Thursday, August 30, 2012

MUTH'S TRUTHS 08/30/2012

THE GREAT TERHUNE TEMPER TANTRUM
 
So who's ultimately responsible for the terminally angry and generally unhingedWayne Terhune being in charge of the Nevada delegation in the first place?  Turns out it’s two establishment Republican leaders with an ax to grind against the Nevada Republican Central Committee. 
 
Click here to read all about it.
 
As for the more “enthusiastic” Ron Paul fans who have written (usually angrily, as is their wont) in response to my column yesterday about the Nevada delegates violating the rules established long ago by the Nevada Republican Party with regard to “binding” delegates: Even if the RNC did violate and/or change its own rules related to how to nominate someone from the floor, every one of us with a loving, caring mother KNOWS that two wrongs don’t make a right.
 
The Paul delegates went to Tampa with the complete understanding that they were elected and chosen to represent all Nevada Republicans and cast 20 votes for Mitt Romney on the first ballot.  There was no misunderstanding about this.  No confusion.  No questions.  No debate.

 
Those delegates who were duly elected and bound to vote for Romney but nevertheless, in a hissy fit, voted for Paul instead, were wrong.  It’s just that simple.  Not saying they didn’t have a right to be angry; they just didn’t have the right to use that anger as an excuse for not fulfilling their obligation on behalf of those Nevada Republicans who sent them to Tampa.
 
SANDOVAL’S MOMENT ON THE NATIONAL STAGE
 
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval took the national stage Tuesday night in Tampa, Florida at the Republican National Convention and delivered some 7 minutes worth of remarks that were, shall we say, less than scintillating.  Here’s the review byChris Cillizza of the Washington Post:
 
“In the run-up to tonight’s slate of speakers, a number of Republican strategists flagged the Nevada governor’s address for us as one to pay attention to. Sandoval, after all, is a Hispanic Republican with a terrific resume (former state Attorney general, former federal judge). But his speech felt thin and he was clearly quite nervous.  It was decidedly forgettable for someone who is seen as a future face of the party.”
 
No, the speech surely didn’t send a tingle up Chris Matthews’ leg, but what struck me was the governor’s claim in his remarks that, “like Republican governors all across this nation, I chose to make the tough decisions.”
 
Really?
 
While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich made the tough decisions to stand up and go toe to toe with the government employee unions that were bankrupting their states, Gov. Sandoval ducked any such fight in Nevada.
 
And while so many other Republican governors such as Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida have made the tough decisions to fight the implementation of ObamaCare in their states, especially the expansion of Medicaid, Gov. Sandoval has been quietly and incrementally laying track for it here in Nevada.
 
And while Republican governors such as Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have made the tough decisions to take on the teachers unions and fight for vouchers to break up the public school monopoly over education, Gov. Sandoval has given parental school choice mere lip service.  He didn’t even fight for a HEARING on his own voucher bill last session.
 
But worst of all, of course, is the fact that Gov. Sandoval is the ONLY Republican governor who resorted to raising taxes rather than making the tough decisions to dramatically cut government spending in 2011…and promises to do it again next year!
 
I guess it all depends on your definition of “tough decisions.”
 
And while I didn’t notice it, political pundit Jon Ralston caught another reference in Gov. Sandoval’s speech that doesn’t appear to comport with the historical record.  Here’s what the governor said about his decision to step down as a federal judge and run for governor in 2010:
 
“Like so many, I looked around for help.  And what did I find?  A president who promised change, but turned instead to the same tired strategy of ever larger government.  A president who abandoned hope and embraced only blame.  So I stepped down from a lifetime appointment to make a difference.”
 
To which Mr. Ralston wrote:
 
“Really? Not once when he left the bench in 2009 did Sandoval mention he did so out of disgust with the (Obama) administration's policies.  And I doubt it had anything to do with that at all. It was a fairly silly stretch for the man who left a lifetime appointment to help the GOP oust Jim Gibbons and preserve a Republican in the governorship. That is it.  Period.”
 
Ralston concluded, seconding Cillizza’s emotion: “The speech will not be long remembered.”
 
The problem with delivering a speech 2,766 miles away from home in this day of the Internet is that folks back home who know and remember the facts can watch a speech and correct the record even if the speech isn’t carried by the TV networks.
 
Why can’t politicians, from both parties, simply tell the truth about their records instead of trying to embellish them and change history when it’s inevitable that they’re going to get caught and called on it?
 
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
 
“College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.” – GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan at the GOP convention Wednesday night
 
“A little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham - the most segregated big city in America - her parents can't take her to a movie theater or a restaurant - but they make her believe that even though she can't have a hamburger at the Woolworth's lunch counter - she can be President of the United States and she becomes the Secretary of State.” – Condi Rice at the GOP convention Wednesday night
 
“Growing up, I never imagined a girl from a border town could one day become a governor. But this is America. Y, en America todo es posible.” – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez at the GOP convention Wednesday night
 
“When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, the first words out of my mouth were: I still think it is unconstitutional!  The left-wing blogs were merciless. Even my wife said - can't you pleeeease count to 10 before you speak?  So, I've had time now to count to 10 and, you know what? I still think it's unconstitutional!" –Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at the GOP convention Wednesday night
 
"Ask the rising stars of the GOP about their party's future and two names repeatedly come up.  One of them, Ronald Reagan, was born in 1911; the other, Paul Ryan, in 1970. … The next generation of Republican leaders, most of them born in the 1970s, see themselves as the heirs to an upbeat, Reagan-style conservatism and believe Ryan's free-market orthodoxy is the platform upon which they'll return to national majority status.” – Morning Score, 8/29/12

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