What a sign of the times to have the liberal Las Vegas Sun editorialize on Sunday that “government employees continue to enjoy overly generous benefits, including retirement pay unheard of in the private sector.” Meanwhile, liberal activists and Democrat elected officials are saying no to tax hikes while embracing the notion of setting government spending priorities. Heck, some are even suggesting a serious look at what the proper role of government should be.
Of course, conservatives have been saying these exact same things for years. Only when conservatives say it, they’re labeled right-wing radicals and extremists. Go figure.
Memo to conservative candidates: Your mantra this year should be: “We don’t want government to do more with less; we want government to do less with less.” Repeat. Over and over and over again.
Speaking of which, officials at the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) have been moaning and groaning and whining and complaining about “devastating” budget cuts to the university system ever since the first cuts were proposed way back in the fall of 2007. So after two-and-a-half years of these “devastating” cuts, how do you explain this press release out of UNR this morning:
“The University of Nevada, Reno has achieved its strongest showing ever in the annual rankings of the best graduate programs by U.S. News and World Report. The College of Engineering and School of Medicine are ranked among the best ‘schools.’ Twelve additional University graduate programs are ranked, with five placing in the top 100 of their field.”
You think maybe some bureaucrats and elected officials have been over-hyping the effects of these necessary and long-overdue budget cuts?
You gotta love election year conservative conversions, don’t you? Take Assemblyman Lynn Stewart (please!).
I’m told that despite chalking up one of the absolute WORST conservative voting records of any Republican in the 2009 Legislature – including voting for that $292 million tax hike; what was, at the time, the third largest in the state’s history – I’m told he introduced himself at a candidate forum in Sun City Anthem last night as “Lynn Stewart from the far right.”
In his dreams. He’s actually Lynn Stewart from the far WRONG. Not surprisingly, he’s also one of the wishy-washy go-along-to-get-along RINO incumbents who refuse to have their hands tied by signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Stewart’s being challenged by two conservative Republican challengers, Scott Chappell and Calanit Atia.
In Friday night’s gubernatorial debate, GOP candidate Brian Sandoval said, “I’ll not be raising any taxes.” However, he didn’t say he wouldn’t raise fees….taxes by another name. Caveat emptor.
Both the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun published extensive profiles on Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Chachas yesterday. Some highlights:
• As the Sun pointed out, Chachas thinks the public schools in his home town of Ely, Nevada, suck so badly that if he ever in a million years would actually consider moving his wife and children there, he’d have to home-school them.
• The Sun also reports that Chachas said “more taxes on the wealthy are acceptable” – which probably explains why he’s the only Republican U.S. Senate candidate who refuses to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
• But lest you think Chachas only wants to stick it to “the rich,” he also “suggested eliminating the mortgage interest tax deduction” for middle-class Americans from sea to shining sea, a move which would, according to the Sun, result in some $573 billion a year more in tax revenue for the federal government.
• In addition, Chachas wants to means test Social Security, as well as hike the eligibility age to 70.
• He also wants to sell off federal land in Nevada and use the revenue to bail out home owners who paid more for their homes than they are now worth.
• According to the RJ story, “Chachas jumps in his car, a rented Saturn Aura with Arizona plates.” So this wealthy man from New York who wants to represent Nevada in the United States Senate can’t afford to at least own and register a car here in Nevada and instead rents one where the registration revenue went to Arizona?
• The RJ also reports that Chachas was pulled over by a Nevada Highway Patrol officer for doing 104 mph, but was let go with just a warning after the officer confirmed Chachas was the same guy on the billboards running for the Senate. Hmm, how many of you would get off with a warning doing triple digits on a state highway? I guess some people really are created more equal than others.
• Chachas is quoted as saying, “Look, if there was a good Republican candidate who I thought could beat Harry Reid, I wouldn’t be in this race.” Considering the fact that we’re now less than a month away from the start of early voting and the candidate from New York who won’t pledge not to raise taxes has, at best, received 3 percent in polls, one has to wonder how he possibly makes a “good Republican candidate” who can beat Harry Reid.
• Chachas said he doesn’t think Sue Lowden can win against Reid because there are some Ron Paul people who are still mad at her for the botched Nevada GOP convention in 2008. But at least Sue and those Ron Paul people WERE AT the convention. Chachas hasn’t been involved in Nevada GOP activities….well, ever.
• And finally, this priceless gem: After being called a carpetbagger by Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, Chachas says he responded thusly to prove his rural roots: “Mr. Wynn, I can only say that my grandfather came here in 1912. And when (Sue) Lowden was on the Jersey shore, I was castrating cows in White Pine County.” But as Lowden supporter Dave Henry notes, you don’t castrate cows; you castrate bulls! Don’t give up your day-trader job, John.
Meanwhile, the problem with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s campaign over this “bartering” mess isn’t that there wasn’t a reasonable explanation for what she said, but that the campaign failed to say it. Or more to the point, WRITE IT DOWN and post it somewhere where bloggers and other internet activists could easily direct folks looking for the true skinny on the brouhaha. Unfortunately, the campaign seems to have concluded that if they just ignored the matter, it would go away.
You’d think they would have learned by now from past experience.
Consider the fact that Lowden’s campaign manager, Robert Uithoven, was also a consultant to the Nevada Republican Party when Lowden was chairman. And although there were DECIDEDLY two sides to the story over that botched state GOP convention in Reno in 2008, Uithoven and Lowden failed to ever document their side of the story on the Internet for all the reporters and bloggers who look for those sorts of things when writing current stories.
About that new tough-on-illegal immigration law just passed in Arizona last week, we’re hearing a lot of kvetching about Latinos who will be “profiled” as possible illegals based on their race. But here’s the thing:
We wouldn’t be profiling 20-something-year-old men with Islamic names at the airport if it wasn’t for all the 20-something-year-old Islamic men who have tried to blow airplanes out of the sky, and we wouldn’t be “profiling” Hispanic as suspected illegals if it wasn’t for the 10-20 million illegals of Hispanic heritage who have entered the country illegally. What part of this is so hard to understand? Stop blaming the profilers and start blaming the lawbreakers.
And finally, Republican state assembly candidate Scott Chappell – a Taxpayer Protection Pledge signer who is running against incumbent Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, who chalked up one of the worst conservative voting records in the 2009 session – will be hosting a meet-and-greet at the offices of Terra West Property Management (11135 S. Eastern, Suite 120) on Tuesday, April 27th from 5-8 pm. For additional information, please call (702) 606-6144 or e-mail Scott at scott4assembly22@yahoo.com
