BREAKING NEWS!
This just in…
On Day Two of Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick’s tax-hiking reign, Republican Assembly Caucus Policy
Director Geoff Lawrence – a solid
fiscal conservative and economist who went to the caucus from the Nevada Policy
Research Institute when Assemblyman Ira
Hansen was initially elected Speaker-designee in November – has “resigned.”
Does anyone with an IQ above room temperature believe Lawrence
actually quit a job he was made for rather than being forced out, against his
will, by Hambrick?
Lawrence is just the latest conservative Hambrick has
double-crossed and stabbed in the back, all in pursuit of a greased slide for
Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor”
Sandoval’s (R&R-Advertising) billion-point-three dollar tax hike.
Recall that Hambrick first sacked conservative Tax Pledge signer
Assemblywoman Michele Fiore as chair
of the Taxation Committee, followed immediately by also removing from the
committee conservative Tax Pledge signers Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman and Assemblyman Brent Jones.
In Hambrick-world, conservatives need not apply.
Let the Recall Hambrick effort proceed!
DAY ONE
Sorry about the delay in reporting back on Opening Day of
the 2015 Legislature, but I had a long 7 hour drive back to Vegas from Carson
on Tuesday – pleasantly broken up by a lunch stop in Tonopah at the Mizpah
Hotel with my longtime friend Joni Eastley,
who is the one of the most pleasant and well-informed public officials you’ll
ever want to meet.
Onward…
The first day of the 2015 legislative session started out
with a meeting of the Republican Assembly Caucus in which Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman raised a question about
whether or not Assemblyman Chris “Let’s
Make a Deal” Edwards “was wearing a wire” and recording caucus meetings.
According to Ray
Hagar of the Reno Gazette-Journal,
Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick “said
he was sure Edwards would not record any caucus conversations during the 2015
session” and said he trusted him.
As Julius Caesar
trusted Brutus!
I also heard that Majority Leader Paul Anderson generally ran the caucus meeting and is the real
power behind the throne. He apparently
has almost complete and total control over Hambrick and the caucus now, even if
he doesn’t hold the title of Speaker.
Call him the “Shadow Speaker.”
Is Chris Edwards wearing a wire? Only the Shadow knows!
And speaking of the Speaker, Hambrick was, in fact, elected
Speaker despite empty threats by ousted Minority Leader Pat “The Appeaser” Hickey who, after being kicked to the curb by
conservative members of the caucus back in November, rattled his saber over
possibly collaborating with the Democrats to make himself Speaker.
In the end, Hickey lacked the huevos to attempt his
threatened “nuclear option.”
So the guy conservatives elected instead of Hickey or Anderson
was elected Speaker. And the moderates
and the Democrats ended up voting for the conservative pick – although a
reckoning with Hambrick is still in the offing since Hambrick double-crossed
the conservatives after they got him the nomination!
And speaking of Hambrick, I was standing in front of the doorway to
his new posh Speaker’s office catching up with some old friends when he peaked
his head out. But kinda like the
groundhog on Groundhog’s Day, he saw me and immediately retreated quickly back
into his office, portending at least six more weeks of waffling and vacillation
on the Governor’s billion-point-three dollar tax hike.
Later in the morning, I passed Edwards in the hall. I called out, “Hey, Chris, are you wearing a
wire today?” He grew beet red in the
face and muttered what I assume to have been a profanity, but I couldn’t make
it out. He then slithered down the hall
to the Assembly Chamber.
Met conservative Assemblyman David Gardner (R-Clark) for the first time. Very impressive and well-informed
fellow. His only flaw appears to be that
he’s a lawyer. Well, nobody’s perfect.
Also ran into an old nemesis, Roger Stockton.
Roger and I had quite a social media battle going on a year
ago over the Nevada GOP’s pre-primary endorsement process. But as Roger said, he and I agree on probably
90 percent of other issues. As such, we
buried the hatchet…and not in the back of each other’s skull!
