Not that there’s anything particularly political about this, but while I love my new iPhone I hate AT&T’s cell service. Just thought it needed to be said.
After trying to rush the health care bill through Congress before the summer recess, and then rushing to try to pass it before Christmas, Sen. Harry Reid now says “there is no rush” to pass his health care bill. I wonder what changed his mind?
From Politico this morning:
“In a display of contempt unfathomable in the feel-good days after Obama’s Inauguration, freshman Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) stood up at a meeting with (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi last week to declare: ‘Reid is done; he’s going to lose’ in November, according to three people who were in the room. Titus denied Tuesday evening that she had singled out Reid, but she acknowledged that she said Democrats would be ‘f—-ed’ if they failed to heed the lessons of Massachusetts, where Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat last week.”
I wonder if she kisses her husband with that mouth.
If this doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what does: The Reno Gazette-Journal is reporting today that “Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid said Tuesday he won’t join his opponents in offering solutions to Nevada’s $1 billion shortfall.” Yep, why offer alternative solutions when you can just burp up rhetoric. The nut sure didn’t fall far from the tree.
For all the criticism of Gov. Jim Gibbons over the last three years, the following is indisputable. He ran on a platform promising not to raise taxes and was given a mandate not to raise taxes by a majority of voters in Nevada. And with the exception of regrettably including a tax hike in his budget which was forced on the Legislature by the teachers union, the governor has kept his word.
When did a candidate making a specific promise on the campaign trail and then honoring it once in office become a “bad” thing? Isn’t that what we should expect from ALL candidates?
Anyway, the governor is sticking to his guns and has taken further tax hikes off the table for the upcoming special session, leading Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford to lament yesterday that “Our only real option is to eliminate or reduce spending.” Duh. Ya think? If Sen. Horsford had taken that attitude last year, along with a few GOP enablers, we wouldn’t be in this predicament again right now.
Nevertheless, Nevada businesses better beware. Oregon voters decided to punish the state’s job creators in order to protect public employee unions by hiking job-killing business taxes yesterdy, as well as taxing “the rich.” And the fact that Oregon voters are economic boobs who want to drive their state off the same cliff as California doesn’t mean economic boobs won’t be trying to duplicate their folly here in Nevada – especially if we elect a governor who won’t sign and honor the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Sen. John Ensign announced yesterday afternoon that he was going to follow Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s lead and vote against economy-killing Ben Bernanke for a second term as head of the Fed. Angle urged senators to oppose Bernanke in an email appeal early yesterday morning, which is reprinted on today’s Nevada News & Views website.
Also yesterday, Reno Mayor Bob Cashell – anything but a movement or fiscal conservative – endorsed Brian Sandoval for governor. That may play well in the general election, but considering how Cashell headlined a fundraiser for Harry Reid last year, his endorsement in a competitive GOP primary could easily do more harm than good. Of course, first we have to have a competitive primary.
And finally, “George” (no last name provided, though I know who he is) wasn’t all that impressed by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle spanking the competition in last week’s straw poll in Washoe County. “With only a few over 300 votes cast in this straw poll it is blown way out of proportion,” he wrote in response to the story on NN&V views on Sunday. “There were 92,677 registered Republicans in Washoe County in December 2009, so only .3% voted. I do not think this means anything when you consider this is a statewide race.”
George has a point. However, all “registered” Republicans don’t vote in primaries. Usually it’s the most conservative and committed Republicans who vote in primaries – generally a much smaller number. And with the GOP primary vote in this race currently being split some twelve different ways – and maybe 13 if Krolicki gets in – it won’t necessarily take a very large slice of that much smaller pie to win the nomination.
Beating Harry Reid in November, however, will be another story altogether.
