Angle surrogate says advocating “Second Amendment remedies” is “a little bit extreme”

Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 | 3:47 p.m.

During an interview with former Senate candidate Mike Wiley on his radio program last week, another former Senate hopeful, Danny Tarkanian, said he disagreed with those who suggest a civil uprising might be necessary -- a reference to Sharron Angle's quote in January on another conservative talker's program.

Said Tark: "You know, we have a process where you go out and you vote for your elected leaders, and if you don’t like them then you’ve got to get enough people to vote against them, and then they’ll get out of office. I don’t believe you go out and you start shooting people... I don’t believe the vast majority of Americans are going to agree with having a civil war because our elected leaders aren’t voting the way we want them to. That’s why we have elections and you vote them out of office the next time."

For those who don't recall, that is almost exactly what Angle was suggesting she was hearing on the campaign trail when she talked to Lars Larson in January: “I hope that’s not where we’re going but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around and I’ll tell ya the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.”

Tarkanian said when he was out stumping for votes, "I’m saying there are people in the Republican Party that, when I was campaigning wanted me to go that far to say that." But he declined, he said, obviously thinking that was going too far to give the faithful what they wanted. And Tark said of anyone who would say so: "I think that’s a little bit extreme."

My guess is the message the Angle campaign might want to deliver to Tarkanian, who recently brought focus once again on Angle's Social Security position metamorphosis, is this: Stop helping!

Here's the full Tarkanian-Wiley exchange and the audio is at right:

Danny Tarkanian: I agree with Sharron in most of the positions. There’s a few of them I don’t....

Mike Wiley: That’s how they attack people on some of their beliefs and they try to say that they’re extreme because of that. When really they’re not really extreme.

Danny Tarkanian: Yeah. I mean, again, let me use another example. Reid’s been attacking her on her comments saying that we have Second Amendment remedies, and I don’t know exactly what quote that he’s been using, and even if it’s an accurate quote because he’s misquoted her sometimes, that she had said we ought to use Second Amendment remedies if Congress doesn’t change their direction. Now, I’ve been on the campaign trail, and I heard a lot of people say to me, you know, why do we have our Second Amendment rights, it’s to, so the public can overthrow the government if they fail to respond to the government’s will. That may be all good and well, but I’m not going to take the position that we need a civil uprising to overthrow our government. I don’t believe...

Mike Wiley: The Declaration of Independence gives us that right.

Danny Tarkanian: It gives us the right to bear arms, but I don’t believe it gives us the right of a civil insurrection if you don’t agree with what your elected leaders are voting on. You elect these people. See this is, believe me, I went through this and I had people that were upset at me in the campaign that I wouldn’t go as far to agree that there should be a civil uprising. You know, we have a process where you go out and you vote for your elected leaders, and if you don’t like them then you’ve got to get enough people to vote against them, and then they’ll get out of office. I don’t believe you go out and you start shooting people. That’s, I’m not going to take that position...

Mike Wiley: I don’t think that she meant that.

Danny Tarkanian: I didn’t say she did mean that. I’m saying there are people in the Republican Party that, when I was campaigning wanted me to go that far to say that. Believe me, I don’t want to get misquoted, I didn’t say Sharron did. Again, I don’t know what her quote was. Reid’s campaign has sometimes taken those out of context, but when you say, what makes somebody extreme, I think that’s a little bit extreme. I don’t believe the vast majority of Americans are going to agree with having a civil war because our elected leaders aren’t voting the way we want them to. That’s why we have elections and you vote them out of office the next time.