E!! » Harry Reid

I Love the Smell of Satire in the Morning

E!! — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:40:48 +0000

Those who read E!! and/or know me well are familiar with my love for a good parody no matter who is being mocked. And Jon Ralston has penned a good one on Harry Reid’s would-be GOP challengers.

For Reid fans and those on the left who will think it funny, you’re welcome. (Oh wait: nobody from the left reads my blog because I am a right wing nut job. Silly me!)

For those on the right who will be mad when they read it, it’s ok. We must never – any of us – take ourselves too seriously.

Both sides should take a deep breath. We’ve got 13 months to go until the 2010 elections. Before it’s all over, Nevada politics being what it is, we’re all going to need a few laughs.

*For those who didn’t catch the film reference in the header of this post, it’s a twist on a great Kilgore (Robert Duvall) line from Apocalypse Now (<— 59 second clip): “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Ensign, Slanker Part Ways; Reid Advisor Rogich May Now Do PR for Two

E!! — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:55:19 +0000

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end. And apparently the longstanding relationship between political consultant Mike Slanker and Senator John Ensign is not exempt from that rule.

The two have now said buh-bye to one another, presumably as part of the fallout from the uber-sordid Ensign affair with a campaign staffer (and wife of a close friend).

There’s a rumor afloat that Ensign MAY have hired Sig Rogich to help him limp through this next phase of his political career. Rogich already advises Harry Reid on various and sundry, so an association with Ensign would mean Rogich has the ears of both Nevada senators.

Well played, Mr. Rogich.

Assault Weapons Ban

E!! — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:13:51 +0000

Gun Owners of Nevada has an online petiton urging Harry Reid to oppose any new restrictions and/or a ban on assault weapons. If you support 2nd amendment rights in NV, go sign it. And if you are a gun owner, you really should sign up for GONV’s newsletter (upper left of their front page).

Reid Watch

E!! — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:00:30 +0000

Since there is both state-level and national interest in Harry Reid’s falling poll numbers and much talked about 2010 election campaign, I think I’ll start doing occasional “round ups” of Reid related news and info here on E!! I’ll scan the news wires and blogs; if you see anything news and/or noteworthy, please send it to me at elizcrum at gmail dot com – or just drop a Comment with any pertinent links.

Here we go:

– Both Reid and Pelosi said last week that they would not commit to giving the public even a week to review the final text of the health-care bill, nor would they commit to waiting for the Central Budget Office (CBO) to review the bill and report the costs to the public. I find their audacity – in the form of their continued lack of transparency and accountability to the American public – just appalling. This by itself should be reason enough not to vote for Reid in 2010.

– Steve Benen at Washington Monthly provides some very self-revealing Reid quotes. In a nutshell, Reid admits he is more bark than bite and doesn’t have much power over Senate votes. Remind me again why Nevada “needs” Reid on the Hill?

– The LVRJ reports that membership in the controversial group “Republicans for Reid” is growing. Though, apparently, some formerly named members are back-peddling and/or denying their support for Reid.

– The LAT reports that Department of the Interior – which in yet another irony of government nomenclature is in charge of everything Outdoors – secretary Ken Salazar has just designated 1,000 square miles of land in the Southwest U.S. “for two years of study and environmental reviews to determine where solar power stations should be built.” Says the LAT:

Salazar vowed to have 13 “commercial-scale” solar projects under construction by the end of 2010. He set a goal of producing a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity. Salazar said the federal Bureau of Land Management plans to spend $22 million conducting studies of 24 tracts in the 670,000 acres of property he set aside in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

Expect Reid, aka Mr. Green Jeans, to take credit for all this in his 2010 run. Expect his opponents to say that some lines on a BLM map and a $22M two year study is not the same as action.

