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By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
, David McGrath Schwartz
Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Audio Clip
- Listen to the Angle-Ashjian sit-down
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Scott Ashjian on Monday's 'Face to Face'
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Ashjian interview, Part 2
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Ashjian interview, Part 1
Sun Archives
- Team Angle on tape: Shows she is 'blunt, plain spoken' leader: Team Reid: 'supreme hypocrisy' by trying to make deal (10-3-10)
- Angle: 'I’m not sure I can win' if Ashjian’s in, nat'l GOPers 'have lost their principles,' need to 'leave me alone' (10-3-10)
- Jon Ralston couldn’t make this up if he tried: Ashjian important (10-1-10)
- Tea Party candidate could siphon GOP votes in bid to remove Harry Reid (3-5-10)
Sharron Angle speaks during a Senate candidate forum for Angle and Sen. Harry Reid on Sept. 23 at Faith Lutheran High School.
Jon Scott Ashjian
That Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle was caught on tape criticizing her own party while meeting last week with Tea Party of Nevada candidate Jon Scott Ashjian should surprise no one.
Reacting to Ashjian’s stated distrust of both major political parties, Angle agreed that many see little difference between Republicans and Democrats, according to a recording obtained by Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
“Republicans have lost their standards, they have lost their principles,” Angle said during the meeting in which she tried and failed to win an endorsement from Ashjian, who could siphon valuable votes from her. “In some ways it’s a good thing. It’s nice to get it out in the open that they never really have gone along with less taxes and less government.”
The 38-minute recording was quintessential Angle — she has made a career of challenging the Republican establishment and capitalized on voter anger toward both parties to win the GOP primary in June. Yet it was surprising that later in the conversation, Angle makes an overture to Ashjian that, if elected, she would use her influence for Ashjian’s benefit.
“That’s really all I can offer to you,” she says to Ashjian. “Whatever juice I have, you have as well. You want to see (U.S. Sen. Jim) DeMint, I have juice with DeMint. I go to D.C. and say ‘I want to see Jim DeMint,’ he’s right there for me.”
It was a rare, unscripted moment in a high-profile race — revealing at once Angle’s view of herself as outside the political establishment, and yet willing to traffic in political power in ways she has condemned the establishment and her opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for.
Allies of Reid pounced, splicing her past criticism of Reid for making “backroom deals” and with audio of Angle and her campaign supporters offering to help Ashjian. Even supporters of Angle criticized her for getting into a room with Ashjian, who told CNN that he had made the secret recording.
Debbie Landis, one of Nevada’s original grass-roots Tea Party organizers, was irate at both Ashjian, whom she despises, and Angle, whom she has endorsed.
“It’s an enormous shame for her to approach him like he is a credible threat when he’s already been spoken out against by every grass-roots leader in the state,” Landis said. “I don’t know what she hoped to accomplish. I’m very distressed at the credibility that lying, duplicitous fraud has right now.”
“That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Dan Burdish, a Republican operative who advised Angle’s primary opponent Sue Lowden. “Why in the world would she go out and meet with somebody who is polling at 1 percent?”
Ashjian’s critics have decried him as an opportunist who has usurped the Tea Party brand for personal gain. They have sought to discredit the first-time candidate and get his name erased from the ballot. (Before he formed the Tea Party of Nevada, longtime Nevada activists involved in the amorphous movement said they had never heard of him.)
Ashjian, who would conceivably pull votes from Angle, benefiting Reid in the tight race, has received 1 percent in most polls.
But Angle’s meeting with Ashjian, and Ashjian’s decision to record and release a tape of the meeting, has suddenly launched him into the national spotlight. National news networks are covering him as a legitimate threat to Angle’s effort to unseat Reid.
Ashjian could not be reached for comment Monday.
The meeting was brokered by Richard Ziser, a conservative activist who lost to Reid in 2004.
According to the tape, Angle asked Ashjian to endorse her, saying she doesn’t know if she can win with Ashjian on the ballot.
Ashjian largely rebuffs her requests, saying at the end of the meeting that he would have to think about it. For an endorsement, he said he wanted an apology from the Tea Party Express and others who have criticized him.
Angle said she couldn’t communicate with the independent groups until after the election.
Conservative activist Chuck Muth, who supported Lowden in the primary, said that Angle’s anti-establishment rhetoric will play well. But, he said, “There’s a fine line a candidate has to walk.”
Angle needs the organizational and institutional support of some of the national groups that she disparages in the recording. After her primary victory “she needed the party establishment to come in and give her a chance. If the national party hadn’t done that, she would have been dead a long time ago.”
In her meeting with Ashjian, Angle said she had national Republicans right where she wanted them. “This is such a national race that if they don’t play, they look like idiots. So really, we’ve got them in a box,” she said.
Nevada Republican Chairman Mark Amodei took little umbrage with Angle’s remarks, agreeing that his own party has had its faults. He said it’s more important that voters trust Angle to be a better representative going forward.
