Silver State Confidential 02/02/2012

FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR – TOMORROW NITE!!

This month’s First Friday Happy Hour will be held the night before the Nevada GOP presidential caucus – tomorrow night! - so stop by, unwind, and hoist a couple of cold ones in preparation for the Silver State’s day in the national political spotlight (while saying a silent prayer that Republicans don’t screw it up and become a national embarrassment).

Oh, and we’ll also be celebrating what would have been President Reagan’s 101^st birthday! 

The Swinger’s Club in the Plaza Hotel downtown.  5-7 pm.  50-cent PBR’s from 5-6 pm.  $2 John Daley’s.  Be there or be talked about!

THE NEW PHONE BOOK IS HERE!  THE NEW PHONE BOOK IS HERE!

Woo-to-the-hoo!  We made it on The Fix’s list of “favorite tweeps in Nevada.”  The illustrious group includes:

@GuyClifton — Guy Clifton, Reno Gazette-Journal reporter
@elizcrum — Elizabeth Crum, NevadaNewsBureau.com publisher
@AnjeanetteDamon — AnjeanetteDamon, Las Vegas Sun reporter
@rgjrayhagar — Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal reporter
@chuckmuth — Chuck Muth, consultant, working for pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC
@lmyerslvrj — Laura Myers, Las Vegas Review-Journal
@ralstonflash — Jon Ralston, Las Vegas Sun columnist
@stevesebelius — Steve Sebelius, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist
@ruithoven — Robert Uithoven, Republican consultant

Next?  Maybe we’ll make the list of best political blogs.  They need a good conservative on that list for balance.

THEY KNOW SO MUCH THAT ISN’T SO

I have a rule, seldom broken, about NOT quoting know-nothing political “science” professors because, frankly, that don’t know doodley-squat.  Latest example: The Review-Journal today quoted PSP David Damore of UNLV as saying, “If Romney gets 50 percent (in the Nevada caucus), it means conservatives are finally coalescing around him.”

Oh, puh-lease. 

If Romney gets 50 percent in Nevada it will be because this is a caucus state, not a primary state…and Romney (a) has been organizing and campaigning here for five years, (b) has a strong LDS base of support, (c) has dramatically outspent his opponents, and (d) has perhaps the best GOP campaign pro in Nevada, Ryan Erwin, calling the shots.  It’ll have absolutely NOTHING to do with “conservatives coalescing around him.”

Why does the media insist on quoting these guys who have no real-life experience in politics, especially within the conservative movement, as “experts”?

DUMB MOVE FOR SMART METERS

I really haven’t been following very closely this whole controversy over NV Energy’s “smart meters.”  However, a mailer I just received compares it to the speedometer on a car.  Talk about apples and oranges.  And anytime I see a campaign that has to mislead and misdirect to back up their position…that usually means they’re on the wrong side of the issue.

The letter advised me that my “dumb” meter was scheduled to be removed and be replaced with a “smart” one in the next 30 days.  Well, that didn’t sit too well with me, so I rang up the energy monopoly from my smart phone and asked if I could “opt out.”  And the answer, frankly, stunned me.

I was told that, yes, I could opt out – subject to an upcoming ruling by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC, which I think might be short for “pucker up, baby!”).  However…

If I “refused” – and that’s the word the nice lady used, not “opt out” – to change over to the smart meter, I was warned that NV Energy could come take out my “dumb” meter and…get this…leave me with no electricity at all!

I thought surely I must have misunderstood.  But sure enough, I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that the meter belongs to NV Energy and that they are perfectly within their rights to come take it back and leave me, literally, in the dark.  Which is not exactly the sort of threat you take lightly.  In fact, them’s fightin’ words.

Something tells me I’m about to become very, very much engaged in this fight.

REGULATING POLITICS

Sheldon Adelson’s $10 million donation to a super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich has the do-gooder campaign regulators in a froth.  Some are suggesting new legislation to ban super-PACs that would withstand court scrutiny.  But that’s a fool’s errand.