– On Thursday, July 2, 2009, Harry Reid, along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, held a press conference about a proposed high-speed train that would go from Las Vegas to Southern California. Though there was no mention of the DesertXpress by name, Reid’s portion of the announcement featured a large map showing the DesertXpress route to Victorville. The Las Vegas Sun story described Victorville as “the high-desert outpost 85 miles north of Los Angeles” and explained that DesertXpress has a “planned spur to Palmdale to connect with California’s planned north-south line connecting San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County.” Public opinion varies re: Reid’s recent abandonment of the maglev train and sudden enthusiastic support of (prominent Republican) Sig Rogich’s DesertXpress. Either way, I think most people who travel back and forth agree with Rick Moore’s recent post: “I personally don’t care if the thing’s magnetic or runs on Froot Loops. I just want to see a train on that route.”

Update: If you want more background on how/why Reid left long-time Mistress Maglev in the lurch and took up with DesertX, read Victor Joeck’s post over at the Nevada Policy Research Institute blog.

– Everyone’s known for months that Rory Reid plans to run for governor of NV. Though he has not officially announced, CQ reports that he has hired David Chase Cohen as his campaign manager. Cohen worked on Obama’s presidential campaign as deputy national director of voter contact and then as manager of general election direct mail in 16 battleground states. The race should be interesting. Word on the street is that state Assembly speaker Barbara Buckley (D) will also make a run – and though (so far) only Joe Heck and Mike Montandon have announced for the R’s, there is another possible candidate who could break the whole thing wide open. Especially because he says he would run as an Independent…

Harry Reid Withdraws Support of Maglev Train: Why?

E!! — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:17:52 +0000

One great – or terrible – thing about being a blogger is that very often, sometime between the moment you say to yourself, “I gotta blog about that this week” and the moment you find time to login to your site, someone else beat you to it.

It’s bad because it’s always fun to be first to chime in, but it’s great because the story doesn’t get missed – and sometimes someone says something just as well, or better, than you could have said it yourself.

So, on the subject(s) of Harry Reid, Sig Rogich, Reid’s withdrawn support of the maglev train to L.A., and Reid’s sudden enthusiasm for the DesertXpress train between Vegas and Victorville (wot?!), here’s The Gleaner, and here’s Steve Sebelius, and here’s Sherm Frederick at the LVRJ. (None of them are overly long, so don’t be afraid to click thru. One or two minutes each, max.)

I think between the three of them they managed to say what I would have said anyway, what I didn’t think of, and what I probably wouldn’t have said. At least not out loud.

Update: Mark Hemingway penned a piece – “Harry Reid Euthanizes Pet Project” – at National Review Online. Chuck Muth was interviewed, and I think explains things quite well. And Hemingway rightly speculates that maglev train or no, Reid’s poll numbers render him extremely vulnerable.

No one who understands political entrenchment and the fact that Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government are all BFFs (that’s “Best Friends Forever” in text language, for all you old-uns) should be surprised that some wealthy Nevada Republican businessmen are supporting Reid in 2010. Rogich and others are voting in their own self-interest on the issues that matter to them most.

But all the Republican endorsements in the world are not going to keep the Little People from taking down Big Harry. In fact, based on the backlash against “RINO”s that just happened in Clark County Republican Party, and the general digust of voters in both parties with Harry’s whoring ways, I’d say those kinds of endorsements will only fuel the fire of already outraged voters.

Burn, baby, burn!

Harry Reid Has Already Raised $7 Million for 2010

E!! — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:52:55 +0000

So reports S.A. Miller, in the WaTi.

(It’s official: I will now start using the “2010 Elections” category I created the day after the election.)

Also said (as much as it disgusts me to repeat it here):

Mr. Reid now has more than $5 million on hand after starting the year with $3.3 million, said a Democratic official familiar with the Reid campaign’s first-quarter contribution reports, which are due Monday.

The official did not want to be identified discussing campaign-finance figures not yet made public.

The cash infusion will push his total contributions to $7.6 million for the 2010 re-election race, compared with the $9 million total he raised for the 2004 campaign. Since his 2004 election victory, the Reid campaign committee has given about $1 million to other Democratic candidates and party entities.

Mr. Reid scheduled a meeting with supporters and volunteers in Las Vegas this week to discuss the campaign, which is “already in full swing,” according to the Nevada state Democratic Party.

He plans to rally volunteers Tuesday at the Democratic Party Organizing Convention, in Clark County, Nevada. There, party officials say, Mr. Reid intends to retool the Obama grass-roots organization in the state to boost his re-election campaign.

