SILVER STATE CONFIDENTIAL 02/12/2015

KETCHUP WITH YOUR CROW, MR. RALSTON? Finding out yesterday afternoon that we actually won, not lost, our Supreme Court appeal of former Secretary of State Ross Miller’s lawsuit brought against us over issue mailers we did about former Assemblyman John Oceguera in 2010 was, indeed, sweet. But the cherry on top was learning from a friend later in the afternoon that Jon Ralston, Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger-without-a-TV-show, had linked to an erroneous report that we had lost in his Flasher Report yesterday morning with this snarky reference: “All Chuck Muth does is lose.” Wrong again, Jonny Boy!  Indeed, the High Priest of Haughtiness was forced to scribble this retraction in his newsletter this morning… “Chuck Muth will lose all those recalls, but he did get a Supreme Court order recalled.” Hey, Jon, here’s a roll of Bounty to wipe that egg off your face! EDWARDS TO ADDRESS WIREGATE TOMORROW Assemblyman Chris “Let’s Make a Deal” Edwards is scheduled to be on the Alan Stock show Friday morning from 7:00 – 7:30 a.m.  The interview can be heard in Las Vegas on KDWN 720 AM.  Out-of-towners can listen via steaming audio by going to: http://kdwn.com I wonder if he’s still wired? By the way, a citizen in Assemblyman Let’s Make a Deal’s district inked a stinging op-ed published today in the Mesquite Local News titled “Edwards needs to come to Mesquite.”  Click here to read it. THE DIFFERENCE A CONSERVATIVE GOP GOVERNOR MAKES From Monday’s Wall Street Journal…   “Bruce Rauner has the biggest reclamation project in American politics, and this year it’s the state drama to watch. The first Illinois GOP Governor in 12 years is off to a strong start by targeting the source of the state’s fiscal and economic rot: the corrupt political bargain between state lawmakers and public unions. “On Monday Mr. Rauner signed an executive order ending mandatory union fees for state workers who don’t want to join a union or support its agenda. He declared that Illinois’s contracts with public unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Afscme), violate the First Amendment by forcing workers to associate with the union against their will.” If only Nevada had a conservative Republican governor! NEVADANS SUPPORT AG OVER GUV ON IMMIGRATION LAWSUIT “A recent WPA poll of Nevada voters shows strong support for Attorney General Adam Laxalt's decision to join the twenty-five other Attorney Generals in a lawsuit against President Barack Obama that would block his executive action on immigration,” WPA Opinion Research announced in a memorandum on Tuesday.  “A majority of Nevada voters disapprove of the President's executive action and believe the Attorney General did the right thing in joining the lawsuit against the President.” Key finding: “Four in five Republican voters support Attorney General’s Laxalt’s decision.” Among the one in five who oppose Laxalt’s decision: Nevada Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval. TAX-HIKING WANNBE REAGANITES Continuing the propaganda campaign to shove Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval’s (R&R-Advertising) Billion Dollar Tax Hike down our throats… Liberal Republican State Sens. Moderate Mike Roberson, Ben “Blue Dog” Kieckhefer and Greg Brower inked a letter-to-the-editor which was published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal defending Sandoval by maintaining that America’s Worst Governor only promised not to raise taxes the first time he ran in 2010, not when he ran for re-election in 2014. They went on to compare themselves to Ronald Reagan, who as governor of California a dozen years before being elected president raised taxes. Two quick points to counter this absurd defense: First, Sandoval broke his tax pledge in both 2011 and 2013 by extending the “sunsets” he promised he wouldn’t extend; a move supported by the Three Tax-hiking Amigos.  Secondly, neither did Sandoval campaign on jacking up taxes by a billion-plus dollars last year. First the governor broke his word. Then he played hide the ball.  Both actions show an amazing level of disrespect for the citizens and taxpayers of Nevada. As for comparing Sandoval and themselves to Reagan…oh, puh-lease.  