Las Vegas Gleaner

Down-ballot candidate's bold strategy cuts through the clutter, garners attention

Sharron Angle and Harry Reid are so lovable, each in their own way, which explains the intense focus on the race for Senate. And the latest polling shows that fully 50 percent of Arizona law enforcement officials said Brian Sandoval's children look like Real Americans, yet another example of how the gubernatorial race pitting Sandoval against Rory Reid offers Nevadans a stark choice between competing and compelling visions for Nevada's future. Against the backdrop of such dazzle and excitement atop the ticket, candidates vying for lesser offices are having a hard time getting noticed.

But some Republican named Rob Lauer, who is running for some job called Nevada Secretary of State, has executed a brilliant campaign tactic to attract attention to his hitherto wholly ignored political aspirations: Man-handling ailment-stricken but prominent female supporters on the campaign trail.

Lauer evidently sensed insufficient enthusiasm for his candidacy from one Jennifer Von Tobel, and determined some arm-twisting was in order. So he twisted her arm. Repeatedly. And hurt her. Allegedly. Battery charges ensued.

This is exactly the type of no-nonsense, common-sense law-and-order toughness that today's angry voters are looking for in a political candidate. When you think Nevada Republicans, you think Sharron Angle, John Ensign and Jim Gibbons. But with this action, Rob Lauer now must be considered yet one more rising star in the Nevada GOP.

Republicans give thanks for Gibbons, Angle and other assorted GOP abominations

Pervy, corrupt, incompetent, batty, dim, insane or otherwise disgraced and/or discredited Republican politicians are crucial to the continuing success of the overall Republican narrative.

Finally, an important resource in which the Nevada GOP has an edge over the Democrats!

In this week's CityLife column, your Gleaner discusses how, win or lose, Republicans magically turn rotting lemons into lemonade (or Kool-Aid, as the case may be), how wimpy Democrats let them, and what this dysfunctional feature of America's preposterous civic dialog means for Nevada's and the nation's horrible terrible hopeless future of despair, misery and doom.

Sacred Founding Father Sharron Angle scorns Her Holy Constitution

If you've a taste for vacuous and unchallenged answers to facile questions, by all means watch Sharron Angle's interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board. It's like cheerleaders interviewing the star quarterback for a small town high school newspaper. OK, that's unfair. Your Gleaner apologizes to small-town high school newspapers.

The interview reveals little that everyone didn't already know about Angle (and, for that matter, the R-J) and the RJ's account in the paper is serviceable, given what there was to work with.

But one exchange that didn't make that story caught your Gleaner's eye, because I'm such a full-on dork, probably, and, well, here I go...

Angle, who constantly confuses her fetish for the Constitution with knowledge of it, was nattering on about the unconstitutionality of "Obamacare," at which point some disembodied R-J voice dismissively mentioned the Constitution's "necessary and proper" clause.

"Ha, ha, ha," Angle responded, contemptuously. "You know, this is one thing that I've found being a legislator -- for every law there's a loophole. And they've been trying to find loopholes in the Constitution for years." Angle then reverted to her sound bites without explaining what, if anything, the necessary and proper clause means to her.

Well. Damn those founders! By concluding Article 1, Section 8 with the assertion that Congress has the authority "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department of Officer thereof," they saddled Real Americans with a loophole big enough to drive a truck full o' social and economic justice through -- if politicians and American are ever of mind to do so.

Angle is right (!?!) to suggest that people have been exploiting that "loophole" for years -- about 220 years, actually. The founders started disagreeing over the "necessary and proper" clause almost as soon as the Constitution was ratified (while the founders themselves argued over the meaning of the Constitution, fortunately, for America, Angle has determined conclusively exactly what they meant, so that's a relief, no?).

One of the first battles broke out (apologies if you've heard this story before) when Hamilton convinced Congress to establish a national bank. Madison and Jefferson beseeched Pres. Washington to veto the bill on the grounds that there is nothing in the Constitution that specifically says Congress can create a bank. Sharron Angle would approve:)

But Hamilton told Washington that the government has implied powers "to impose all the MEANS requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ENDS" that are outlined in the Constitution. Hamilton rested his case specifically on the "necessary and proper" clause. Sharron Angle would not approve:(

Washington agreed with Hamilton.

Damn that socialist George Washington! He used an un-American loophole in the Constitution to foist his Big Government agenda on We the People! Did anybody even bother to check Washington's birth certificate?

Now, this is not to argue that the necessary and proper clause, along with the commerce clause, renders the health care law constitutional (though something along those lines seems to be the consensus among legal eggheads). 

But it is as amusing as it is predictable to see self-described constitutional "soldier" Sharron Angle, who stands for nothing if not rigid adherence to the Constitution, laughingly scoff at a portion of the original document which she finds inconvenient and arrogantly dismiss the ultimate paragraph of Article 1 Section 8 as a mere "loophole."

The Constitution and original intent(s) are more complex -- and vastly more interesting --  than one would ever know from Angle and Co. and their routine but shallow appropriation of the subject matter as theirs and theirs alone. The founders were human beings, flawed and fallible. But they deserve better than vapid worship from ignorant demagogues.

Oh, by the way .... in a separate appearance, Angle last week promised that if elected, she would introduce a bill to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices. Limiting the terms of judges may be a perfectly good idea. But it can't be done with a bill. Article 3 of the Constitution states that judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior," i.e., for life, so limiting their terms would require a constitutional amendment.

A simple slip of the tongue, perhaps -- though an embarrassing one for a person whose entire political persona is structured around her smug presumption that she understands the Constitution and you don't.

(Readers with additional questions about right-wing constitutional theory are reminded to consult "Area Man Passionate Defender of What He Imagines Constitution To Be," which remains the standard work in the field.)

