Assemblyman Pat “The Appeaser” Hickey’s short-lived tenure as leader of the Republican Assembly Caucus was so bad, so timid, so moderate, so blah, that after Republicans won the majority in the Assembly last month their first order of business was to throw his lame go-along-to-get-along political carcass overboard.
But no human is completely without value. Indeed, some people serve mankind quite well as bad examples.
Such is the case with the totally self-serving “Advice to Assembly Republicans” – “especially the freshmen” – column that Hickey emailed out yesterday morning. His advice includes…
- Don’t rock the boat with “your righteous rancor.” Meaning don’t fight for your conservative principles in the court of public opinion. Sit in the corner and keep your mouth shut and let the old bull moderates water down the agenda and talk to the media with mouths full of mush.
- “Don’t overreach.” Don’t try to enact “too extreme a program.” In other words, pursue an agenda of pale pastels, not a Reaganesque agenda of bold colors. Don’t try to score. Just be happy if the other team doesn’t score.
- Don’t defy the mushy-moderates in the caucus, but rather “work together” like “a pride of lions” – even though when Hickey & The Moderates were in charge of the caucus they barely gave their conservative colleagues the time of day, let alone any authority or responsible leadership positions.
But this last one busted the Absurdity Meter: “Dance with the one who brung ya.”
In this little piece of advice Hickey ridiculously maintains that the Republican “red wave” in Nevada was in part “because of the wake created by Brian Sandoval’s reelection campaign.”
Oh, PUH-LEASE.
As one activist who received Hickey’s “Pride of Lions” drivel put it to me, “That’s like saying the Germans were responsible for the success of D-Day!”
Hickey proceeded to claim that Sandoval has a “mandate” from the people and, therefore, Assembly Republicans should essentially just accept the governor’s coming Mother of All Tax Hikes: The Sequel.
Indeed, Hickey went on to lecture his colleagues not to “behave like squabbling children fighting over the spoils of victory” and instead follow Sandoval’s lead because, “After all, he’s ‘the one that brung ya.’”
No he didn’t.
Sandoval, at best, allowed some of the freshmen Assembly members to use a watered-down, template endorsement quote and a photo with him for their campaign literature. And that was it.
He didn’t campaign with them. He didn’t campaign for them. He didn’t raise money for them. He didn’t appear at their fundraising events. He never even asked the electorate to give him a Republican majority in the Assembly to work with.
Most Assembly Republicans, “especially the freshmen,” don’t owe the governor jack.
Hickey concluded with this summation advice: “Be humble. Don’t overreach. Cooperate.”
Wasn’t that the same advice Neville Chamberlain gave to the British about dealing with the Nazis?
