Ralston Says the Obvious on Sharrontology's Deal

I guess he read what I had to say about this yesterday.

So for all her talk of rejecting "Let's Make a Deal Harry" and her bashing of Harry Reid's negotiating skills, Angle then did something that she claimed she doesn't do. She's a hypocrite. She claims she doesn't "play the game", but behind the scenes she plays like no one else has tried before. She claims she's a part of some "grassroots uprising", but she's been bankrolled by a cabal of California corporate lobbyists and she's cozied up to the very entrenched special interests she claims to "fight".

Hypocrisy, thy name is Sharrontology. Meet "The New GOoP", same as the old GOoP.

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Sharrontology

Angle: Says the grass roots movement “gives me juice. That’s really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well…You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him….I go to Washington, DC and want to see Jim DeMint, he’s right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he’s right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he’s there.”

I guess we finally found the real Sharrontology. Behind all the inflated rhetoric, all the confusion over what she really did, and all the sideshows of the various outside interests trying to push her on Nevada, we finally caught a glimpse of the real Sharron Angle when she did the very thing she said she doesn't do: cut back room deals behind closed doors!

A tape of the 38-minute meeting that I have obtained provides a rare window into the kinds of discussions that take place during campaigns behind closed doors, redolent of the authenticity that disappears in public or in TV ads.

The conversation reveals Angle almost desperate to show Ashjian they are like-minded, that they both disdain the major parties, but insistent that the Tea Party of Nevada contender could help Reid win if he doesn’t embrace her candidacy. Ashjian emphasizes he believes a third party is the only way and that he believes he can garner a fifth of the vote, which seems fantastically optimistic, to put it mildly.

Angle expresses disdain for the national GOP, which she says she now has “in a box” because she won the primary, which caused the DC types after her June 8 victory to still be “moaning and groaning and weeping and gnashing teeth over Sue Lowden.” Later, she tries to persuade Ashjian to endorse her because she will have “juice” he can tap into to get access to Sens. Jim DeMint, Tom Coburn and Mitch McConnell.

I can just hear it now: The woman who calls the majority leader “Let’s Make a Deal Harry Reid” becomes “Let’s Make a Deal Sharron Angle”. [Emphasis mine.]

So there you have it. Sharron Angle did the very thing she said she doesn't do. She tried to cut a deal. And do it behind closed doors. And she tried to bribe Ashjian with "juice", with access.

Don't believe me? Don't believe Ralston? Listen to the audio for yourself!

So for all her talk of rejecting "Let's Make a Deal Harry" and her bashing of Harry Reid's negotiating skills, Angle then did something that she claimed she doesn't do. She's a hypocrite. She claims she doesn't "play the game", but behind the scenes she plays like no one else has tried before. She claims she's a part of some "grassroots uprising", but she's been bankrolled by a cabal of California corporate lobbyists and she's cozied up to the very entrenched special interests she claims to "fight".

Hypocrisy, thy name is Sharrontology. Meet "The New GOoP", same as the old GOoP.

NV-Sen: District Judge Allows Ashjian to Stay on the Ballot, While Tea Party Express Throws Support to Angle

I'm away from home right now, so I can't get into details... But I'll just give you a quick update on the Tea Party Senate campaign drama. District Judge Todd Russell just ruled that Nevada Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian WILL stay on the ballot. He rejected the IAP argument that Ashjian improperly filed as a Tea Party candidate before he actually registered himself with the Tea Party.

It's not known yet if the IAP will appeal. If they do, the law suit will likely be fast-tracked to the state Supreme Court. I'll do more research when I get hime, and talk more about this later.

UPDATE: OK, I'm home. Here's The Sun piece explaining what happened.

District Judge Todd Russell rejected the legal challenge of the Independent American Party, which argued Ashjian lied on his declaration of candidacy.

Russell said he “did not believe that he (Ashjian) engaged in a knowing and willful attempt to avoid the election laws of the state of Nevada.”

Ashjian, a Las Vegas contractor, said the judge made the right decision and “the voters will be heard” in his first run for public office. “I’m new to politics but I have learned it’s a dirty business.” [...]

Judge Russell said Ashjian “substantially complied” with the law. At the end of the day on March 2, Ashjian was in compliance with the law.

“The best approach is to look to the end of the day on March 2, 2010, to determine if all laws have been complied with,” wrote the judge who issued the decision one day after hearing the oral arguments.

He said, “A technical sequential filing of documents should not control, but an overall good faith attempt to comply should control.”

So basically, Ashjian will continue to do his own thing in his very own "Tea Party of Nevada" while the Tea Party Express officially endorses Sharron Angle...

Former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle has won the Tea Party Express endorsement in the U.S. Senate race. The staunchly conservative candidate has been wooing the national group since they began organizing events in Nevada and running ads against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The endorsement, if it brings with it the promise of significant campaign resources, could be enough to vault Angle to the front of the crowded race. In 2006, with the help of a hefty television advertising campaign by the Club for Growth, Angle came within 425 votes of beating Dean Heller in the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District.

Angle is a fierce campaigner with a well-cultivated grass roots support system in the north. Outside money on a TV ad campaign would give her the name recognition she needs in Southern Nevada.

And local teabagger groups are split among Angle, Tarkanian, Lowden, other Republicans, and independent/third party candidates like Ashjian. Whatever. Let the teabaggers keep splitting their votes and fighting with each other. They have no relevant message, and they don't even know what exactly they're fighting for (more on that later, when I do my write-up on today's rally). In the end, I'm pretty hopeful we progressives will get the last laugh. :-)

Wherein the "Tea Party" Cannibalizes Itself

Once more, we're seeing some nasty brewing over in Teabagger-land. This time, the folks who claim to be all about "freedom" are trying to block one of their own from being on the November ballot.

The conservative Independent American Party's U.S. Senate candidate sued today to remove a fellow U.S. Senate candidate running under the Tea Party of Nevada from the ballot.

Tim Fasano, of Fernley, filed the lawsuit in Carson City District Court, arguing that Tea Party of Nevada candidate Jon Scott Ashjian should be removed from November's ballot because he failed to change his party affiliation until after he filed for office. Also, according to the complaint, Ashjian is not affiliated with the state or national Tea Party organizations that have risen up to protest government spending and Washington, D.C., overreach.

Fasano said, "I think he inappropriately stole the Tea Party name." Plus, he added, Ashjian's place on November's ballot potentially helps Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"Potentially, he'll take votes from me and take votes from the Republican. Against Reid, we need all the votes we can get," Fasano said.

So they're trying to throw Scott Ashjian off the ballot on a technicality? That's what it's looking like. And better yet, they're admitting this is all about tossing competition off the ballot.

Oh, and they're still peddling the already refuted claim that somehow Harry Reid is behind Ashjian and the "Tea Party of Nevada".

Whatever. Let them keep wasting money in court trying to fight this. They're only making their "movement" look all the more ridiculous.

If these teabaggers really want to know who's responsible for imperiling their chances against Harry Reid this fall, all they need to do is look in the mirror.