“Listen, the history is what it is,” Amodei said. “There’s things I disagreed with that George W. Bush did. I think ... there’s plenty of room for discontentment. And that all gets magnified by an economy that’s where it’s at now.”
Using a David-and-Goliath metaphor, Angle says she has been trying to shrug off the armor that national Republicans keep trying to load her down with. “I’m trying to get them to leave me alone long enough to where I can get my slingshot and go after this guy,” she says of Reid.
But Muth stressed Angle will need some of that armor.
“David and Goliath is a biblical story, it’s not reality,” he said. “There’s a fine line between being anti-establishment and still taking the establishment’s help.”
Angle spokeswoman Ciara Mathews said she had no information on why Angle decided to accept the meeting. She pointed to an earlier campaign statement.
“Sharron expressed what many working families in Nevada and across the country are feeling,” the statement says. “They are angry with Harry Reid, they are angry with Washington, D.C., and they want blunt, plain-spoken leaders who are willing to shake things up. Sharron represents the interests of Nevada, not the interests of Washington, D.C., like Harry Reid does, and that’s why she is going to win.”
The Republikans busy eating their own livers. No surprise...it's the sort of thing that happens when your candidate is a complete idiot.
"Angle makes an overture to Ashjian that, if elected, she would use her influence for Ashjian's benefit."
Selling the power and authority of the office - BEFORE THE ELECTION - is just plain stupid.
Forest Gump must have been forecasting this election when he so eloquently stated: "Stupid is as Stupid does"
Pathetic, desperate and backstabbing hypocrite!!!
Bravo Nevada Repukeblicans!!!!!
Harry Reid operative Jon Scott Ashjian secretly tape and leak to CNN that he had made the secret recording.
Jon Scott Ashjian was ask to leave the race, Something that Obama and Reid do everyday
Harry Reid has made good use of Jon Scott Ashjian
Harry Reid and Jon Scott Ashjian
As everyone knows...its true...both parties need complete revamping. Angle speaks the truth about that and those of you that say it is wrong I guess are happy with the way things are in Washington. As for her asking Ashjan to step down and offering to help him in Washington....thats only a talking point for people looking to bash her. Really no big deal...I would do the same
Sharron Angle has always played moral majority stuff.
But now, in light of this debacle, she has proven to be only...moronic minority.
It's best to just stand back and watch as the Republican factions and the Tea Party factions of the Republican Party...maybe it's mislabeled now...they should call themselves Teapublicans or RegurgiTeas or TeaTeaRePubs or something....anyways....we need to just stand back as they chew on each other like a pack of zombie extras in a George Romero flick.
For those ultra conservatives that like to keep an eye on voting polls, you need to watch really close now. The idiocy of Sharron Angle will cause Senator Reid to skyrocket in those polls. You will soon see the gap widening. But to tell the truth, I never rely on those polls nor place much credence in them. The truth is more important than the spin. And the Republicans only have spin and try to construct things made out of dog poop. And they fail every time when hit with the truth. And the truth is they had nothing before, got nothing now and definitely have no plans for anything new if elected into power. You can't snow the American people forever. Just not possible.
Senator Reid gets my vote.
Future, you are REALLY boring me now. The next revelation is she is a Madame and you would justify that also. She TRIED TO MAKE A BACK ROOM DEAL!! PERIOD!! She got caught, PERIOD! She is a backwoods contry hick, trying to run with the big dogs. PERIOD! Do you watch CNN? CNN in case you don't know is a 24 hour news station that is broadcast INTERNATIONALLY! Do yourself a favor and stay away from our poorly excuted local news.
Hey, No Vaseline, "You would do the same"??? Why aren't you running? I'm running, but as far away as I can get from Back Room Angle. I'll tell you something, if you can back Crazy Back Room Sharron after this, you have a problem. She has turned all parents with sick children, women and our Honorable Veterans against her. NOW THIS???
Angle provides her OWN "October Surprise"!
Take her gun away; if she shoots herself in the foot one more time, she's gonna BLEED to death!
In the 2011 Wickipedia entry for Political Suicide,
it will have a picture of The Crazy Cat Lady, wearing that goofy grin.
Thanks for the Memories, Sharrrron.
I'm beginning to see Angle as "Granny" from the Beverly Hillbillies...
The similarities are ASTOUNDING!!!
Juice Angle is always finding newer, more creative ways to shoot herself in the foot.
That woman is dumber than a box of rocks.
Sharron Angle is acting like a moron! She's trying to give the election to Harry the Red by being stupid! All she has to do to beat that miserable piece of fecal matter is hammer away on the economy, the facts that Nevada is #1 in unemployment and foreclosures and that Harry the Red is a lying piece of fecal matter that says one thing in Nevada, then goes back to the pigsty, Washington, DC, and does just the opposite. However, on the subject of the Republicrats, she's absolutely correct. If the Republicrats had done what they were supposed to, there would be no need for the Tea Party. The Republicrats did it to themselves by being Dumbocrats Light! We don't need one Dumbocrat party, let alone two! I'm still gonna vote for Angle rather than the piece of fecal matter!