Passed Jon Ralston,
Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger-without-a-TV-show, in the hallway a few times. Had to correct him – almost a full-time job –
on something he tweeted about conservatives and Assemblywoman Fiore “losing” in
the Hambrick vote.
This guy is either intentionally obtuse or in clinical
denial. It was Fiore who got Hambrick
elected as Speaker-designate! Even
Hambrick admitted it. On Ralston’s
since-cancelled old public affairs TV show!
When I pointed out that he was wrong, again, he got that
irritated look on his face - like he’d just eaten a rotten cumquat - and
mumbled something about “Go write about the scandal.” I passed His Royal Haughtiness in the hall
again a little while after and asked what scandal he was talking about. “You know!” he barked.
Well, I didn’t.
But I later found out that some others in the building were
talking about a scandal in Carson City involving Ralston over a dozen years ago
that I had never heard before. But since
it has nothing to do with Jon’s inability to cover politics in a truthful and
professional manner, I couldn’t care less and have no desire to write about
such “old news.”
On the other hand, there was another scandal unfolding in Carson
City while I was there.
For dubious reasons, city elders decided to cut down a giant
200-year-old cottonwood tree in Fuji Park.
The tree was enormous. My kids
used to climb it and play under its shade when we lived up there. Indeed, you couldn’t go to Fuji Park for any
reason, day or night, without seeing that tree.
A lot of folks have a lot of fond memories and had a lot of
fun times around that tree in Fuji Park.
RIP.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
As for the rest of Day One of the opening session, I did
leave early. There’s only so much of
this kumbaya stuff I can take. And I did
need to get to Red’s Old 395 Grill to host a conservative happy hour. Priorities, you know!
But after the day was done, several people told me that
almost every decision Hambrick made from the dais had to be corrected by the
Clerk, Susan Furlong.
Now, I know it was only Day One and this was the first time
Hambrick performed in his new role, but to get so many things so wrong right
out of the gate having already served three previous sessions?
Thank goodness The Shadow is around!
THE BITTEREST MAN IN CARSON CITY
Assemblyman Pat “The
Appeaser” Hickey could not have been happy watching Hambrick be officially
elected Speaker of the Assembly for the 2015 session.
As the GOP Minority Leader, Hickey was the heir apparent
when the ballots were counted on Election Day in November and Republicans won
the majority for the first time since 1985.
But thanks to me exposing Hickey’s go-along-to-get-along
“leadership” style, as well as his liberal voting record, combined with
conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore’s
efforts to rally conservatives in the caucus, Hickey was kicked to the curb in
a caucus vote in November and Assemblyman Ira
Hansen was elected Speaker-designate.
Hansen would subsequently step down. And Fiore then rallied conservative caucus
members to elect Hambrick Speaker-designate.
Hambrick subsequently bit the hand the fed him and double-crossed the
conservatives who brung him to the dance by unilaterally removing Fiore from
her elected position of Majority Leader, as well as chair of the Taxation
Committee.
But back to The Appeaser…
Prior to the start of the official festivities Monday
morning, Hickey released a blog post taking a lame, juvenile shot at both me
and Fiore…
“Finally, there is no truth to the rumor… That Assemblywoman Michele
Fiore is going to nominate from the Floor sometime-Republican Chuck Muth as
Assembly Speaker. It is true that the deposed wannabe Majority Leader
considered such a move. However, she concluded that because Muth already
decides virtually all of her votes, it isn’t necessary to elevate the
libertarian bloviator to a position of importance he has coveted ever since
losing his only legislative race to Dina Titus in 1996.”
This poor guy just can’t get over “what might have been” had
it not been for me and Michele taking him down.
Extremely bitter. Extremely
vindictive. Fuming inside, dying to
explode.