That’s like comparing me to Mother Teresa! The true Reaganites are those who embrace the Reagan doctrine perhaps best articulated in his Farewell Address from the White House in January 1989… “There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts." The conservative opposition to Sandoval’s Billion Dollar Tax Hike isn’t simply a reflexive “no” to raising taxes.  It’s a philosophical objection to the expansion of government that such a massive tax hike will enable.  As the Clintonistas said back in 1992, “It’s the spending, stupid.” AX THE TAX NOW So it appears just the threat of a vote on the downtown soccer stadium squashed any chance Las Vegas had of landing a Major League Soccer team.  Could similar threats of recalls and GOP primaries next year result in a similar fate for Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval’s Billion Dollar Tax Hike?  Sure hope so! THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BRIAN WILLIAMS You just knew there had to be a Vegas angle to NBC’s Brian Williams “stolen valor” scandal... THE FURTHER (MIS)ADVENTURES OF LI’L NATE Before turning to a career mismanaging political campaigns, Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick's political brain, Nathan Emens, tried his hand working in construction. On his first day on the job building the Harmon Hotel at City Center on the Strip, the construction manager saw Li’l Nate with a very long pole and a yardstick.  And he was standing the pole on its end and trying to reach the top of it with his yardstick. Seeing Li’l Nate’s ignorance, the construction manager wrenched the pole out of his hand, laid it on the sidewalk, measured it with the yardstick, and said, "There! 10 feet long." Li’l Nate grabbed the yardstick back and shouted, "You idiot!  I don't care how long it is! I want to know how high it is!" And that’s how Li’l Nate ended up in politics. DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS The leader of the Common Man Party won a shocking victory in a citywide election in New Dehli on Tuesday on a platform of “free water, cheaper electricity, affordable housing for the poor, easy study loans and free WiFi.”  Who knew Obama was Indian? *   *   *   *   * First, liberal Jon Ralston’s little-watched public affairs show in Nevada got cancelled.  Then NBC suspended liberal anchor Brian Williams.  And now conservative-basher Jon Stewart is leaving the Daily Show.  It’s almost enough for me to start watching TV again. *   *   *   *   * Our friends over at the Independent American Party (IAP) have created a new tax pledge whereby VOTERS promise not to vote for any candidate who votes to raise taxes.  Proudly, I was the first to sign.  Join me by going to: http://www.thepublicslate.com/pledge *   *   *   *   * Assemblyman Pat “The Appeaser” Hickey (Reno-RINO) boasts that state legislators on Monday voted to cut their salaries by 2.3 percent.  So why can’t legislators vote to cut the rest of the state budget by 2.3 percent? *   *   *   *   * It was Republicans vs. Democrats over construction defects legislation Wednesday morning.  Republican legislators are united on SO many issues this historic session in which it controls the Guv’s office, the Senate and the Assembly.  Oh, how much they could accomplish together if not for Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval’s (R&R-Advertising) divisive and obscene Billion Dollar Tax Hike. *   *   *   *   * It was Republicans vs. Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning, as pro-tax hike enablers of Gov. Brian “America’s Worst Governor” Sandoval’s (R&R-Advertising) Billion Dollar Tax Hike went postal on state Treasurer Dan Schwartz over Schwartz’s proposed alternate budget that wouldn’t raise taxes by over a billion dollars. Again, the only issue really dividing Republicans in Carson City is Sandoval’s tax hike.  This man is clearly a divider, not a uniter. *   *   *   *   * The Washoe County GOP has landed two A-list speakers for their Lincoln Day Dinner next month: Former Rep. Allen West and John Phillip Sousa IV, great-grandson of the late “Stars and Stripes Forever” band leader and chairman of the Draft Ben Carson for President committee. *   *   *   *   * Correction: The Nevada Supreme Court, in its decision reversing a lower court decision in Citizen Outreach’s free speech case, named the lower court judge as James Wilson.  But the overturned judge was actually James Russell.  FAMOUS LAST WORDS  “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…