SILVER STATE CONFIDENTIAL 02/10/2015

WIRE-GATE UPDATE I Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith wrote on Tuesday about the Wiregate investigation into claims by Assemblyman Chris “Let’s Make a Deal” Edwards that he was “extorted” by efforts to get him to change his vote in leadership fights that took place inside the Republican Assembly Caucus in December. The main targets of Metro’s investigation appear to be GOP activists Tony Dane and Rob Lauer, as well as a handful of Edwards’ Assembly colleagues who the freshman may have secretly taped.  But as Smith points out, Edwards may inadvertently be blowing the whistle on what some would call “legal extortion” – the practice of juicing up elected officials with campaign donations. For example, Smith pointed out that some $36,000 of Edwards’ total take of $79,000 – almost half - came AFTER he’d already won his election but BEFORE Edwards was seated as a state legislator.  Smith concluded that “only Chris Edwards knows whether his new friends have won his heart, mind, and vote.” I have to take issue with that.  We all know that Edwards, like so many before him, has now been effectively bought and paid for with campaign donations.  It’s the Nevada way.  It’s legal.  But it still stinks. Minor correction: Smith reported that Edwards’ largesse was in response to his vote for Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick in the Assembly leadership fight.  That is incorrect.  Edwards was firmly in the camp of Hambrick’s opponent in that caucus election, Assemblyman Paul Anderson. It was only after Hambrick won and double-crossed the 12 conservative members of the Assembly that Edwards hooked up with Hambrick and allegedly shopped his vote relating to a special caucus meeting and election on January 5th that ultimately never took place. You can read Smith’s full column by clicking here WIRE-GATE UPDATE II The attorney for Robb Lauer – the GOP activist who had a search warrant for his home delivered by a fully-armed SWAT unit a couple weeks ago over Assemblyman Chris “Let’s Make a Deal” Edwards “extortion” accusation, fired back with an absolutely jaw-dropping motion today demanding that the investigation of his client be quashed and that confiscated property, including Lauer’s laptop and cell phone, be immediately returned. David J. Otto’s motion is truly explosive.  You can read the full document by clicking here There are, indeed, some truly wild suppositions and allegations in the motion.  However, there are also legitimate points raised about the veracity of Edwards’ claims, as well as questions raised as to why the search warrant affidavits have been sealed and why SWAT was used to execute a warrant in a simple political corruption case. The militarization of local law enforcement continues to be a growing issue.  But I digress. For those who don’t want to pore through the full 29-page legal motion, here are some of the tweets I posted while reading it this morning… Motion to quash Chris Edwards' Wiregate probe calls Edwards a liar over & over & over & over & over & over again... "On January 31, 2015 Robert Lauer’s home was searched by Metro using a heavily armed SWAT Team in order to put fear into Mr. Lauer." "Such use of a SWAT Team is extremely dangerous and reckless. It is an excellent tactic to scare the innocent." Sealed Lauer warrant "serves only the purposes of ‘secret government’ and ‘secret police’. It is truly Un-American and truly disgusting." Lauer motion: "Should Secret Police be able to seal a warrant affidavit only to protect a lying politician and his mentor the Guv of NV?" Warrant "sought for no other reason than to silence and intimidate the political opponents of Asm. Chris Edwards and Gov. Brian Sandoval." "All of Chris Edwards’ statements were self-serving & part of a broader plan to silence his critics & to seek to end any recall efforts." "It was well known among his Colleagues that Chris Edwards was aggressively ‘hawking’ his vote in exchange 4 money." "The Governor gave $5,000.00 to Assemblyman Chris Edwards and to Assemblyman Derek Armstrong who heads the Assembly’s Tax Committee." "This is not about extortion, it’s about political power and the silencing of political opponents." Metro "relied on lies of Edwards to fabricate a story for the sole purpose of harassing & stopping political activities of Lauer & others." "Assemblyman Chris Edwards who has every motive to lie in that he is scrambling for his political survival." "The affidavit in support of this warrant must be unsealed in order for there to be a robust questioning of the statements and motives..." "(A)ffidavits based on self-serving lies of a ‘stricken’ politician strikes a death blow @ the protections against unreasonable searches." "the only allegations of wrongdoing against Mr. Lauer come from Chris Edwards a politician in trouble who has every motive to lie." Metro "conducted no investigation other than swallowing the lies of Edwards who is covering his own criminal acts of soliciting bribes." "Unsealing warrant affidavit will show just what was stated in it. There was never any legitimate reason to seal affidavit in first place." To be clear, we honestly don’t know what Metro has in this investigation.  