More bad news for Nevada conservatives today.
Assemblyman Tom Grady (r-Yerington) announced this afternoon he was running for re-election, laughably claiming in a press release that he “has consistently been an advocate for lower taxes.”
What a load of flapdoodle. Grady has refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and voted FOR the $620 million tax hike extension last session. Continue reading »
Arizona Sen. John McCain is full of self-serving crap.
On Meet the Press Sunday, McCain whined about Sheldon Adelson helping to level the playing field for Newt Gingrich vs. the Mitt Romney war-chest. “I guarantee you there will be a scandal,” St. John warned ominously. “There is too much money washing around politics. And it’s making parties irrelevant, by the way.”
Bull.
The parties are pretty much irrelevant today thanks almost entirely to an offensive, anti-free speech law known and reviled as “McCain-Feingold.” Co-authored by…Sen. John McCain.
And the major reason major donors are donating to super-PACs now is because of other stupid campaign finance reform laws dating back to the 70’s that placed ridiculously low limits on direct contributions to the actual candidates.
To put the candidates back in charge of their own campaigns and make the parties relevant again, repeal those dumb laws…allow unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions…and post all such donations on a public website within 48 hours. Just give the voters the information and let them decide if the donations mean anything or not.
So let it be written; so let it be done.
For the latest example of how certain Ron Paul supporters self-destructively act as voter repellants rather than voter magnets, I give you Carl Dunce.
Dunce – Paul’s state director for Nevada – has his panties in twist over the Clark County GOP holding a special after-sundown caucus next week for Orthodox Jewish and 7th Day Adventist Republicans at a private school named after Sheldon Adelson – perhaps THE most generous donor to conservative/libertarian/Republican causes and candidates in all of Nevada in the history of Nevada.
But Adelson is also a major donor to a super PAC (which I’m an adviser to) supporting the presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich. And even though the private school was selected as a caucus site BEFORE Mr. Adelson got involved with the super PAC, Dunce is throwing a hissy fit; claiming Gingrich is trying “to have his billionaire buddy try and buy an election for him.” Continue reading »
There’s a vacancy on the Las Vegas city council. And a decision needs to be made whether the city council should appoint someone to fill that vacancy or hold a special election.
The argument against holding a special election – in which the citizens who will be represented actually get to, you know, choose the person to represent them – is that an election would be more expensive than, you know, “juicing” in a favored appointee.
But here’s the thing: Government is supposed to be rather limited in the things it does. And conducting elections is one of the legitimate things government is supposed to do. So hold the special election and pay for it with funds from something the government ISN’T supposed to do. How difficult is that?
I suspect I’m gonna have to say ten rosaries for this….but I gotta give Jon Ralston credit as far as Friday night’s Face to Face interview of Republican Nevada State Sen. Barbara Cegavske is concerned. He conducted it in a manner he often does: Totally professionally.
Cegavske (seh-gav’-ski) is running for the newly created 4th congressional district; a race in which the GOP primary winner will take on Democrat Nevada State Sen. Steven Horsford. And after being goaded by Ralston about not immediately agreeing to appear on his show to discuss her candidacy a couple weeks ago, the conservative Las Vegan agreed.
Maybe she shouldn’t have. It was bad. Real bad. Continue reading »
“I noticed that you are supporting Newt Gingrich,” a longtime reader emailed me this week, “but your position puzzles me.” Others have expressed similar comments, especially those who know I am much more in line philosophically with Ron Paul. So I’ll explain. (Disclosure: I’m presently a paid adviser to Winning Our Future PAC)
Although I was involved in local GOP politics superficially in 1993, Gingrich’s efforts and stunning victory in 1994 inspired me to get much more involved. So lacking the good sense God gave me, I ran for chairman of the Clark County Republican Party in 1995. And lacking the good sense God gave the members of the party at that time, they elected me.
