Elizabeth Crum

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.”

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…

What a cute little spat they are having in the Iran presidential campaigns.

Be nice if Ahmie lost, tho. 

(That’s my pet name for Ahmadiniejad.  I like to call him that when he’s in the news.  And then  imagine him getting really irritated about it.  ”Stop calling me that, infidel woman!”)

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.

If you saw this, you’ll understand why – along with a gazillion other reasons - we now have this.

“Now THAT’s change we can believe in!!”

Independent Nevadans for Change and www.DumpReid.com make me happy.

CEI’s Iain Murry corrects (UK) Times‘ writer Danny Finklestein on our recent election and American politics.  Worth reading no matter which side of the Pond you reside on.

Today I am very glad to have the help of a concerned reader/friend with making a call to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office to get some ACORN answers. 

We agreed that the amount and quality of information she/we will get will depend on who answers the phone – and that it would be helpful if other people could also call to see if they get the same or different answers. 

If you want to Do Something, call the Sec. of State’s office at 775-684-5705, tell then you are a Nevada citizen, and ask one or more of the following questions:

How did the election board discover the allegedly invalid and/or fraudulent ACORN voter registration cards that are now in question?

Did ACORN bring the questionable voter registration cards to your attention? If not, who did?

What percentage of voter registration cards received from ACORN are invalid so far?

Are you aware of any one ACORN worker whose voter registration cards were at least 90% legitimate?

How much time has been spent so far weeding through every voter registration card? Is this normal? If not, how much more time was spent than usual?

Did this extra time cost your election board extra money? If so, how much more?

ACORN claims that they have to turn all voter registration cards over, even if they know they are not legitimate. Is this true? Is this requirement a state directive, a county directive, or an election board policy?

If you are able to get some answers, please email me ASAP (address on my Contact page).

For ongoing updates about election fraud in all 50 states, go to:  http://www.voterfraudsquad.com

For text alerts about election fraud, text “voterfraud” to 69302

For Twitter alerts/threads about election fraud, use hash tag #voterfraud

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