If you ban super-PACs you’re NOT going to stop wealthy individuals and large employers – who have a lot to protect from the government – from getting involved monetarily in political campaigns. 

Indeed, if Mr. Adelson wasn’t allowed to donate $10 million dollars to the Winning Our Future PAC, for less than $500 bucks he could create Winning Our Future, Inc. and still buy $10 million worth of advertising supporting his favorite candidate(s).  It’s called free speech…though in this case it’d be $10 million speech.

So who are we kidding here?

In the movie Jurassic Park, actor Jeff Goldblum had this to say about the theme park’s plan to only clone female dinosaurs so they couldn’t breed:  “If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free… Life finds a way.”  The same could be said for money in politics. 

Therefore, the best solution is to remove all caps on political donations, allow individuals and corporations and unions to give unlimited amounts of money directly to the candidate’s campaign – thus allowing candidates to not only be in control of their campaign and messaging again, but be 100% responsible for it, as well -  and simply require full disclosure of the all donations online within 48 hours.  Then let the voters decide if the money means anything.

Granted, there are exceptions to any rule…but voters, generally, aren’t stupid. 

DEFICIT HAWKS WHO TALK LIKE DOVES

The Dullard Mush blog has weighed in on the “seemingly, universally panned performance” of Nevada Republican congressional candidate and State Sen. Barbara Cegavske’s performance last week on Jon Ralston’s Face to Face program – bringing rare unanimity from the left, the right and the center.

“Considering Cegavske's been a Carson City fixture for over 15 years,” The Anon Guy writes, “her zero-content responses” to direct questions were particularly “egregious,” especially when it came to questions about Nevada’s budget:

“It is getting increasingly tiresome to hear deficit-hawks suddenly lose their zeal for fiscal responsibility when asked the obvious question "What would you cut?" (with the added implication of "and please, for the love of god, give me a specific item that actually cuts something besides a few damn pennies!!!") But, like virtually all conservatives before her, she mumbles something about looking at a variety of unnamed solutions before being pressed into a laughably small (and, therefore, politically safe) target.”

What he said.  For suggestions for real cuts and real money-saving government reforms, check out the Freedom Budget proposed by the Nevada Policy Research Institute.  Conservatives in Nevada won’t find a better place to start.

RALSTON WATCH

Nugget #1: On Wednesday night, Jon Ralston did an excellent interview with Ron Paul about his presidential campaign and chances in Nevada.  You can catch it here: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?CitizenOutreach/30e84aa02f/3add5de2bd/690d800b83

Alas, even though the interview was conducted professionally, I understand Ralston was slammed with hate-emails from Paul supporters.  So much for “How to Win Friends” - and yet another example of how some of Paul’s supporters are the candidate’s own worst enemy.

Aren’t there any adults in that campaign who can make these people stop?

POLITICAL POTPOURRI

* The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that “A Las Vegas police officer was arrested Wednesday on several charges stemming from accusations that while on duty in 2011 he stopped two women in separate cases and coerced them into exposing their breasts.”  Hey, at least he didn’t shoot them!

* Newt Gingrich is correct.  Florida cemented that fact that this really is now a two-person race between him and Mitt Romney.  I wish Ron Paul was doing better…but it is what it is.  Anyway, polling released today in the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows that among GOP voters in Nevada, Romney leads Gingrich 45-25 percent.  But among those who strongly support the tea party movement, Gingrich leads Romney 37-27 percent.  So this really is a race pitting moderate vs. conservative and the establishment vs. the grassroots.

* From the Don’t-Call-Us-We’ll-Call-You Department comes this quote from Tim Miller: “The reality is Newt hasn't learned from his past mistakes, and he's completely unwilling to run the type of disciplined campaign necessary to win.”  Mr. Miller is a former aide to Jon Huntsman – the guy who has already dropped out of the race because he ran such a crappy campaign.  So consider the source.