Indeed, as we passed each other in the hall on his way to
the Assembly chamber, I said something to the effect of, “Hey, Pat, are you
still pouting?” To which he replied
something along the line of, “Boy, have you gotten fat.”
What a class act.
Can’t imagine why his colleagues chose to dump him from his leadership
role in the caucus.
THE FURTHER (MIS)ADVENTURES OF LI’L NATE
Nathan Emens –
Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick’s political
brain and useful idiot for Democrat legislative candidates running against
conservative Republicans – still has his nose bent out of shape that I
discovered and reported how he was playing both sides against each other in the
last election cycle.
On Monday, Li’l Nate posted this barely comprehensible
nonsense on Twitter…
“.@ChuckMuth #clowncaucus first vote was with the “moderates”
#hypocrites #RecallFever #nvleg”
I replied…
“You're as bad & wrong as Ralston. Conservatives elected Hambrick
over Anderson. Your memory is as bad as your political skills.”
Indeed, even Hambrick, on the aforementioned Ralston’s
now-cancelled public affairs TV show, admitted that conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore was responsible for
getting him the votes he needed from conservatives to make him
Speaker-designate.
Li’l Nate e-seethed in response…
“.@ChuckMuth exactly how long have you been a whore? At least we now know Tony Dane is your pimp.”
These RINOs sure get riled up easily!
He then posted this cute little follow-up threat…
“UpChuck we are going to learn more about you in the near future and I
guarantee you aren’t going to be happy.”
“UpChuck.” Get
it?
My, how clever, Li’l Nate.
And witty. I mean, I haven’t
heard that one since Sister Susan Mary’s
second grade class at St. John’s Elementary School in Long Green, Maryland.
As for your threat?
Whatever.
WHAT A HAPPY “HAPPY HOUR”!
What a great, star-studded conservative happy hour (OK,
happy FOUR hours!) at Red’s Old 395 Grill Monday night after all the
pomp, circumstance and nonsense of Day One of the 2015 Legislature.
Conservative State Controller Ron Knecht and conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore – the two most prominent Nevada elected officials who
have dared to come out in opposition to Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval’s (R&R-Advertising) billion-point-three
dollar tax hike – received a hero’s welcome from the dozens of local conservative
activists who stopped by for a cold one.
We were also joined by conservative Republican Assemblywomen
Jill Dickman, Vicki Dooling, Victoria
Seaman and Shelly Shelton, as
well as conservative Republican Assemblymen John Ellison, Brent Jones
and John Moore.
Also great visiting with great conservative activists such
as Storey County GOP Chief Jim Hindle,
Shawn Meehan (Ralston hates him!), Juanita Cox, Lynn Muzzy, Ken Koeppe, Fred Weinberg, Larry Green, Tom Dickman,
Kiran Hill, Diane O’Connor and a cast of thousands I’m sure I forgot to include
because they came in after my third beer!
We’re gonna have to do these regularly. It’s gonna be a LONG session.
DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS
If you want to hear Rob
Lauer’s side of the story in Wiregate – the alleged extortion plot against Assemblyman
Chris “Let’s Make a Deal” Edwards, check
out his interview on Monday with talk-show hostess-with-the-mostest Heidi Harris.
READERS RIGHT
“Hi Chuck, Money has NEVER fixed the problems haunting
education! More money thrown at our critically injured education system will
NOT fix the critically ill curriculum! We MUST get rid of Common Core. Thanks for your daily updates on our state
politics.” - Rose C. Gilbert
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“(Nevada Republican Rep. Mark) Amodei also thinks there will
be a vote on Yucca Mountain this session and suggests the state’s leaders need
to engage in a conversation instead of ‘just screaming, no.’ He said he is
willing to talk about funding for I-11 from Phoenix to Las Vegas, putting
resources into reprocessing research at UNLV, economic development in rural
Nevada and involving the Desert Research Institute in the monitoring of the
site.” – Columnist Tom Mitchell in the Elko Daily Free Press
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