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StumblePublished Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 | 2:39 p.m.
Updated Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 | 5:09 p.m.
Danny Tarkanian, in an email using a column first posted on HumanEvents.com by political editor John Gizzi, by extension assails fellow U.S. Senate frontrunner Sue Lowden for being too big a spender, too supportive of Harry Reid in earlier elections and too willing to take abortion off the table as an issue. He concludes, strangely, by spinning his two electoral losses.
UPDATE: The Tarkanian campaign is upset that I didn't identify this is a Gizzi column in the initial post. Frankly, it is confusing in the email, with a HumanEvents.com banner and no attribution to Gizzi. I am not the only one who thought the copy was written by Team Tarkanian. Campaign boss James Fisfis sent out a memo to reporters to let them know the attack was not penned by Little Tark. Fact is I should have remembered the original column because I wrote about it in October! (This turning 50 thing may already be affecting my memory!) It was obvious the negative stuff about Lowden was provided by the Tarkanian campaign to Gizzi. So be it. Good work. But now Fisfis is trying to distance his candidate from the attack when he emailed out the column and is trying to raise money off it. So a column in which the negative information about an opponent likely was provided by the campaign and then that campaign sends out the column to raise money (not as information for the media, as Fisfis implies) and doesn't want to be accused of making the attack. Ridiculous. And that's why the headline above remains unchanged.
But as was inevitable, the GOP target is now not merely on Reid. It may be necessary but the crowded GOP field also could become a circular firing squad.
Here's the column-turned-into-fundraising pitch:
Is It 'Tarkanian Time' In Nevada?
For only the second time in 58 years, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate is on the political ropes. Mean-tempered Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), who is seeking his fifth term next year, would lose to either of his best-known Republican opponents if the election were held today. According to a just-completed Mason Dixon poll, real estate developer and fellow GOP hopeful Danny Tarkanian is beating Reid by 48% to 43%.
The apparently good chances of deposing Reid, a fixture in Nevada politics since he was elected lieutenant governor at age 30 in 1970, have focused increasing attention on the Republican nomination battle. For weeks, it appeared that Lowden, a performer in Bob Hope's USO tours in the 1960s, was the big favorite to take on Reid. But in recent weeks conservative eyebrows have been raised over some of Lowden's past stands and the momentum has been shifting toward Tarkanian, son of the legendary basketball coach for the University of Nevada (Las Vegas).
In a recent television interview on Channel 13 (Las Vegas), Lowden hinted that she was amenable to more big-spending pork when she attacked Reid by saying, "What has he delivered for Nevada? … Lyndon Johnson gave Texas NASA. Robert Byrd is bringing the CIA to West Virginia." Lowden has also admitted she voted for and contributed to Reid "early on." In addition, Lowden was one of 11 Nevada delegates to the Republican National Convention in 1996. With fellow delegate and then State Assembly Co-Speaker Lynn Hettrick, then-State Sen. Lowden said that "the national party ought to follow Nevada's lead and take abortion out of the platform." Nevada Republicans, after a heated debate at the state convention in Reno earlier that month, had struck the abortion plank from the state platform.
Tarkanian is a solid opponent of earmarks and opposes abortion in all circumstances except the life of the mother. He lost a tight race against a longtime Democratic state senator in 2004 in a district that George W. Bush was losing by 20 percentage points. Two years later, he waged a strong-but-unsuccessful bid against Secretary of State Ross Miller, son of popular former Democratic Gov. (1988-98) Bob Miller. But the activist following he attracted in the two losing campaigns has clearly laid the groundwork for a strong Tarkanian candidacy in 2010.
You know, little Tark can say what he wants about Sue Lowden but little Tark does the same thing. Look up little Tarks past and you learn that Danny Tarkanian also donates money to Democrats including Shelley Berkley who is somebody more liberal in my opinion besides Harry Reid and dont forget that little Tarks mom gives money to liberals too and his dad also attends fundraisers for liberals too so I guess If little Tark wants to run on his parents last name then I guess it only makes it right to talk about who his parents are in the political monarchy because basketball dont mean a squat when it comes to managing our tax dollars. So can anybody here please prove to us what makes little Tark a conservative???? Little Tark was busy donating his money to people more liberal then Harry Reid and all the while Little Tark has never even been elected as dog catcher so I guess little Tark can make up all the things about himself that he wants to dream about while he trashes on Sue Lowden but one thing I also know about little Tark is his mom is this liberal Democrat who is already elected to our city council so my opinion is the voters needs to vote NO to anymore of this liberal Tarkanian dynasty. Little Tark can brag about his liberal daddys last name all he wants on the ball field but the Tarkanians should stay out of politics please.
Funny how it's all about the "L" word. Being "liberal". It's obvious that we're entering the "I'm more conservative than you are" days. Danny and Sue, starting their dogfight. Harry and his people are simply going to stand back and laugh.
See, the same thing is going on in Texas, where the present Repub Governor is attacking his opponent, Sen KB Hutchinson, because she must be liberal, because "she's in Washington". What will happen is that they will chew each other up. Because Texas is a mirror image of Nevada, filled with uneducated dumbbells, they will split their support. As a result, the Democrat, Bill White, might actually have a chance of beating them.
And the samo-samo here. Harry wins a close vote-again. And the Rushbo's are left scratching their heads-again...
It is nice to know that incest victims will be forced by the government to have their babies.
Nice to know that the Republican Party is falling apart because they keep fighting like babies in toddler town. "I'm so much more conservative than you" and "I'm fighting for Ronald Reagan's Legacy", it's going and has been tearing them apart. Harry Reid's going to win because he has a powerbase of many groups behind him, while he's backwater Republican cousins are going to fight themselves to oblivion.
can't dany shave his head , pretend he's dad and get a coaching job at some catholic elementary school. if he wasn't tark's son, he'd be working at your local sportsbook
Nevada is majority pro-choice. I don't understand how this would help him win the general.
"So can anybody here please prove to us what makes little Tark a conservative????"
Other than wanting to force rape and incest victims to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term? I don't think I've heard him say much about invading third world countries that make us nervous, or shifting the tax burden to the working class, so he might simply be a moderate who hates women. But, I kinda doubt it.
ned: is there such a thing as an educated dumbbell?
Danny's wife would make a better candidate.
Mr. Tarkanian and Mrs. Lowden should pay attention to Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.
Mr. Reid is the target.
Mr. Reid has departed from every reasonable standard and principal that typical Nevadans believe in: small government, efficient use of our tax dollars, a strong and unapologetic military presence to defend the interests of the U.S., and (most of all) an economy built on principals of a free market rather than Federal government largesse and wasteful bailouts.
Republicans will win in 2010 if we return to the party's historic commitment to:
1 - Reducing the size of the Federal government, and making tough, honest choices to get our fiscal house in order;
2 - Reducing the tax burden on businesses so corporations and small businesses can make investments and by doing so put people back to work;
3 - Rethinking Social Security and other entitlement programs to bring out-of-control Federal programs back into some logical trajectory the country can afford rather than "punting" the issue into the future for our kids to address;
4 - Investing to improve our energy independence;
5 - Fixing a broken, expensive health care system and reducing the money Americans spend rather than expanding a broken Federal system even further
6 - Creating long-range goals to improve the competitiveness of American products and services to sell around the globe
Sue and Dan should cut out the silly name calling and stay focused on Senator Reid's pathetic performance.