Moe Lane

…so he’ll just cry about it:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called freshman GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a “schoolyard bully” during a contentious exchange Monday on the Senate floor.

The two senators bickered as Cruz rose to object to Reid’s motion to appoint conferees to a House-Senate budget committee.

Cruz’s great sin? “He asked that Reid amend his motion to go to conference to make out of order any provisions raising taxes or raising the debt ceiling.” …No, I’m not exactly sure where the term ‘bully’ would apply, there.  I could conceivably see ‘pain in Harry Reid’s ass’ – which is indeed Ted Cruz’s intent, and possibly chief amusement while on the Senate floor – but ‘bully’ implies that a man who has spent a quarter-century in the Senate is somehow innately intimidated by a first-term junior Senator from Texas.

What a… fascinating revelation.  And potentially one that’s useful, as well.

Moe Lane

I believe that ‘expulsion’ usually is not intended to be meant quite so… literally.

Police chased a former lawmaker on a freeway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles and arrested him at gunpoint following a struggle, hours after he became the first person ever expelled from the Nevada Legislature.

Steven Brooks was jailed in California’s San Bernardino County after being subdued with punches and a Taser. Police alleged he attacked a police dog with a wrench.

The AP managed to not mention Brooks’ political affiliation (Democrat) until the fourth paragraph, although to be fair: the phrase ‘attacked a police dog with a wrench’ can reasonably seen as being an irresistible lure for reading further.  At any rate, this should be a fascinating HBO movie in a couple of years.  Assuming, of course, that they can figure out some way to get some skin in it.

Via Drudge.

Moe Lane

PS: All joking aside; there may be something neurological going on, here.

This is how Paul Ryan says “Hello.” (more…)

OK, here’s the background: back in 2011 it came out that in 2008 Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D, NV-01) intervened to prevent the shutdown of a Nevadan kidney transplant program that was killing patients.  It’s important at this point to distinguish between proper and improper responses: for example, it is proper to be concerned about what was reported as being “the only transplant center in Nevada” at the time, which is why a number of Nevadan Members of Congress (including Rep. Dean Heller – this will be important later) joined Rep. Berkley in intervening with the program. Is this clear?  Good.  Because the problem here – the possibly improper problem – is that the method of intervention involved just happened to involve hiring more medical personnel from a company that just happens to be owned by Berkely’s physician husband (kidney specialist) who also just happens to be a co-owner of one of Berkley’s major corporate campaign contributors.

Funny how it always seems to work out that way, huh? (more…)

Barack Obama is an incredibly insecure man. Admittedly, he has reason to be.

(Via AoSHQ) From Reno, NV… oh, isn’t this the cutest thing ever?

Obama’s got his little podium, and he’s got his little microphone, and, hey, Obama even has his Junior PotUS Presidential Seal to talk behind as he speaks to everybody on the whole block! Such a big boy, now. And he’ll probably be such a good President…

…once he grows up, of course. (more…)

If so, the luxury of taking one’s time with picking a favorite GOP candidate is about to go away:

In a bombshell this afternoon, New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner raised the strong possibility of a December first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

In a statement entitled “Why New Hampshire’s Primary Tradition is Important,” Gardner, who has full authority under state law to set the date of the presidential primary, called Dec. 13 and Dec. 6 “realistic options.”

New Hampshire is blaming Nevada, which has decided to move its GOP primary up to January 14th, largely because Nevada is tired of having Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina always be first in the primary schedule.  New Hampshire wants Nevada to push it back to January 17th, and Nevada’s saying that it won’t, and at least one candidate – who isn’t Mitt Romney* – is totally taking New Hamphire’s side, and… OK, look, it’s high school all over again, you understand?  God help me for having to describe this dispute in such terms, but it’s the best analogy that fits.

(more…)

But before we start talking about implications, let’s review the situations.

• NY-09. This D+5 seat was vacated by Anthony Weiner after pictures surfaced… and I don’t need to end that sentence: it’s never good for a politician’s career when the phrase ‘pictures surfaced’ is used to describe his or her situation. The race thus is between Republican Bob Turner and Democrat David Weprin… and Democrats are even now going frantic. They’re going frantic because an independent pollster now shows Turner in the lead (which has been consistent with other polling trends); they’re going frantic because Tuner has picked up several key endorsements from prominent New York Democrats (over Weprin’s – really, President Obama’s – Israel policy); and they’re going frantic because the entire Weprin campaign effort seems to be infected with incompetence, starting at the local level* and working all the way up to the DCCC itself. The Democrats have dumped half a million dollars in this race, and are right now grimly contemplating the possibility that this half a million is buying them bupkis.
• NV-02. Meanwhile, this R+5 district is increasingly looking like a retention for the GOP. Dean Heller vacated the seat after being tapped to become Senator John Ensign’s replacement (Ensign, as you probably remember – and you probably were happy to forget – left office under what we shall charitably call ‘under a cloud’); Republican Mark Amodei will be facing Democrat Kate Marshall. The DCCC has essentially written this district off, at this point: their primary strategy, if you’ll pardon the pun, was to get Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller (elections have consequences, people) to sign off on a winner-take-all election (which would have splintered the Republican vote), only to be told no by the courts. Since then, Marshall hasn’t been able to make anything stick – including linking Amodei with Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan – and Amodei is favored to win. Incidentally, the Right has put about 750K into this race, including about $500K from the NRCC.