* Rick Santorum is delusional.  He doesn’t have the funding, the national following, the record of achievement or the gravitas to be the conservative alternative to Romney.  Period.  It’s still an uphill climb for Gingrich, too, but Gingrich clearly has the better shot.  The longer Santorum stays in the race, the more likely it is the GOP will nominate its next Ford-Dole-McCain.  Thanks, Rick.

* The best endorsement news for Newt Gingrich in Nevada this week was in NOT getting Sharron Angle’s. After blowing a slam-dunk opportunity to take out Sen. Harry Reid in the 2010 election, Angle is pretty close to political kryptonite in Nevada now.  And to the surprise of nobody, she endorsed Rick Santorum on Wednesday.  Newt really dodged a bullet on that one.

ALL THE “RIGHT” MOVES

* Newt Gingrich will attend a rally tomorrow (Friday) morning in Las Vegas.  Open to the public.  Event activities begin at 10:00 a.m. at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, 9151 Las Vegas Blvd., South.

* “Republicans registered 3,200 more voters than Democrats in Nevada in January,” RalstonFlash tweeted earlier today. “Democrats now down to 47.5K statewide edge.”  If only they’d started, you know, like two years ago.

* Rich Oppel in today's New York Times: "A quarter of the Republican Party membership in Clark County - which includes Las Vegas - are now (Ron) Paul backers, estimates Tim Williams, the county party's political director. Four of Nevada's 17 county Republican chairmen are also supporters, according to Mr. Bunce. And Robert List, the state's Republican national committeeman and a former governor, says four or five members of the state party's 12-member executive board are backing Mr. Paul." (H/T: Morning Score)

* Steve Commander is a (fill-in-the-blank).  Try to keep the four-letter-words to a minimum…although the one beginning with a “j” and ending in “rk” is acceptable.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“I'm not concerned about the very poor.” – Mitt Romney, 2/1/12

“(Mitt Romney) comes across as the prototypical rich Republican. And it's gonna make it harder and harder and harder and harder to go after Obama because this turns around on him.” – Rush Limbaugh

“It's obvious that Romney's statement that he's 'not concerned about the very poor' is incredibly tone-deaf.  But Romney's remark isn't merely tone-deaf, it's also un-conservative.” - John McCormack of the Weekly Standard

“(Romney’s comment about the poor) strengthens the stereotype of Romney as the patrician who is only aware of the poor as people who clean the streets and wash his car. . . . The idea that somehow we can sign the poor to the safety net and we patch it and dependency is a liberal idea...Romney is a guy who came late to his new ideology and still can't speak it very well." – Columnist Charles Krauthammer

“As strong as Romney's performance was in Florida, he has yet to hit the right note with movement conservatives.” – Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard

“Mr. Romney still has work to do among the GOP's populist wing, which includes its social conservatives, the tea party and the folks who used to be called Reagan Democrats. . . . He needs to find a way to overcome their doubts. If Mr. Romney does win the nomination, look for him to select a conservative favorite as vice president.” - Paul A. Gigot of Political Diary

“The fat lady is warming up. But it is not a done deal yet. (Mitt Romney) still has a fractured base and lost the heart of the base (in Florida). He has trouble with tea party activists and evangelicals though he roughly tied with Gingrich in capturing their support, and he has trouble with strong conservatives." – Red State’s Erick Erickson

“Gingrich is certainly in a position to make Romney's life unpleasant, and he seems determined to do that. But for now, a party that has been defined since 2009 by its most energetic and ardent conservatives is moving toward nominating the very candidate such Republicans reject." – Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne

“After just four primaries, the field has narrowed to just two viable candidates, and the Republican Party has to make a critical decision that will impact its credibility for a generation. Are we the party of Bob Dole, Goldman Sachs, John McCain, and Mitt Romney? Or are we the party of Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich?” – Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, 2/1/12