“I think starting early is just being smart, not being cautious,” said Sam Lieberman, chairman of the Nevada state Democratic Party. “As much as Republicans would like to target the race, I don’t see a credible candidate emerging…”

(I told someone the other day that at least $20 million would be spent on the race between Reid and his challenger. The person looked at me in disbelief. Well, do ya’ believe me now…?)

From the other side:

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), says the party is courting a strong challenger, but he’s not saying who that is.

We wait. Oh My Stars !! do we wait, and hope, and pray, for Someone who can beat Harry Reid, who so deserves to lose his seat on The Hill. Which is why:

Republicans say Mr. Reid will need an early start and deep pockets this time around.

“On a range of issues, he is to the left of the state,” NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said. Nevada voters “know Harry Reid. They are just saying they don’t support him.”

The four-term incumbent consistently scores less than a 50 percent job-approval rating in Nevada, which, though then-Sen. Barack Obama carried it in the 2008 presidential elections, is generally more conservative than the Democratic Party national agenda Mr. Reid champions on Capitol Hill.

“There are a lot of folks who are upset with all the spending and what’s going on in the federal government,” said John Ellison, a longtime member of the Elko County Board of Commissioners in northern Nevada.

If and when a viable conservative candidate is announced, I pledge my blood, sweat, and tears to his/her campaign.

The Death Tax

E!! — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:10:10 +0000

To read this NYT piece on the estate tax, you’d think its biggest problems are that conservative spin-meisters dubbed it “the death tax” as it came out of the gate – and that they “portray [it] as the Internal Revenue Service reaching beyond on the grave.” (How dare they tell the truth like that?!) The article’s obviously biased author, Carl Hulse, argues: “Studies show that the tax hits merely a sliver of wealthy American families.” Well, ok then. As long as we are only raking a few people over the proverbial coals, why should we get excited?

Because the tax is unfair and ought to be illegal. It amounts to double-taxation since those who have accumulated wealth have already paid taxes on their income throughout their lifetime. The sums of money are not the issue. Whether you are worth $10 million or $1 million or a nickel ninety-eight, you should not have to stop off for a last visit to the tax man on your way to the grave.

Harry Reid doesn’t think so, though. Evidenced by the bulging of his veins during a recent Senate floor debate. The issue? A proposed amendment to permanently cut the death tax rate to 35% and to exempt estates worth less than $10 million per couple and $5 million for a single taxpayer. (Obama and his minions want a 45% rate with a $7 million exemption.)

Every Republican voted for the lower rate, as did 10 Democrats. But according to this piece in the WSG, Harry Reid called the amendment by Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) “outrageous,” a “stunning act of hypocrisy,” and a tax cut for those “at the very top of the food chain.” And then (quote and comment from the WSJ):

“We can only turn the page from recession to recovery if we watch every single taxpayer dollar the way families watch every dollar in their budget.” We’d say Mr. Reid was being deliberately ironic, but Harry doesn’t do irony. He’s an outrage man. And speaking of which, he was at that very moment working to pass a 2010 budget outline that includes record spending and trillions of dollars in new debt.

Yeah, we all know Reid is on board with unprecendented federal spending and national debt.

But let me get this other part straight. Harry Reid equates your family income and budget with the federal government’s. This might seem like a reasonable comparison at first glance, but it’s faulty to the core. Your household income is likely fixed at its current rate. You have to (or should) limit your spending to what you take in. You cannot demand more income from your employer. And you probably aren’t borrowing large sums of money in order to “invest” in questionable and unproven endeavors.

The federal government’s revenue stream, on the other hand, is not fixed. Legislators can increase the government’s revenue anytime by voting to create or raise taxes. They don’t play by the same rules and live within the same limits we do; they make the rules and set the limits (or lack thereof). They can – and do – vote to spend whatever they wish, for whichever “stimulus” effort they want. Evidenced by the current budget and tax talk on The Hill. In short, there is no valid comparison. Harry Reid and friends know this, or should.

But back to the death tax. Bottom line: there shouldn’t be one. At all.

