E!!

 Just received a press release (statement) from the Titus campaign.  Here are some excerpts:

Titus: Bailout Package Is One More Example of How Washington Is Broken

1.  Titus fails to mention that the government policies which birthed the Fannie/Freddie financial crisis were enacted in the Carter and Clinton administrations with the approval of both Ds and Rs in Congress, so she’s either uninformed or being deliberately dishonest.

2.  Titus says Bush and Porter are to blame for the lack of oversight when nearly everyone including the present Democratic leadership was complicit in looking the other way, so she’s either uninformed or being deliberately partisan.

3.  Titus rips Porter for being in favor of the imperfect bailout bill, but then says “with so many critical tax breaks” for Nevada she would have “reluctantly” voted for the inadequate bill also, so she’s either very confused…or being hypocritical.

Porter voted for the bill.  Titus bloviates at length – and then says she would have voted for the bill.  When all the ranting and raving is done, what in Sam Hill is the difference?!

Neither the guy who’s in, nor the gal who wants to BE in, has the gumption to stand on principle and fight for good policy when there are special tax credits to be had.  Of course:  how else could they ingratiate themselves to the voters?  Just look at all they’ve done for you!!

That’s a REAL example of how Washington is broken – and Nevada, too. 

Had a good conversation with a conservative friend this weekend re: government spending and Republican Rep. Jon Porter’s apparent affinity for it (despite his claims to the contrary – especially, my friend noted, when he is looking for campaign contributions).

This convo occured before I read Jon Ralston’s column in the Las Vegas Sun yesterday, in which he noted that although Porter has a new ad slamming Democrat challenger and former state senator Dina Titus for voting for the largest tax hike in Nevada’s history back in 2003 - which she did – Porter likely would have voted for it, too.

In light of Jon Porter’s record of voting for pork bills in Congress, including this year’s scandalous Farm Bill, Ralston’s assumption is fair.

Does Jon Porter really think he can sell himself as a fiscal conservative at this point?  And even if he tries, why on earth would we believe him?

A reader emailed and asked why I didn’t say anything about today being Primary Day in Nevada.  The short answer is I didn’t think readers outside NV would care and residents here already knew about it.  Anyhoo, I just got home a little while ago and am checking the preliminary results online.

Here are a few Fun Clark County Facts while you wait for me to do that.  Clark County is NV’s largest county by population (because it contains Las Vegas).  County was created in 1908.  Total county population was 1.9 million in 2006.  We have approximately 327,000 registered Dems, 235,000 registered GOPers, and 136,000 “miscellaneous” (Independents etc.) for a total of about 697,000 registered voters.

OK, enough of that.  With 82% of the precincts and all the mail-outs in, we had about 102,000 people vote.  See all the results here.  No big surprises in the Congressional races.  I’m too tired to go through the rest of them one by one, but I will say this:

Glad to see Chad Christensen won in his Assembly race.  Glad to see Francis “the Knife” Allen did poorly in hers.  Didn’t much care whether Assemblyman Bob Beers won or lost, but know people who are glad. 

And am appalled and disgusted that Family Court Judge Del Vecchio got 20,000+ votes.  I’ve been sitting on some details I’m privy to re: Del Vecchio thinking it was all best revealed in October, but if That many people are not yet aware of the many, MANY reasons this guy should not only Not be on the bench but should be in prison…I’ll re-think the delay.

The Las Vegas Sun says Jon Porter’s (R-NV) recent energy petition is less about his tightly contested race with Democratic challenger Dina Titus and more about an overall Republican strategy to insert GOP-backed energy proposals into the House floor schedule over the past 7 weeks. 

Not sure the Sun has it quite right.  It’s a political axiom that the more birds you can kill with one stone, the better.  

The Sun quotes a Republican strategist stating that “making energy No. 1 was a no-brainer.”  So was having Porter push forward one of the petitions.  It achieved the GOP’s agenda in D.C. and sent a message to Nevada voters that Porter is on the right side of the issue.  Hope it’s enough to save Porter’s butt because – although he’s not as conservative as some of us would like – Dina Titus is an incurable taxaholic.  Nevada does not need her in Washington.