Elizabeth Crum

Dina Titus (D-NV) casts a vote that earns my respect. 

From an article in the WSJ:

A group of Democrats elected in recent years from some of the country’s richest congressional districts have emerged as a stumbling block to raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for President Barack Obama’s ambitious health-care overhaul just as the plan has begun to meet increasing resistance over its cost.

Friday, two freshmen representatives — Dina Titus, from suburban Las Vegas, and Colorado’s Jared Polis, representing Boulder, Vail and some of the tonier suburbs of Denver — joined Republicans to vote against Mr. Obama’s top-priority health-care overhaul when it faced a vote in their House Education and Labor Committee. One reason was a one-percentage point-surtax on couples earning between $350,000 and $500,000 — gradually increasing to 5.4 percentage points on earnings more than $1 million — to pay for it.

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?

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.