Mini-Muth’s Truths: April 24, 2010

The second of three Navy SEALs accused of giving a fat lip and a punch to the stomach to that captured terrorist behind the murder of those Blackwater employees and hanging their burned bodies from that bridge in Fallujah, Iraq, was found not guilty on Friday. The first SEAL in the case was also cleared earlier in the week.

That leaves SEAL Mathew McCabe, the man accused of actually striking the low-life dirt bag, as the remaining hero left facing charges. With the acquittal of the other two, McCabe’s lawyer is asking Major General Cleveland to dismiss the charges….which never should have been brought in the first place.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Montandon, who has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, points out that the during last night’s Action is Brewing debate in Reno, fellow GOP guber-candidate Brian Sandoval “adamantly stated he would not sign a no tax pledge.”

“Brian Sandoval attempted to redefine himself as a conservative,” Montandon wrote in a post-debate email to supporters, “but when he mentioned his opposition to the no tax pledge his strategy unraveled itself, and the crowd became visibly upset over his answers. Brian Sandoval’s record of helping pass the largest tax increase in Nevada history in 2003 is not to be soon forgotten by primary voters.”

Let’s hope so.

For his part, Gov. Gibbons continued his misinformation campaign about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed but has broken a number of times since taking office.

When Sandoval pointed out that Gibbons “submitted a budget that included over $200 million in tax increases,” in 2007 and increased fees on banks and gaming during the latest special session, Gibbons responded that he had “stood firm against raising major taxes on business and industry.”

Here we go again. The Pledge Gibbons made to the people of Nevada in 2006 was that he would “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes,” not “oppose and veto major taxes on businesses and industry.”

The violations of his Pledge, in the big scheme of things, have been relatively minor; however, the non-stop parsing and telling of falsehoods about breaking the Pledge are worse than breaking the Pledge itself. If the governor would simply confess, repent and promise to go forth and sin no more, I could probably support him again. But not as long as he continues down this path of denial.

Since I have a slow “high-speed” Internet connection at the house, watching the debate via streaming video was a pain in the tuckus last night, so maybe I missed the questions of:

• Sue Lowden about the bartering for health care issue….
• John Chachas on why he’s running for the Senate here in Nevada instead of his home state of New York (where there are TWO Senate seats on the ballot this year)….
• Sharron Angle on why voters should believe she can win a general election in a Democrat state after losing the last two GOP primaries in Republican-majority districts….
• Danny Tarkanian on why pro-life leaders are criticizing him over his radio ads attacking Sue Lowden on the abortion issue….
• Chad Christensen on why he abandoned his race against a RINO state senator that he could have won in order to get into this race, which he has no chance of winning, at the last minute….
• Bill Parson, who also has no chance of winning, on why he didn’t run for a state legislative seat that he could have won and where he could have made a significant difference in Carson City.

Oh, and where was Garn Mabey? He’s been harder to find in this U.S. Senate race than Waldo. Maybe it’s time to starting printing up some milk cartons?

Now, about this “Chickens for Checkups” brouhaha surrounding GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden. Even though her campaign has completely botched its handling of the flare-up to this point, the Left, as it is wont to do, may be overplaying the slam-dunk hand it has been dealt here.

Team Lowden, if it plays its cards right, could now capitalize on the backlash against the over-the-top hammering Lowden’s receiving and turn their candidate into a Palin-like conservative political martyr. If so, she may well go on to blow the GOP primary field away on election day in June, but it will be despite her campaign’s handling of the crisis, not because of it.

Air-Uranus talk-show host Mike Wiley also weighed in on last night’s U.S. Senate debate this morning and said….um, who cares?

Meanwhile, several months ago we learned that Sen. Harry Reid put some political muscle on banks, urging them to cough up enough dough to save MGM Mirage from bankruptcy. On Thursday we learned that MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren “got a $13.75 million pay package in 2009,” including a $3.5 million performance-based cash bonus.” Wow. Can you imagine what they’d have paid this guy if he hadn’t almost run the company into bankruptcy?!!

Nevada Republicans dodged a bullet this week when state Sen. Mark Amodei announced he would seek the party’s chairmanship at their Reno meeting on May 15th. That means there’s no chance that Clark County Republican Party chief SpongeBob Ruckman could possibly get the job and do to the state party what he’s doing to the county party.

Speaking of which, multiple sources requesting anonymity are raising serious questions about alleged financial shenanigans swirling around Chairman SpongeBob. At issue are advertised training seminars for grassroots activists at the Flamingo Library which ostensibly were sponsored by the CCRP; however, no one seems to know where the money collected at the door ever went.

Chairman SpongeBob was reportedly involved with the planning and execution of those events prior to becoming Dear Leader and Grand Imperial Pooh-bah of the local party organization but is being accused of failing to provide a full and transparent accounting for those monies. What’s he trying to hide?

I attended a fundraising reception for the Assembly GOP Caucus Thursday night in Las Vegas. There were actually some credible and impressive first-time candidates featured at this “coming out” party of sorts….and two clowns.

Yep, Li’l Nate Taylor was there, decked out in his best Sunday-go-to-meetin’ digs. Fortunately, he left his little beanie hat with the propeller on top home.

And then there was Richard Stubbs. What a piece of work this guy is.

I asked the candidate from Boulder City if he was going to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, especially in light of recorded comments he made several weeks ago at a GOP meeting defending the $292 million room tax hike last year. He said no, that he was an individual, not a collectivist. Huh?

When I pointed out that support for the gargantuan tax hike on tourists amounted to taxation without representation, he defended the move by saying tourists vote in favor of the tax when they decide to come here. Huh?

When Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, who joined the conversation, then asked what Mr. Stubbs what thought the proper role of government was, Mr. Stubbs said it was to protect the citizens’ standard of living. Huh?

But what really stunned us, and we had to ask twice to be sure we heard him correctly, was when Stubbs, talking about that fire official killed by SWAT in that standoff in Henderson on Thursday, said it meant one less government employee collecting a retirement benefit. Huh?

This guy is a kook. He and Li’l Nate ought to do a show together.

And finally, some “stink” has been raised that not all of the Republican candidates running for the state Assembly were invited to attend the event. True….sort of. It was open to all candidates running for the Assembly UNLESS they’re running against Republican incumbents.

While I 100 percent support a number of the GOP challengers running against wishy-washy incumbent Republican members of the Assembly (Lynn Stewart and Tom Grady specifically), it was perfectly appropriate for the caucus of incumbents not to invite candidates challenging incumbent members of the caucus. Candidates wishing to be included in future caucus events need only to defeat the incumbents on June 8th, thereby becoming the incumbent members of the caucus themselves.

Then they, too, can keep others out. It’s a vicious survival-of-the-fittest political circle.

TARK TALES

“Danny Tarkanian is doing what he always does late in a campaign, attack with desperate, misguided jabs that miss. His campaign is winding down with less support than when it started, and we predict he stumbles his way to another defeat.” – Lowden for Senate campaign manager Robert Uithoven responding to a new radio ad by the Tarkanian campaign slamming Sue Lowden for converting to the pro-life position years ago

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“As a fellow female convert on the abortion issue, I challenge Mr. Tarkanian to believe in our cause enough to keep the door open for converts. Speaking as a leader of the largest pro-life political organization in the nation, I respectfully request that Danny Tarkanian step back from this misinformation and take his ads off the air. Such ads do nothing to further the cause of the unborn and women.” – Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser