Reckless, wrong and careful words spoken in politics

By Jon Ralston (contact)

Friday, April 9, 2010 | 2 a.m.

Words do matter. And here’s your Friday Flash of how some were used this week:

• A week without Reidisms is like a week without … Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is like a master magician who can perform every trick behind the curtain, but once it is pulled, he doesn’t look so magical. Reid, whose legislative legerdemain is legendary (try saying that five times fast), is a nonpareil in the Senate cloakroom but not at home on the campaign trail. I still believe that every time he interacts with the public or, even worse, the media, his staffers pray for brevity, grasp their rabbit’s feet and, perhaps, cover their ears.

Two Reidisms this week are noteworthy:

First, he told veteran Nevada Appeal scribe Geoff Dornan: “If the election were held today, I’d win.”

It’s hard to argue that if the election were held today inside the Reid household, accounting for the margin of error, the majority leader would be victorious. But if the actual balloting were occurring anytime soon, his staff would be doing something else: Updating their resumes.

Despite the ridicule the comment elicited, let’s not lose sight of what lies beneath Reid’s remarks and underlines why Republicans see Tea Party of Nevada hopeful Jon Scott Ashjian as some Mephistophelean creation of the master magician: If Reid can, beginning June 9, incinerate the GOP nominee and cause voters to stay home or vote for Ashjian, other third party hopefuls or “none of these candidates,” he will win. It’s his best — maybe only — hope.

The other Reidism this week was about the health care bill, when he told a northern interviewer: “In the state of Nevada, I’ve not had one person come to me and say ‘Why did you vote for health care?’ Not a single person. I can’t think of one.”

Again, Reid may be right in the long run: People may come to see the health care reform measure much differently. But for the moment, thousands of Nevadans are apoplectic about its passage, and the chances of no one having communicated that to the senator seem remote.

• An egregious use of the N-word: Reid’s words are often goofy or all-too-blunt but at least they are not, despite any tendentious purpose, factually erroneous over and over again. How to explain Gov. Jim Gibbons — and his amen chorus in the media — continually using the phrase “nationalized health care” to describe the new law?

Do you think it’s actually possible the governor doesn’t know what it means when the government nationalizes something — that it takes over ownership and control of an industry?

In this case, I vote not for ignorance but for manipulation. It is only slightly more wrong than the cries of “government takeover” or “socialism” by people who either don’t know what the bill says or what those terms mean — or their only purpose is to throw tea on the party to get votes.

Color me not surprised at the enduring dumbing-down of political discourse. But color me depressed so many people are so gullible or, yes, ignorant.

• Why Heller won’t say the R-word: Rep. Dean Heller, either intentionally or not, ratcheted up the pressure this week on Sen. John Ensign during a couple of television programs — “Nevada Newsmakers” and a little show you may have heard of called “Face to Face.” On both programs, Heller came close but did not say the word “resign” vis-a-vis Ensign.

But it’s clear the congressman thinks he should, either because A) he is hurting the state and the party, and/or B) Heller wants the Senate seat. Either way, Heller is essentially opening the door to other Republicans, here or in D.C., to find their spines.

Caveat: It might seem, perhaps, slightly ironic or even comical if the state’s highest-ranking Republican were to demand Ensign resign because he is embarrassing the state and the party. Jim Gibbons equals flawed messenger.

I still believe that Ensign’s bubble of narcissism/denial will not be burst by a Heller pinprick or those of former county party officials, who penned a scathing indictment of Ensign and asked him to step down. It will take GOP senators, either publicly or privately, to pierce Ensign’s balloon and finally bring him back to earth.

I find it humorous that people (mostly blind partisans) continue to lament that the media is obsessed with Ensign’s private life. But that misses the point: This is not about sex; this is a massive abuse-of-power scandal, with a possible indictment of a senator already convicted of breathtaking hypocrisy and pathological lying.

Neither Heller nor anyone else should have to utter the R-word; it’s well past time Ensign should.