolan told the Las Vegas Review-Journal yesterday that “I would not have testified if I didn’t believe in his innocence.”
• Plus, Nolan could have easily asked his friend not to have his lawyer subpoena him if he didn’t want to be subpoenaed, especially considering his sensitive position as an elected official. However, I’m told that despite being advised by friends and colleagues not to testify at the trial on behalf of his rapist friend, Nolan WANTED to testify on his behalf.
• “Frankly, I believe that the accused was innocent of the crime that was committed,” Nolan stated to Ralston on cross-examination. “I think it wasn’t sexual assault and the details of the trial pointed that out.”
• But as Ralston pointed out, the details of the trial led to the CONVICTION of the accused. Hello?
• But Sen. Nolan had an answer to that, as well. You see, despite his friend admitting to committing the sexual assault and being convicted of the sexual assault, Sen. Nolan STILL is holding out hope that his friend will be set free, noting that the case is under appeal at the state Supreme Court.
• I guess hope and sympathy for the rapist springs eternal in Nolan’s World.
• Meanwhile, twice in the last two weeks, conservative, Tax Pledge-signing Republican candidates running against a tax-hiking liberal RINO incumbents went on Jon Ralston’s Face-to-Face television interview program unprepared to answer the one question everyone and their uncle KNOWS Jon is going to ask: If you say no to tax hikes, then what would you cut to balance the budget, which is predicted to be $2-3 billion short next year?
• People, people, PEOPLE! Here’s your three-part answer:
• It’s hard to say exactly where we can cut until we put the government’s checkbook online so taxpayers can see where every dime is spent – to whom, for how much and for what purpose. Then (whip out red-colored flare/pen from pocket) I’m gonna take this baby, and there’s plenty more where this one came from, and I’m gonna start scratching off items line by line by line.
• Then we implement of all 44 of the SAGE Commission’s recommendations.
• And then we look at and implement many of the recommendations in the “Freedom Budget” proposed in 2009 by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, as well as new proposals they’re working on to introduce prior to the start of the next legislative session.
• Of course, it would help if you folks actually READ the SAGE Commission recommendations and reviewed the Freedom Budget with Geoffrey Lawrence over at NPRI.
• Then again, if you’re a Republican running for the state Legislature and have no idea what the SAGE Commission is, what the Freedom Budget is or what NPRI is….then maybe you should try this answer:
• “You know, Jon, 80 percent of the state budget goes toward paying government workers, so the first thing I would recommend doing is laying off all teachers, firefighters and police officers. That’ll balance the budget with money to spare. Problem solved!”
• And finally, if you’re like me, you’re probably sick and tired of wishy-washy, go-along-to-get-along Republican elected officials who always want to make nice with their opponents and sit at the table in friendly “bipartisan” fashion to work out a “consensus” rather than take a firm stand on issues they supposedly believe in – including the ones who cough up lame excuses for not signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
• For a welcome change of pace, meet New Jersey’s new governor, Chris Christie, who takes a reporter to the woodshed in THIS video for questioning the governor’s “confrontational tone” in dealing with a legislature hell-bent on bigger government, higher taxes and more spending.
• What a refreshing change to watch and listen to an unapologetic, conservative Republican who doesn’t feel the need to sugar-coat his staunchly-held philosophical beliefs. If only cloning were legal.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“With each passing year, the Class Notes for the famous Class of ’94 House Republicans get more and more lurid. The latest entry was submitted Tuesday morning by Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana. ‘I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff,’ he announced in a resignation statement. And it wasn’t just any part-time staffer, according to informed sources in Souder’s office. Five months ago, Tracy Jackson was his, er, ‘co-host’ in a video the pair produced for his official congressional Web site — on abstinence education.” – Dana Milbank of the Washington Post
