How Angle’s bizarre rhetoric is shaping the race

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | 2 a.m.

Harry Reid is alive, one in an occasional series:

What do you suppose the conversations are like these days in the strategy conclaves inside the National Republican Senatorial Committee? Possibilities:

1. “Do you think enough people hate Harry Reid so it doesn’t matter what he says or does?”

2. “Is it possible to hide Sharron Angle in some rural enclave so she doesn’t have to speak anymore?”

3. “Can someone get Rove and Gillespie to buy more TV and pound Reid every day for the next 111 days?”

4. “Seriously, this can’t be happening, right?”

Where have you gone, Sue Lowden? A panicked GOP Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

The Reid folks surely are not going to count their chickens, but they could not have hatched a better scenario than what is unfolding. That was confirmed Tuesday by a Rasmussen Reports poll showing a dead heat (Angle, 46 percent; Reid, 43 percent). And with Rasmussen considered the pollster most favorable to Republican candidates, there are those who will conclude Reid actually is ahead.

Another possibility: “Any way we can put an earpiece on her every time she does an interview so we don’t have to do another ‘what she meant to say’ release?”

Yes, 111 days is a long time. But no serious GOP analyst here or in Washington, D.C., does not understand what is happening here and is not admiring of Team Reid’s beautifully ugly deconstruction of Angle since the primary. It has been relentless, daily, obnoxious, brutal and — as Rasmussen and other data I have seen show — effective.

Angle’s negatives are soaring to almost Reid-like levels and although he is still only at 43 percent of the vote in that poll — an ominous number for an incumbent — the reset button has been pressed.

May the best campaign win. And right now, there is no contest in that contest.

Another possibility: “I thought our people were out there helping her!?”

This is a remarkable combination of Angle miscues and errors forced by the Reid campaign, which is the best rapid response/research-ready outfit I have seen in nearly a quarter-century of covering Nevada campaigns. Consider the latest debacle, over CityCenter, which incorporates everything that’s gone wrong with the Angle campaign: Careless candidate preparation, obvious revisionist history and ready-made Reid fodder.

It all happened in the past 10 days: Angle, as is her wont, goes on a conservative radio show and is asked by a caller if she would have rung up bank executives, as Reid did, to inquire about pending loans to CityCenter. She said she would not have.

Then, shortly thereafter, Angle was asked by a television reporter about the comments, and she said, “What I said on the radio is that I would not have voted for the stimulus on the CityCenter.” Of course, she had said no such thing and, of course, there was no stimulus funding for CityCenter.

Challenged this week on that by Fox’s Neil Cavuto, Angle described it as a “bank bailout,” which, of course, it was not. She also used the hackneyed deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic analogy, which is not only off point but doesn’t consider the thousands of construction jobs saved when CityCenter received its funding.

Another possibility: “I thought those Fox anchors knew not to ask her anything hard!”

This is almost unfathomable because in December Angle had assailed Reid for the calls, which she called “bullying banks.” She knew what he did.

As I have said ad infinitum, I think it’s legitimate to question whether a U.S. senator should be calling bank CEOs to pressure them to make loans. Interestingly enough, when I first raised the issue, the Reid folks insisted he only told the executives to keep an open mind. Now, with MGM Resorts boss Jim Murren thanking Reid in an ad and with this flap, they are only too happy for the majority leader to get credit for using the power of his office to influence a bank loan.

But that’s not the issue here. It’s Angle’s bizarre rhetorical peregrinations.

The Reid campaign, once again not idly looking at a gift gaffe from Angle’s mouth, called her either “clueless or lying,” which is a bit harsh and, perhaps, wrong. As one wag put it, perhaps Angle simply is conditioned to utter buzzwords such as “stimulus” and “bailout” to rouse angry voters, no matter the context or veracity. It’s like returning to a robotic default position — Harry “Let’s Make a Deal” Reid, Harry Reid “waterboarded the economy,” “Harry Reid has failed America.” Once the situation doesn’t fit the programming, that’s when trouble starts.

Another possibility: “Is it too late to become a Republican for Reid?”

Jon Ralston’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at [email protected].