(more…)

Once upon a time, Kate Marshall looked like she could go the distance in the NV-02 special election against Mark Amodei: now the distancing is being done by the DCCC, which has left her by the stern rail listening to the band play Nearer My God To Thee.  Not that I know how that movie ended.  Or started.  I think that I’ve seen no more than five minutes of Titanic, actually.

And… that’s all that needs to be said, really.

Moe Lane

PS: Mark Admodei for NV-02.

Readers of RedState are, of course, aware that several days ago Hamas terrorists used their occupation of the Gaza Strip as a base from which to launch brutal attacks on Israel.  This unprovoked and obscene attack was of course condemned by anybody with a lick of moral sense… including, superficially, Kate Marshall, who is the Democratic candidate in the NV-02 special election next month.  Alas, I have to say ‘superficially’ because Marshall’s actually making this statement for purely political reasons.

You see, Israel has been in the news lately, and will be even more in the news with Beck’s “Rally to Restore Courage” in Jerusalem. In an R district, it will be useful to express support for Israel and demonstrate some foreign policy prowess while it is a timely topic – especially for people who are likely paying attention to Beck’s event… What was that?  That statement finally reveals me to be a cynical partisan hack, once and for all?  Well, I am a partisan hack, yes.

I’m also quoting Kate Marshall there word-for-word. (more…)

Mark is the official candidate for the special election in Nevada’s second district this September: that’s the one that Dean Heller vacated to take the Senate seat.  The Democrats aren’t really happy about this one: they tried to play and encourage split-the-vote shenanigans, and more or less got shot down completely*.  We talked about the state of the race, not to mention the state of the district:

Mark’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Funny how those kinds of shenanigans seem to be clustered around Democratic Secretaries of State (like Nevada’s Ross Miller).  Elections have consequences, folks.

…You know, I was going to throw down the snark on this one, but forget it.  I’m glad that he feels bad about the adultery and the possible cover-up and everything – especially since he was one of the guys going after other Senators for ethically iffy behavior, too. I hope Ensign learns the right lessons from this.

One of which would be, Stay out of politics from now on.

Moe Lane

The facts of the case are these: in 2003 Diana Tejada entered into a fraudulent conspiracy with Lebanese national Bassam Mahmoud Tarhini, with the aim of securing permanent US residency for the latter (there was also and investigation whether Mr. Tarhini had links to ‘extremist groups,’ but nothing was ever confirmed).  Money changed hands.  For the next five years Ms. Tejada continued to misrepresent her relationship with Mr. Tarhini, despite official inquiries by immigration services; her eventual confession took place in November, which was one month after she joined current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s staff.  Despite her confession, Ms. Tejada was not charged with any crime at all, let alone a felony; in fact, Ms. Tejada was misidentified as still being at her former job (La Raza) by immigration officials at Tarhini’s deportation proceedings.  Harry Reid’s office has fired Ms. Tejada only in the last month (she was an official Reid spokesperson for the latest DREAM Act push), and claims that they had no prior knowledge of her activities: this has been contradicted by Fox’s own sources, which insist that Tejada’s confession was partially motivated by concerns relating to her new job with Harry Reid; and that in any case it would be standard operating procedure for the Senate Majority Leader to be made aware of a situation of this magnitude that involved one of his own aides.

And this is where it frankly beggars belief that Senator Reid was unaware of the situation.  Tarhini’s being the subject of a counter-terrorist investigation, coupled with the news that his partner in conspiracy was also an aide to the Senate Majority Leader, would have absolutely required that the Senator be informed at what could have been a hideously dangerous security leak in his own office.  It is much less difficult to believe that Senator Reid was told, concluded that the situation was not actually all that dire, and simply arranged matters so that his new aide – and more importantly, himself – wasn’t dragged through the wringer of an official investigation.  And in late 2008/early 2009 that may have seemed a reasonable decision.

Unfortunately, in late 2010 that looks suspiciously like a callous indifference to national security and an arrogant abuse of political power.  Not to be cliched about this, but here goes: this raises serious questions, that must be answered.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: In point of fact: yes, politicians can be that stupid.  In fact, doing something stupid is how they usually trip and fall from the high places.