Political antics you might have missed

Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 | 2 a.m.

Another busy week early in the 2010 cycle, so big that Mayor Oscar Goodman’s State of the City speech was relegated to oblivion by other stories. But His Honor’s thin skin and thug dialect should not be forgotten, nor should more evidence (as if we need any) of John Ensign’s hypocrisy and a post-mortem on Rory Reid’s “Let’s have a community conversation and then ignore it” committee (I think that’s the official name):

I am going to build my city hall the way I want to build my city hall: Goodman’s State of the City speech, which featured a didactic presentation complete with an easel on how redevelopment works and the mind-numbing recitation of all the Goodman things that have happened downtown, was largely ignored because of the kerfuffle over Harry Reid’s race comments.

The mayor started with an analogy of the terrible economic times here to Winston Churchill being in his bunker during World War II. Goodman at least had sense to tell people, “I don’t pretend to have any similarities with Winston Churchill” (no kidding, so why bring him up?), although His Honor did say they both love cigars and martinis. As one of the greatest world leaders in history began to roll a bit in his grave, Goodman continued, “They were facing dire times in World War II and we in Las Vegas are facing dire times.”

Goodman again caught himself and added, “The direness of his situation was so much worse than ours.” Ya think?

But Goodman, apparently an Anglophile after a junket over there last year, then quoted — wait for it — Queen Victoria as saying, “Please understand there is no depression in this house and we are not interested in the possibility of defeat.”

Suppose Sir Winston’s “We shall never surrender” speech slipped Goodman’s speechwriter’s mind.

This silliness having passed, Goodman updated (sort of) pages from his past State of the City speeches and talked about the downtown agora, consolidation, the “medical Mecca” he (or is it Larry Ruvo and the Cleveland Clinic?) is creating. He went on to blame arbitrators ruling against the city for generous public employee contracts and then went on to the Oscar B. Goodman City Hall. “We had a near-death experience when our redevelopment district was almost abrogated,” he said, obliquely referring to the evil Culinary Union. Then came the teachable moments on redevelopment before he concluded with his thug dialect: “I don’t want to hear any more nonsense about it from any stupid people.”

Lovely, as his friends in Britain might say.

And what did the crowd of sycophants do at such appalling verbiage? What else? They applauded.

Run, Oscar, run.

•••

I am shocked, shocked no one asked about my unethical, potentially felonious conduct: Sen. John Ensign this week conducted town halls in Reno and Las Vegas, previewing them on KXNT’s Alan Stock program and telling the host that, in contrast to the Democrats, it would be open, no holds-barred. This came after one heckler had to be removed from a Reid town hall.

I suppose it all depends on what the definition of “open” is.

At both town halls, no one asked about Ensign’s scandalous behavior, which involved parental payoffs that perhaps should have been disclosed on federal forms and his possible conspiracy to help Doug Hampton get jobs and violate a cooling-off law. Ensign has refused to answer any of these questions.

Isn’t it stunning that no one would have asked any of these questions at an “open” town hall by the party now committed to openness?

It would be if stories North and South didn’t point out that questions were screened by Ensign before people were allowed to ask them. And that permitted him to avoid any embarrassing comments and instead simply spew his talking points on health care.

He won’t answer the tough questions because ... he can’t, at least not without embarrassing or incriminating himself.

•••

Some priority by members of the Committee on Community Priorities: That’s the actual name of the Reid the Younger panel convened to give recommendations to the county on its budget problems. The panel met 10 times since August, and I wondered how attendance was.

Turns out that Reid’s pick to be on the panel, Assemblyman Morse Arberry, missed half of the meetings. Nice choice, Mr. Chairman. And Al Martinez, the SEIU president who wrote a scathing memo about the panel’s work, did so after attending only six of the meetings.

At least he had standing to criticize the final product.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

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By DreamsOfNevada

Jan. 15, 2010

8:39 a.m.

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Recycle Harry Reid! Buy this sticker -- I did!
http://www.keep2theright.com/images/recy...
By gypc_dave

Jan. 15, 2010

8:55 a.m.

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You could recruit better leaders down at the laundromat. I'm not sure why we keep electing political hobbyists, but these knuckleheads are really becoming tiresome.
By mred

Jan. 15, 2010

11:53 a.m.

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I hear the guy with the loud shirt and a mouth to match "wine" about this article. There was a lunch meeting a week before the Ensign-Alan Shock softball game/interview where questions and answers were pre-arraigned. Now Ensign says "I already answered those questions." every time he asked about ethics. That is what he did with Rich Sanchez on CNN.

Gibbones did the same thing. Go on the morning sorcerer show or the Bugkiller afternoon show and get a boot-licking "interview."

Latest from the bugkiller: "troops who commit suicide are quacks" - whatever that means.

And the Limpbought guy is reveling in every death in Hatti so he can blame Obama for botching the relief effort.
By longun45

Jan. 15, 2010

6:05 p.m.

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Gov. Gibbons finally making some noise in the right direction. The democrats on the county commission and in the legislature have collectively raised taxes far too much and yes that also includes our former governor, you know the democrat in Republicans clothes.

Judge Sandoval is a progressive, Reid is a progressive, Gibbons is at best a reluctant conservative with progressive tendencies. It's clear to see why. Government must be all things to all people and delver nothing to the people who pay the bills. We have more taxes than we have people in the legislature. We have a DMV system that barely functions except to send out lack of insurance notices.

We are done with these people. It's clear our politicians have no clue why government even exists or what the true function of government is. The only bill that should be longer than a page is the budget. We have enough of the other laws, we don't need any more.

The schools need local control. End of story. Clearly the federal and state powers have stuck their sticks in education, and now, we graduate fewer seniors than ever before. That's some big help.

Our government has perverted the rule of law into the web of law, so much so that they look for more laws to pass. Evidently the novelty lighter became a hazard to one of our firefighters so the legislature passed a grossly insipidly stupid anti-novelty lighter law. Now that's an accomplishment. Of course only lawyers could have pulled off such a feat.

Clearly it's time to clean house.
By DessertSun

Jan. 16, 2010

10:14 a.m.

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I agree logan, it's time to clean house. Since 2006, the Liberals have infiltrated this state. Clark County Commissioners, Legislature, State Senate, and House. With them came tax and spend policies that never work. Growing government, increased spending, and growing government. Our once prosperous and growing state has stalled and declined rapidly to the current dismal state we now find ourselves in. These Liberals got us in to this mess and are reducing us down to just another California; it's time to fire them all. Throw these bums out of office in 2010! Vote!
By mred

Jan. 16, 2010

7:14 p.m.

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66% of America's top three most influential conservatives are admitted recovering addicts.