NoisyRoom.net

By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

• GOP Leader Disses Gibbons, Slams Fiscal Conservatives (Chuck Muth) – Nevada State Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert (R-Reno) appeared on Sam Shad’s Nevada Newsmakers program on Monday and proceeded to criticize her fellow Republican governor for not raising taxes while making a pre-primary endorsement of one of his opponents.
• Titus, Berkley Dissemble on Illegals and Health Care Reform (Chuck Muth) – The following exchange took place on the November 27th edition of Nevada Week in Review hosted by Mitch Fox….
• Gibbons, Legislature Butt Heads over Unemployment Benefits (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Because of what he called callous disregard by the Legislature, Gov. Jim Gibbons today announced he is working with his staff to craft emergency regulations to ensure the continuation of unemployment benefits to Nevadans next year.
• Lauer Inks Tax Pledge (Rob Lauer for Congress) – When asked if he would pledge to stop a tax hike on working Nevadans, Rob Lauer didn’t blink. This week, the Republican candidate for Congressional District 3 swiftly signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
• Altman Kicks Off School Board Campaign (Campaign To Elect Barbara Altman) – Barbara Altman, candidate for Clark County School Board District F, kicked off her campaign last week at the Captain’s Cove Restaurant. Laying out her vision to a room full of supporters, Barbara described her plan of increasing Empowerment School progress throughout Clark County.

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

SURVEY SAYS!

Which team is going to win Saturday’s college football super-game between #1 Florida vs. #2 Alabama?

• Florida
• Alabama

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

MUTHS TRUTHS

Ensign’s BS: Of all the unbelievable flapdoodle Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) spit out in his interview with Alan Stock on KXNT radio yesterday morning, the notion that he’s helping the Republican Party by not resigning so the GOP can focus on taking out Harry Reid without the distraction of two U.S. Senate campaigns on he ballot really took the cake.

If Ensign resigns, the logical choice and odds are Gov. Jim Gibbons would appoint Rep. Dean Heller to fill the vacancy. (BTW, Heller voted against the TARP bailout; Ensign voted for it.) As an already-known statewide candidate and sitting Member of Congress, Heller would be in a strong position to hold onto the seat, especially as the de facto incumbent, without detracting from the Reid race.

The reality is that John Ensign is going to hurt Republican candidates up and down the ballot for the duration of Campaign 2010 if he doesn’t resign. And he won’t. Because this isn’t about helping the Republican Party to defeat Reid. This is about helping John Ensign stay in power. With John Ensign it’s always about John Ensign.

Why are Nevada Republican leaders and candidates continuing to defend this guy? Do they have an electoral death wish?

Born Again Tax Champ: State Sen. Mark Amodei (R-Carson City) has felt the heat and seen the light.

Amodei famously, perhaps infamously, co-sponsored a bill to raise taxes in Nevada by a staggering $1.3 billion dollars in 2003. His proposal failed; however, a different $836 million tax hike passed that year with the help of Amodei’s vote.

That tax-hiking record has been fodder for Amodie’s opponents ever since he entered the GOP U.S. Senate primary race for the right to take on Harry Reid in the general election next year. And it’s obviously caused the likeable state senator from Carson City a considerable bit of heartburn.

So despite refusing to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge for the dozen years he served as a state senator, Amodei reversed course and signed the Pledge last month as a candidate for the United States Senate, joining Sharron Angle, Danny Tarkanian, Sue Lowden and Chuck Kozack.

We say better late than never. Welcome to our club, Sen. Amodei!

With Amodei’s John Hancock, the only major candidate who has not yet signed on the bottom line promising the people of Nevada that he won’t raise their taxes if elected is John Chachas. In addition, Americans for Tax Reform advises us that Robin Titus, Bill Parson and that UFO guy have yet to sign the Pledge either.

Speaking of the Space Cowboy….

Nuttier than Grandma’s Fruitcake: Mike Wiley – a Republican joke of a candidate for U.S. Senate and a man genuinely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs – didn’t like what Rolando Larraz of the Las Vegas Tribune wrote regarding a failure by the Las Vegas Review Journal to mention fellow GOP candidate Sharron Angle in a recent column. And he decided to take time from his busy campaign schedule to burp out a response to Mr. Larraz on our blog where the column was reprinted, including this little hissy fit….

“The worst thing about this campaign is the fake media like you and (Chuck) Muth and Mushmouth (blogger Dullard Mush), who hide in your living rooms watching TV and attacking real people who have done a brave thing to go out in the public and try to defend the interests of the American people, while you scum just collect at the bottom of the sink and then put yourself on the internet and claim your real.”

My, my…he certainly doth work himself into a lather, don’t he?

Wiley is expected to take the rest of this week off from the campaign, heading out to visit family on Ceti Alpha V. In the meantime, I need to get back to the bottom on the sink. Dullard Mush and I are playing pinochle with Mr. Clean and the Tidy Bowl man this afternoon.

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

Sue Lowden’s campaign released a new-and-improved campaign website with all the bells and whistles and a snappy new campaign slogan: “Real Jobs for Real People” – a slap at Harry Reid and the Democrats’ misleading claims to have created jobs for people already working and in congressional districts in Nevada that don’t even exist. Take a gander at www.SueLowden.com

TUBE TIPS

• Citizen Outreach’s Karri Bragg, Executive Vice President, will join a roundtable discussion of current issues on Dave Bern’s State of Nevada program on KNPR, 88.9 FM in Las Vegas at 9:00 am this morning. http://www.knpr.org/son/index.cfm
• Conservative leader Chuck Muth and Democrat political consultant Dan Hart go Face to Face with Jon Ralston tonight. The program airs on Las Vegas ONE on Cox Channel 19 at 5:30 pm, 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm. http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/face-face/
• Sam Shad’s guest on today’s Nevada Newsmakers program will be Lynn Warne, President, Nevada State Education Association. 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. http://www.nevadanewsmakers.com/

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“I was elected to take out Harry Reid. That’s my primary mission.” – Chris Comfort, the new chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, USA Today, 12/1/09

HELP WANTED

Freelance “Stringers” – Volunteers wanted to write interesting op-eds or engage in targeted “citizen journalism” around the state. If you have a gift for the written word and an interest in government and/or politics, please contact Nevada News Bureau editor Elizabeth Crum at editor@nevadanewsbureau.com

CALENDAR

• December 4: Nevada “Newsmaker Briefing” with Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) sponsored by Citizen Outreach Foundation and the Nevada News Bureau.
• December 4: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha and CHRISTMAS (not “Holiday”) Party in Las Vegas. VIP guests include Nevada Congressman Dean Heller and the United States Marines! Please bring a new, unwrapped toy for their Toys for Tots campaign. Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
• February 6: Citizen Outreach’s “Reagan Tribute” in Las Vegas. Details to come.
• May 12-13: Conservative Leadership Conference in Las Vegas co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and Americans for Tax Reform. Details to follow.