Another positive example

Posted: May 22, 2006 12:01 AM

Nevada is the home state of the Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid. Even though the Nevada State Senate is in Republican hands, the State Assembly is within two votes of having a 2/3 majority.

So, it would not be a surprise if Nevada Republicans simply folded their hand - so to speak - and went home.

I was the keynote speaker at the Nevada GOP convention on Saturday night.

SIDEBAR

I got off on the wrong foot by pronouncing the state "Nev-AH-dah." The audience all but started throwing dinner rolls at me and shouting that the middle "A" is pronounced like the "A" in "at."
Nevada. Got it.

END SIDEBAR

The Nevada State GOP convention was another example of what I have mentioned before: What the national polls are measuring and what is actually going on in American politics are two different things.

Attendance at the event exceeded the state party's expectations, all three excellent candidates for Governor were well staffed and fully involved in the proceedings, and the rank-and-file attendees were (after the pronunciation lesson) in a great mood and a terrific audience.

There was nothing that I saw which would lead me to believe that Republicans in Nevada are going to stay home in November because they are dispirited, disillusioned, or discouraged.

A principal reason for Republican optimism is … Democrats.

I suggested that Harry Reid's favorite Democrat in Washington was DNC chairman Howard Dean because "If it weren't for Dean, Harry Reid would provide the most outrageous statements in Washington."

The latest example being his quote after the vote on an amendment to the immigration bill now making its way through the Senate. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) introduced the amendment which says English is the "national language" in America. Not the "official language," mind you, the "national language."

The amendment passed easily, 63-34 which caused Harry Reid to state, "I really believe this amendment is racist."

It was SO racist that Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado then offered an amendment declaring English to be "the common and unifying language of America" which went on to pass by a vote of 58-39.

Reid knows a little something about being racist. According to Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, in 1993 Harry Reid said the following:

"Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits without paying taxes.
These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world."

Whoa! Check please!

Freeloaders and scam artists? Imagine what would have happened if someone - maybe one of the candidates for Governor - at the Republican convention in Nevada had used those terms to describe illegal aliens.

Harry Reid would have been at the head of the line declaring that those words prove that no Republican candidate should get the votes of any voter of Hispanic descent.

Harry Reid is the Democratic leader in the Senate. He is just one of the many voices, one of the many opinions, one of the many approaches that Americans hear coming from the Democratic side of the aisle.

Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy, Harry Belafonte, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and MoveOn.org are each singing their own tune, with their own words, to their own beat.

Grass roots Republicans may not be singing the Hallelujah Chorus in all the Mesquite, Nevadas around the country, but neither are they humming tone poems by Gustav Mahler.

On a the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Chicago Tribune column, an explanation of that Gustav Mahler reference, a Mullfoto from the weekend, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.