But many of us, from Day One, suspected that Edwards filed his accusation to preemptively protect himself against the threatened ethics complaint Lauer was considering over his conversation with Edwards where Edwards’ allegedly offered to sell his vote for money. Most people only know the clean-cut Navy boy Edwards portrays himself as in public.  But those of us who know him better in the world of politics know he’s a scheming, backstabbing, lying sh**weasel – but I mean that in a good, Christian way.  And that fact won’t change no matter how the Metro investigation turns out. DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS The Washington Post reported on Monday that dozens of counties in Alabama are defying a federal judge’s ruling by refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.  Guess where I’m flying to next Thursday?Yep.  Montgomery, Alabama.  I guess I’m just drawn to political controversy. *   *   *   *   * A gunman in Atlanta who “just snapped” ended up killing 5 people, including three children over the weekend.  According to police, the man was on his cell phone with a friend right up to the time of the shooting.  Police said in a news conference that the man was, among other things, “upset about taxes.”  No further comment is necessary. *   *   *   *   * I got in trouble with a couple of people on Twitter over the weekend when I noted that more than 20 people in Egypt were killed in a riot at a soccer game.  All I did was question, in light of the Egyptian tragedy, why Las Vegas taxpayers should subsidize building a soccer stadium here. I mean, does that make me a bottom-feeding scumbag? *   *   *   *   * In an op-ed published in Tuesday’s Las Vegas Sun, Sens. David Parks and Kelvin Atkinson write about a Republican plan that “would build schools but gut the state’s law that requires contractors  pay a living wage to the workers who build those schools.” Not true.  It would gut the state law that requires contractors to pay a hyper-inflated UNION wage that costs Nevada taxpayers more to build a school than it would if fair market wages were paid.  The change would mean taxpayers could build more schools with the money saved.  Make it so. THE FURTHER (MIS)ADVENTURES OF LI’L NATE Most people don’t know this, but I built a time machine in what was supposed to be my “man cave.”  And I took a trip into the future over the weekend and witnessed incompetent political consultant Nathan Emens – Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick’s political brain and useful idiot for Nevada Democrats – recording his last will and testament on video.  Surprisingly, Assemblywomen Michele Fiore and Victoria Seaman were on hand as witnesses.  Here’s the transcript… “To John Hambrick, I leave the Summerlin houses.” “To Chris Edwards, I leave all the apartment buildings in Green Valley.” "To Mike Slanker, I leave the offices in downtown Las Vegas." "To Jon Ralston, I leave all the condos at City Center." Seaman was blown away, as she had no idea of Emens’ extensive holdings.  She leaned over to Fiore and whispered, “I guess he was a much better political consultant than everybody realized to have accumulated so much property.” "Property?” Fiore responded.  “That’s his a paper route!" FAMOUS LAST WORDS “The government shouldn’t have to do more with less.  It should do less with less.” – Chuck Muth, president, Citizen Outreach “The problem isn’t that we’re underfunding education. It’s that we’re overfunding the education bureaucracy.” – Chuck Muth, president, Citizen Outreach “Raising taxes is a sign of incompetence in a politician. He/she cannot manage. A willingness to raise taxes is telegraphing such failure.” – Grover Norquist, president, Americans for Tax Reform HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Silver State Confidential is an email newsletter on Nevada politics, public policy and current events published (usually) daily by Chuck Muth, Nevada's #1 Renegade Conservative and the man voted "Most Likely to Irritate Liberals!"  Click on the link below for subscription information…