And the bottom line on Harry Reid and all those who support fleecing “a small sliver” of America’s wealthy as they draw their last breath? To quote that king of outrage himself, they are engaged in “a stunning act of hypocrisy.”

Hat tip for the WSJ/Reid portion: Veronique de Rugy @ The Corner

UPDATE: A reader emails, and another comments, on something I think a lot of people don’t realize: the estate tax applies to the recipient of the inheritance no matter the size of the gift. So, if a benefactor who exceeds the exempted limit leaves you, say, $100,000 in his will, it is you who will owe the IRS $35,000.

So much for only a small “sliver” of Americans being subject to this tax. The very wealthy often make numerous bequests of varying sizes to relatives and other people who are not particularly wealthy (otherwise the bequest wouldn’t mean much), and all these recipients, however poor, are subject to the 35% tax rate. Imagine a single mother living at or near poverty level who pays no (or next-to-no) income tax. She receives $50,000 from a rich auntie and must then write the IRS a check for $17,500. To her, that sum could mean a down payment on a small house, or cash payment for a decent new car, or a good start on a college education for her child…but instead, it will go to the federal government, to redistribute as it sees fit.

Does this seem just to to anyone? A suspicious mind might wonder if there is a deliberate intent to make sure the money doesn’t go to the descendants and/or friends of productive and successful people.

And Obama wants to raise the tax rate to 45%.

Harry Reid’s Back Room AIG Deal

E!! — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:28:18 +0000

Check out this web ad on Harry Reid’s back room dealings re: the protection of AIG bonuses.

Reid appointed himself to the Stimulus Conference Committee and masterminded the deal – and now refuses to talk about it.

Call Harry Reid and tell him you know what he did – and that you will be contributing money to defeat him in 2010:

1-866-SEN-REID

What are Nevada’s Republican Mayors Doing Raising Money for Harry Reid???

E!! — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:06:42 +0000

From my favorite Nevada conservative, Chuck Muth:

REPUBLICANS GONE BAD

It’s bad enough that Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons broke his Tax Pledge to the citizens of Nevada by proposing the teachers union’s room tax hike in his budget, and that seven Republicans in the state Assembly – led by Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert and Assistant Assembly Minority Leader Lynn “Bug Man” Stewart – along with four Republicans in the state Senate – led by Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio and Assistant Minority Leader Dennis “The Menace” Nolan – voted for the tax hike.

But now we find out, courtesy of the Ralston Flash, that before Republicans even know who their candidate is going to be against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid next year that two Republican mayors – Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and Sparks Mayor Geno Martini – are helping him raise money for his re-election campaign.

AND:

If GOP elected officials want to give aid-and-comfort to Democrats…fine. But they should run for office as “independents,” not Republicans. Backing a Democrat when you’re an elected Republican is a major league spit-in-the-eye to the legions of GOP grassroots volunteers (especially those serving without pay on state and county Central Committees), average voters and small-dollar donors who give their all every cycle to help elect Republicans.

AND:

(get this!!)

Coincidentally, the Cashell/Martini fundraiser for Harry Reid is being held in Reno on the exact same night as the Nevada Republican Party’s spring Central Committee meeting in Carson City. I guess the Republican mayors won’t be able to make the Republican meeting.

Seriously, Republicans. You need some bylaws changes and some serious “woodshed” resolutions to put a stop to this crap. Actions which undermine the party such as these should have consequences. Serious consequences. Do I hear a motion on the floor?

I hope so. And can we please get some Reno volunteeers to picket the Cashell/Martini fundraiser?!

No, YOU’RE wrong, Colonel Sanders!

E!! — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:19:26 +0000

That’s a line from one of our favorite Adam Sandler movies, Waterboy.

He yells it at a KFC colonel look-alike professor who is trying to convince him that contrary to what his back woods Mama Says – “alligators are angry because they have all them teeth and no toothbrush” - alligators are ornery because they have an enlarged medula oblangata.

“So you see, Bobby Bouche, your mama is just wrong.”

And on the subject of being wrong, Max Schultz claims Yucca Mountain is not dead. Enough money to keep the project alive (see Obama’s budget) is all the proof we need. No Continue reading...