Left-right dichotomy tiresome? Perhaps young-old more to your liking!

America's old people, in addition to being old, also tend to be really quite white. Young people, eh, not so much.

Old white people and young not-so-white people do have something in common, though -- there are more and more of them every day. And this is what we'll all be talking about, politics-wise, for the rest of our lives, says Ron Brownstein, more or less, in an essay highly recommended by your Gleaner.

Trenchant excerpt:

Over time, the major focus in this struggle is likely to be the tension between an aging white population that appears increasingly resistant to taxes and dubious of public spending, and a minority population that overwhelmingly views government education, health, and social-welfare programs as the best ladder of opportunity for its children...

The twist is that graying white voters who are skeptical of public spending may have more in common with the young minorities clamoring for it than either side now recognizes. Today's minority students will represent an increasing share of tomorrow's workforce and thus pay more of the payroll taxes that will be required to fund Social Security and Medicare benefits for the mostly white Baby Boomers. Many analysts warn that if the U.S. doesn't improve educational performance among African-American and Hispanic children, who now lag badly behind whites in both high school and college graduation rates, the nation will have difficulty producing enough high-paying jobs to generate the tax revenue to maintain a robust retirement safety net.

Here again, some snooty educated person who uses big words is nattering on about the nation's precious little future. When will the liberals get it through their thick elitist skulls that the most important task facing America today is how to TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK to the past?

Anyway, Brownstein reports that Nevada's "cultural generation gap" -- the difference between the percentage of white geezers and the percentage of white young'ns -- is second only to Arizona's. So not only is the "titanic battle" between "the grey and the brown" one of the most important dynamics in American political history, but also promises to be especially momentous/decisive/ugly 'round here.

This, then, is probably my post on the netroots thingy

Netroots Nation, which used to be about blogs, back when people used to read blogs, is in Las Vegas this week, which means lots of progressive media types are here hopefully to gamble and drink and carry on and spend money and of course TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK! Or maybe take it forward?

Anyway, in conjunction with this invasion of America-hating socialists, the venerable Amy Goodman is broadcasting her Democracy Now! program from Las Vegas, and as you might expect, one of the first things that she wanted to do was chat with your Gleaner. The discussion was supposed to be about Sharron Angle and whatshis face, whoever that guy is she's running against (not that it matters because it's all about her).

But ... trickery! Notice the deft manner in which I manage to turn the conversation toward the more pressing issue of Nevada's comprehensive failure, you know, as a state.

It's all related.

The exchange starts out slow (perhaps because the sun had yet to rise and your Gleaner's eye's still had the sleepy in them) but I start throwing the high cheese toward the end. Most importantly, those of you who stay the distance will be rewarded with a montage of area sadness accompanied by the sometimes plaintive musical stylings of Pete Seeger.

Industry front group makes pitch for industry's continued financial support

From what's left of your Las Vegas Sun:

It’s all right for casinos to market to customers with addictive gambling behavior as long as they focus on the property’s amenities and don’t push playing slot machines and table games, according to the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling.

Gambling addicts lie to their bosses, their friends, their families and, most importantly, themselves, about their losses and their time on the machine. When not experiencing the excitement and glamor of video poker (the typical addict's game of choice), they are consumed with the urge to get back to the machine. The contention that it's OK for casinos to market to gambling addicts may not be the most asinine comment to pass the lips of your standard-issue myopic Las Vegan on the make. However, having said that, something that is in fact more asinine does not readily come to mind.

In a completely unrelated item, here is your Nevada Council on Problem Gambling:

Founding Members:             Boyd Gaming Corporation - 1996 to present                  Harrah's Entertainment, Inc - 1996 to present                 MGM MIRAGE - 1996 to present             Station Casinos, Inc. - 1996 to 2008             Tropicana Casinos and Resorts - 1996 to present

Platinum Members:             AGEM - 2004 to present             Bally Technologies  - 1998 to present             E-T-T Inc. - 1998 to present             International Game Technology - 1998 to present             Nevada Resort Association - 1998 to present

Corporate Members:             Rampart Casino - 1998 to present             Nevada Federal Credit Union - 2003 to present             Pinnacle Entertainment - 1998 to 2008

Wait. The Nevada Federal Credit Union has video poker, too?

(Ed. note: Your Gleaner has written a bunch of stuff on problem and pathological gambling, particularly among locals, in various publications over the years. Maybe the best of the lot was this column, part of an exchange with Frank Fahrenkopf, a one-time national Republican poohbah who has spent the last several years directing the American Gaming Association.)

Miserable jobless Nevada carefully ponders its next move

If in fact Princess Teatard's 15 minutes are about up, perhaps voters can be persuaded to turn their attention to the rigorous exchange of ideas between candidates for state and local office about the difficult decisions needed to reverse Nevada's socioeconomic collapse and the commitment it will take to build a foundation for a more textured, diversified and sustainable economy.

Constitutional theory with Sharron (another in an an occasional series)

"Hamilton. What a douche. No wonder Aaron Burr went all Sharron Angle on his ass, resorted to Second Amendment remedies and took him out."

For more just plain common sense about America, guns and Goddy McGod please see your Gleaner's column in this week's CityLife.

Great moments in journalism

What do you know?

An item first reported in our very own Las Vegas Review-Journal made the national news.

Congratulations, R-J! Way to show those snooty media elites from the big city how it's done!

God takes break from busy schedule to meddle in Nevada Senate race, prepare new American Ayatollah

Hoping to mend fences with those in her party who have reservations about her candidacy, Sharron Angle, in an exclusive interview with the Hocus-Pocus Network, announced a key endorsement from a long-time power player in Republican politics: God Almighty.

Jesus. Sharron Angle. I always get those two confused.