By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

  • John Ensign: The Joe Isuzu of U.S. Senators (Chuck Muth) – “Joe Isuzu was a fictional spokesman used in a series of television advertisements for Isuzu,” explains Wikipedia. He “was a pathological liar who made outrageous and over-inflated claims about Isuzu’s cars.” Joe Isuzu had nothing on John Ensign.
  • Hampton on Nightline: “Ensign Cried Like a Little Boy” (Steve Sebelius) – Never has U.S. Sen. John Ensign cheered for The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman more than on Monday, when ABC’s competing Nightline aired its interview with Ensign’s former best friend and top aide, Doug Hampton.
  • Conservatives seek litmus test for RNC funding (Ralph Z. Hallow/Washington Times) – Eager to ensure that “tea partiers” don’t undermine GOP candidates, conservative members of the Republican National Committee are pursuing the creation of a rule that would bar the Republican Party from funding candidates who fail a conservative litmus test.
  • Nevada Conservatives, the Time to Act is NOW! (Joseph Tatner) – The time for talk is over. The time to take action is now. The question is, “What can I do to help take back my country?”

Click here to read these stories at the Nevada News & Views site!

SURVEY SAYS!

For the good of the state and the Nevada Republican Party, is it time for John Ensign to resign?

  • Yes
  • No

To cast your vote in today’s online survey, click here!

DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS

Following up on our story yesterday about the husband of Democrat Attorney General Catherine Masto hosting a fundraiser for a candidate running against Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki just four days before the AG’s trumped-up case against Krolicki is scheduled to begin in court, a Nevada News & Views reader writes:

“It gets even better. Paul Masto not only is the husband of Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto, but also has a license with the Private Investigators Licensing Board, under the Attorney General’s office, to run an investigative company. Plus he is the former Special Agent in Charge of the Las Vegas office of the United States Secret Service. Put that in your coffee and think about it for a few minutes.”

Indeed. Conflicts ‘R Us or what?

And in yet another interesting twist, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Ed Vogel reports this morning that Masto said yesterday “she would consider ‘stepping out’ of the prosecution of Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki if his lawyers expressed concerns over her husband holding a fundraiser for a Democrat seeking his job.”

A meeting of the parties’ lawyers is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas to discuss the development today.

Unbelievably, Vogel also reports that “Cortez Masto said that until she was contacted by the Review-Journal (on Monday), she had been unaware that her husband, Paul, would be hosting a fundraising party for Robert S. Randazzo, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, in Las Vegas on Dec. 10.”

Oh, puh-lease.

But stretching credulity WAY beyond the breaking point, Randazzo’s campaign manager, Ronnie Council, actually told Vogel she didn’t know about Krolicki’s December 14th court date.

If that’s true, and you can bet the farm it ain’t, Randazzo has no business being paid to run political campaigns. I mean, you’re a campaign manager and don’t know your opponent has been indicted and when his court date is? What idiot would believe that in a hundred years?

Probably the same idiots who believe ObamaCare isn’t going to raise the national deficit.

TUBE TIPS

In a rebroadcast from last week, GOP political guru Ryan Erwin and liberal blogger Hugh Jackson go Face to Face with Jon Ralston tonight over the John Ensign scandal. The program airs on Las Vegas ONE on Cox Channel 19 at 5:30 pm, 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm.

Sam Shad’s guest on today’s Nevada Newsmakers program will be former Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich. The program airs on KRNV-TV Channel 4 at 12:30 pm in Reno and on Cox Cable Channel 123 at 4:30 pm and 11:35 pm in Las Vegas.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Did (Sen. John Ensign) break the law in an attempt to conceal his affair by paying off the Hamptons? Did he bypass laws regarding lobbyist cool-off periods by putting Hampton in touch with industries that had a vested interest in maintaining a relationship with the Senator? And most importantly, why hasn’t either the Dept. of Justice or the House Ethics Committee begun even preliminary investigations yet?” – Political commentator Andrew Dunn