Friday, September 27, 2013

MUTH'S TRUTHS 09/27/2013

HICKEY MUST GO, BUT NOT FOR THE OBVIOUS REASON

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey (Reno-RINO) recently opened his mouth, removed his socks, stuck one foot inside, wriggled around his toes, rinsed and repeated.  But that’s not the reason he should resign his leadership position.

In a recent radio interview Hickey said the 2014 election cycle holds out promise for Republicans because “a lot of minorities…will not turn out.”  He then attempted “damage control” in a follow-up television interview in which he further embarrassed himself and the Republican Party with a smart aleck comment about having “a yellow  wife and kids with olive-colored skin.”

Good grief.

“As a black Republican, I find Pat Hickey’s comment disappointing and sadly out of touch,” said Niger Innis, president of the Congress of Racial Equality in North Las Vegas.  “Thanks for nothing, Assemblyman.”

Thanks for nothing, indeed. 


Understandably, this has Democrats all across the country frothing at the mouth, claiming Hickey’s comments were racist and an effort to “suppress” the minority vote.  Which is absurd.  Hickey’s comments were neither.  They were just stupid. 

And they won’t, as Hickey predicted, go away in one or two news cycles.  They’ll return like a bad case of herpes next fall when Republicans all over the state will have his “minorities” comment wrapped around their necks. 

Alas, this “Macaca Moment” is only the latest and least of his failings.

In the 2012 election cycle, Hickey failed to pick up any net seats for his caucus despite at least three solid opportunities - including one in his own Reno back yard where a highly-touted “minority” candidate ran in the only district with a Republican majority that is currently represented by a Democrat.

He then went into the 2013 legislative session with absolutely no agenda whatsoever, and refused to contest the seating of a Democrat assemblyman who had been ruled by a judge to be ineligible for failing to live in the district where he ran.

Hickey has discouraged candidates from signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge while leading his caucus in voting for a second extension of the $620 million worth of “temporary” taxes, as well for the Kirner Tax – named after its champion, GOP Assemblyman Randy Kirner - in Washoe County and the misleadingly named More Cops tax in Clark County.  He handed these tax hikes to the Democrats on a silver platter while not even getting table scraps in return. 

And not only did the minority “leader” barely utter a peep when Democrats again killed the “campus carry” bill without even a committee vote, he also oversaw the embarrassment of Republicans in his house killing the “parent trigger” bill; the only worthwhile education reform bill with a chance this last session.

And there’s plenty more – including his disastrous handling of the Steven Brooks mess - but space here is limited.

If Republicans keep Pat Hickey in his leadership position, they truly are stuck on stupid.

Oh, and if they take the advice of Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger, Jon Ralston, and replace Hickey with Assemblyman Paul Anderson, they’re stuck on stupid squared!

In NPRI’s conservative scorecard for the 2013 legislative session, only one Republican, Assemblyman Lynn “Bug Man” Stewart (49.91%) scored worse than Hickey (51.26%). 

Anderson’s score?  51.51%.  The guy is a Gumby clone of Hickey.

Republicans in the Assembly will never become the majority party in the Assembly if they continue to vote like Democrat-lite and continue to fight like a litter of puppies.  Will they ever learn?

MEET ROBERT UITHOVEN

I’ve known Robert Uithoven – who’s running for Nevada GOP chairman this weekend at the party’s fall meeting in Las Vegas - professionally since around 2005, and he and I have worked together on a number of different issues, especially when I was living in Carson City. 

Indeed, back in 2009 Robert royally pissed off then-Minority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno) when he single-handedly almost derailed the “temporary” tax hikes Raggio and other moderate Republicans were trying to pass over then-Gov. Jim Gibbons’ opposition.

“Desperate anti-tax forces, represented by Republican consultant Robert Uithoven, used rumors of potential conflicts of interest as a way to peel off ‘yes’ votes (for the tax hike),” Raggio biographer Michael Archer wrote in “A Man of His Word.” 

They weren’t “potential conflicts.”  They were real.  And indeed, Raggio was forced to abstain from voting for the tax hikes until then-Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford issued his infamous “Absolution Resolution” which allowed all senators to vote on the tax hike whether they were conflicted or not.

Oh, and I got a real kick out of re-reading Sen. Raggio’s words about them in his book yesterday.  Pay particular attention to Sen. Raggio’s own words about the sunsets…

“I said, ‘Robert…why don’t you give us some credit for what we’re trying to do to make sure that we provide essential services?  Any tax increases will be temporary and we will insist on sunsets.  Why not give us some credit for trying to reform the tax and the retirement systems?’

“He was very apologetic.  I really did not understand his posture, though he is very much influenced by [anti-tax political blogger] Chuck Muth.”

Woo-hoo!

Of course, it’s not true.  Robert is and always has been his own man.  But I appreciate the compliment from Sen. Raggio.  

Nevertheless, this quote from the late senate leader should remind everyone, especially Gov. Brian Sandoval, that it was absolutely the intent of the Legislature that those tax hikes go away!  Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE should Sandoval again include them in his 2015 budget if he wins re-election.

But back to Uithoven.  He contacted me on Tuesday with a request:

“Chuck - You know me well, but your readers may not.  I'm happy to have you ask me any questions and I'll answer them to you over the phone - you can record and transcribe if you'd like - so your readers can know more about me and who I am ... and who I am not.”

Robert knows that I’ve been a supporter of incumbent Chairman Michael McDonald, but his request was reasonable, and in the interest of fairness I agreed.  So on Wednesday morning we spent 73 minutes together on the phone talking about all manner of issues, concerns, controversies and strategies related to the GOP chairman’s race.

I shared that interview with Silver State Confidential subscribers last night, but thought this interview was important enough to make available to everyone before this important election.  It was recorded live and has no editing.  Ditto the transcription.  And I’ll not comment on any of it…and just let you, the listener/reader make up your own minds.

You can read/listen to this exclusive interview by CLICKING HERE

And while you’re there, if you haven’t signed up for a free, 30-day trial subscription to Silver State Confidential – and don’t want to miss out on great “inside” information and stories for the 2014 election cycle without the liberal spin – just click on the bright yellow “Sign Up Now” button at the bottom of the Uithoven interview page.

FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR

Our VIP guest-of-honor at next week’s First Friday Happy Hour will be our 2013 Courage Under Fire award recipient, Amanda Collins. 

If this courageous young woman’s name is unfamiliar to you, click here and read just one of the many stories about her being assaulted and raped in UNR’s campus garage…and how she’s tried valiantly to change Nevada law so that her nightmare isn’t visited upon other unarmed college students in the future.

Next Friday, October 4 from 5:00-7:00 pm at the Blue Martini in Town Square at the south end of the Strip in Las Vegas.

Oh, and by the way…

As many of you might remember, we featured a young Las Vegas race-car driver a couple of years ago at First Friday, Dylan Kwasniewski, who was 16 at the time.  Well, he’s 18 now, has moved to North Carolina to further his NASCAR racing career and is featured in a reality TV show.  Ron Kantowski had an updated story on Dylan a couple days ago in the Las Vegas Sun. 

If you missed it, click here

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Now that he’s up against Jeopardy, the number of people watching (Jon) Ralston’s television show has shrunk from how many people you can fit in a McDonald’s restaurant to how many people you can fit in a McDonalds bathroom.” – Name withheld

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