MUTH'S TRUTHS 10/21/2013

CAMPAIGN TRAINING WORKSHOPS Campaign Communications 101 Reno, Nevada Wednesday, October 30, 2013 6:00 - 9:00 pm Click here for details Campaign/Candidate 101 Las Vegas, Nevada Tuesday, November 5, 2013 6:00 - 9:00 pm Click here for details RALSTON RETORTS! beng chief of staff gubernatopial Heck, Amodei...what's the dif? has has See more Ralston Retorts at www.RalstonRetorts.com MUTH’S TRUTHS Bilbray-Kohn Website: Grade A Political Pabulum A few weeks ago, Democrat congressional hopeful Erin Bilbray-Kohn unwittingly had the “Issues” page in the back end of her campaign website exposed by a liberal blogger.  The pages were quickly blocked…but the horse had already left the barn. Now, to be fair, it is quite possible that a copywriter was, in fact, in the process of writing up a draft statement for Bilbray-Kohn to approve and the statements found on the exposed pages were not her true and official positions.  That said, if it was a draft statement why not send the copy to the candidate via email rather than put it up on the ‘net where it might be accidentally discovered (or intentionally leaked by a mole)?  No matter.  Rather than dwell on what supposedly wasn’t supposed to be made public on Bilbray-Kohn’s website, let’s look at what’s already been approved and is up there today.  Here’s a snippet of what you’ll find on her “About” page… “Our country is at a crossroads and Washington is not working. Despite our great challenges, Washington is ignoring job creation and ignoring our middle class. “Southern Nevada deserves a representative who will always put people ahead of politics. As your voice in Washington, I'll fight to clean up this broken system and make government accountable to you. It's time to focus on what's important: rebuilding our economy and strengthening our middle class. We need someone with vision who can come up with new ideas to change a broken system...and to turn those ideas into reality. There is no one who will fight as hard for Nevada, the home I love so much, as I will.” This is a textbook example of inside-the-beltway pabulum which includes a lot of nice-sounding words saying absolutely nothing. “Our country is at a crossroads…” Really?  Well, at a crossroads one has a choice to make.  You can either go to the left or the right.  Which path is Bilbray-Kohn recommending?  She doesn’t say.  You and I know.  But she doesn’t want low information voters to know. “...Washington is not working.” Actually, it’s working exactly as the Founders intended when they established a governing system of check-and-balances that would hopefully prevent one party from doing…well, doing exactly what the Democrats did in shoving ObamaCare down the nation’s throat without a single Republican vote. But that aside, exactly what in Washington does Bilbray-Kohn believe “is not working”?  Exactly what is broken?  Because until you can definitively identify the problem, you can’ fix it.  Ask any doctor.  Bilbray-Kohn doesn’t say.  “Southern Nevada deserves a representative who will always put people ahead of politics.” Again, nice-sounding pabulum, but what does it mean?  Is Bilbray-Kohn saying her opponent, Republican Rep. Joe Heck is not putting people ahead of politics?  If so, can she back it up?  Can she provide examples to prove her point?  Apparently not. “I'll fight to clean up this broken system and make government accountable to you.” Really?  As a freshman Democrat – likely serving in the minority party – Bilbray-Kohn herself is going to single-handedly fix a “broken system” without having even so much as identifying exactly what it is that needs to be fixed?  And exactly how is she going to make it more “accountable” to we, the people?  What specifically is she going to do that no one else in Washington is already doing or thought of? Look, the government is already accountable to the people.  It’s called “elections.”  There’s no way for Bilbray-Kohn to “make” government be accountable to the people.  Only the people, through our electoral system, can make the government accountable. But let’s be honest here.  Bilbray-Kohn isn’t promising to fix Washington and make the government more accountable.  She’s using an old, established “DC duck” by promising only to “fight” to fix the government and make it accountable.  That way, once she fails she’ll be able to say, “Yeah, but I fought, and that’s all I really promised.” This is so reminiscent of former President Bill Clinton who incessantly told the nation, ad nauseum, how hard he was working.  But Clinton and Bilbray-Kohn both confuse motion with progress.  And as John Wayne put it in The Cowboys, “Tryin’ don’t get the job done.” “It's time to focus on what's important: rebuilding our economy and strengthening our middle class.” Oh, please.  Congress and the White House have been singularly focused on rebuilding the economy and strengthening the middle class since The Great Recession hit in late 2007.  It’s not that Washington hasn’t “focused” on the problem; it’s that Democrats and Republicans have diametrically opposed solutions. “We need someone with vision who can come up with new ideas to change a broken system...and to turn those ideas into reality.” OK, fine.  I assume Bilbray-Kohn is putting herself forward as that “someone” who has the “vision” thing and “new ideas” to change our “broken system” even though what, exactly, she believes is broken remains undefined. So what are her “new ideas” that apparently no one else in Washington, DC, from either party, has come up with?  And if, by some miracle, Bilbray-Kohn really DOES have some new ideas that no one else has thought of, again…how will she, as a freshman Member of Congress in the minority party, be able to “turn those ideas into reality.”  Inquiring minds wanna know! “There is no one who will fight as hard for Nevada, the home I love so much, as I will.” With this Bilbray-Kohn is clearly accusing her opponent, Dr. Heck, of not fighting hard enough for Nevada.  Really?  What’s the evidence?  I mean, if you’re going to make an accusation such as this, shouldn’t you at least, you know, back it up? Let me assure you that Congressman Heck is fighting hard for Nevada every waking moment of his life these days, and probably in his sleep.  The problem here isn’t whether or not Heck and Bilbray-Kohn will fight hard and do the job diligently.  Both will; Heck is. No, this election is all about a philosophical choice between which of the two paths Nevada’s 3rd congressional district will take a year from now when it does, in fact, come to our bi-annual “crossroads” known as Election Day. Voters can either veer to the left onto Pie-in-the-Sky Street, arm-in-arm with Bilbray-Kohn, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama…or it can stick with the right-of-center path down fiscally responsible Main Street being guided by the battle-tested Joe Heck. This one’s a no brainer for most of us.  But for the low-information voter that Bilbray-Kohn is apparently trying to appeal to, those folks need to see, read and hear specific position on specific issues to make an informed decision.  With Dr. Heck, that’s no problem.  He has both an established voting record and a full “Issues” page on his website. But to this date, almost four months after “officially” jumping into the race, and almost nine months after we all knew she was in, Bilbray-Kohn continues to serve up nothing but political pabulum on her campaign website which, unbelievably, is still hiding her not-ready-for-prime-time “Issues” page. Come out, come out, wherever you are! FREE MARKET SUGAR U.S. Sugar Programs: We’ll Drop Ours if You’ll Drop Yours FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR This month’s First Friday Happy Hour will be on Friday, November 1 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at the Blue Martini in Town Square on the south end of the Strip in Las Vegas.  Our VIP guest-of-honor will be our 2014 Courage under Fire award recipient, Amanda Collins.  FAMOUS LAST WORDS “Republicans lose elections because they try to please the middle, Democrats win elections because they know better.” – Mark Wohlers Did someone forward you this copy of Muth's Truths? Get your own FREE subscription...