Frankly, they shouldn’t have. I had no idea what I was doing. But Gingrich, and his team who were running GOPAC at the time, produced a wealth of training material that helped teach me a ton of things I otherwise wouldn’t have known. And that inspired me to attend the Campaign Management College in Washington, DC that Gingrich and his top strategist, Joe Gaylord, were running in March 1996.
Which ultimately inspired me to return to Nevada and do two things. Continue reading »
Let’s say you have a really bad headache. And then along comes somebody who says what you really need is a bonk on the head with a hammer. That would be absurd, right?
OK, consider Nevada’s current economy and unemployment problem. Now consider that there are at least five active efforts to increase taxes on Nevada businesses percolating. Absurd, right? Right. But that ain’t stoppin’ ‘em.
Legislative Democrats last year wanted to take the 2009 “temporary” tax hikes – currently valued at $620 million – and make them permanent. These tax hikes include an increase in the payroll tax for some larger businesses and a doubling of the penalty/fee every business must pay for the “privilege” of operating in Nevada.
Enough GOP opposition forced the Democrats to accept “only” a two-year extension of those “temporary” taxes; however, plots and schemes to come back in 2013 and make those tax hikes permanent are well underway.
Yep, that’ll sure spark job creation and economic recovery, right? Continue reading »
Up until Monday’s NBC debate in Tampa, I’ve generally regarded Mitt Romney with a healthy dose of indifference, slathered with a decided lack of enthusiasm. But his Pelosi-like attack last night on Newt Gingrich as a “failed leader” and a “disgrace” really fried my Fritos.
“Speaker Gingrich…was a leader for four years as speaker of the House,” Romney told moderator Brian Williams. “And at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader and he had to resign in disgrace.”
In the immortal words of Col. Sherman T. Potter: Horse-hockey!
That’s like saying that despite his four years leading Americans to victory in the Pacific in World War II, Gen. Douglas McArthur was a “failed leader” and a “disgrace” because in the end he was fired by President Truman.
Now, like Mitt Romney, I’m no historian – though in the interest of disclosure, I am a paid adviser to Winning Our Future PAC – but let’s take a look at the historical record. Continue reading »
I’ve never been able to get past the fact that Rick Santorum, as a U.S. senator, not only endorsed liberal Republican Sen. Snarlin’ Arlen Specter over conservative Rep. Pat Toomey in that 2004 U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, but actively and enthusiastically campaigned for him. And yet Santorum has the cheek to now claim he’s the only principled conservative in this presidential race?
Puh-lease.
His entire campaign has consisted of incessantly ankle-biting each and every one of his fellow GOP opponents while delusionally suggesting he’s the most electable despite the fact that when he last ran for re-election in 2006, he lost by a whopping 17 points.
And then there was Thursday night’s debate in which Santorum tried to explain his vote against a national right-to-work law that would have freed millions of American workers from the clutches of anti-Republican/anti-conservative union bosses in states currently suffering under forced unionism.
Santorum says he simply voted the way the people of his state wanted him to vote – but if elected president…well, now he’d support such a law. So he was against right-to-work before he was for it? So much for principled conservatism. Continue reading »
Assembly Republicans (thankfully!) elected a new leader this week: Reno Assemblyman Pat Hickey.
Hickey – whose autobiography “Tahoe Boy” is extremely interesting and still available on Amazon – replaces Minority Leader Pete “Tax My Meat” Goicoechea, who was a disaster of a leader in the 2011 legislative session for conservatives.
Now here’s the thing: Hickey’s voting record in the 2011 session was pretty moderate. Which led liberal “journalist” Jon Ralston to write: “It must really infuriate the folks upset about last year’s extension of tax sunsets that Hickey, who voted for it, was elected. Expecting news releases seething with outrage any moment from Americans For Prosperity and Citizen Outreach.”
Which once again shows just how little Ralston knows about conservatives and how ignorant he is of the conservative movement here in Nevada. Continue reading »