Future- You hit the nail right on the head. This type of thing is a regular occurrence for Senator Reid. Did she break any U.S laws? - NO ". Regardless to what the Reid hounds say on this subject, it don't change the fact, that Senator Reid will be voted out of this office come November 2, neither Nevada, or the USA can afford Senator Reid.
http://www.ontheissues.org/International...
This is only time that I agree with Sharron Angle. The Republicant party has lost all sense of direction and moral conduct. With what they have done with donations to their political fund, the antics of John Ensign and Jim Gibbons confirms the demise of the Republicants. I am beginning to believe that they do not know what they stand for.
Blah Blah Blah, every day the LVSun posts this crap about Angle yet you can find just as much if not more shady things Reid has done on unbiased websites. Both candidates suck but Reid went along for the ride when Bush supposedly sunk the boat so he as much to blame as anyone. Time for a fresh start sorry dirty Harry.
If your smart you will write in
NONE OF THE ABOVE
Both are morons
I don't see what the big deal is, other than Sharron should not have met with this Harry Reid clown. It gives me a little pause to realize that she made a serious mistake here, but nothing shakes my faith that she would be 100X better than Reid. An incompetent senator is much better than a destructive senator, and we'll have to deal with that. But she is right about the Republican party. They've lost their way. As the Democrats did decades ago. We have to install term limits like we have in this state at the federal level and then we wouldn't have to deal with the evil that Reid brings to Congress.
I love the logic here of Angle defenders. Angle is shady is, but so is Reid. Angle promises backroom deals, but so does Reid. Angle is a moron, but so is Reid.
Reminds me of people defending Nixon: Nixon is a crook, but so are Democrats.
Our crook is better than your crook.
Sharron is crazy. She needs to be put in a hospital.
Angle will still get my vote because the alternative is unthinkable. She is right in saying the GOP has lost its way and they do need to get back to their Constitutional Conservative roots. The Tea Party Movement is helping to get that done. And we voters will not stand for any shenanigans by Angle or anyone else. And it's imperative that Reid be given his pink slip---he's done enough damage for one lifetime.
Comparing Sharron's meeting with Ashijan to Harry's back-room deals is hysterical! He's done more damage already than she could in 10 lifetimes!
Sharron Angle, FRAUD, foistered on the Republican party by the billionaire Koch brothers and Dick Armey. This was simply a rebranding effort by the Republicans that is backfiring.
The joke is on you Nevadans!
The worst Las Vegas business climate since the 1940's along with 15% state unemployment.
Ya, let's all go out and put Reid, Pelosi and Obama back in charge of our future. Not!
Republicans are becoming the party of D'oh!
Harry is a bigger crook than Angle will ever be. I will still vote for Angle. She made a dumb mistake. Ashjian is obviously paranoid and possibly a plant by the reid organization. I believe Angle has learned a valuable lesson.
It's funny. People keep missing the point. It isn't about what Harry Reid did or didn't do. We already know about those things.
It's about Sharron Angle. She said she wouldn't do any "backroom deals" or sell access to the government. She's going to change how things are done because she's God-fearing and honest. But here she is on tape trying to make a backroom deal to sell access to Republican party leaders. She's doing EXACTLY the same things she decries in Reid after saying she would be different.
So Harry Reid is the scapegoat for the entire economic collapse in Las Vegas? Only a simpleton would think its that simple.
The GOP and the rest of the country arent supporting Sharon Angle casue shes an idiot, just what NV needs another uselss senator.
Hope you know how to make lemonade out of lemons!
Comment removed by moderator. Comment was in all caps.
Angle is the far better candidate. Reid is a long time corrupt politician than needs to be retired before he and Obama can do anymore damage to our country.
I can't understand how anyone in Nevada would have anything to do with such scum as Dirty Harry Reid.
Angle is leading him in the polls, and will soon kick his miserable behind back to Searchlight, where he can't do anymore damage.
Thank God for Sharron Angle
If OJ Sharron is lucky maybe she can get former prez GW Bush to come to Nevada and campaign for her.
Oh wait ... , Dubya isn't wanted on the campaign trail by any GOP candidate because he's an unpopular, miserable failure.
Never mind.
Good video, explains Republicans in a nutshell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExzINsaq4...
@isthis4real said "FAIR AND HONEST REPORTING DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS RAG OF A NEWSPAPER!!!"
So don't read it.
CHUCKLES (and his neo-con brothern) - I'm really tired of the lame reasoning that the federal government (Reid et al) is the cause of Nevada's economic crisis. If congress was the problem, every state would still be in this mess. Instead, other states are pulling themselves out because they have economic diversity and the infrastructure to recover.
You all complain about government intrusion but then whine that government isn't doing enough to help us out. You can't have it both ways. Nevada is never going to be what it once was now that practically every state has casinos.
Put up or shut up. Realize that the state needs to expand its economic base and that takes capital up front for things like transportation, education, health care and social services. And don't say higher taxes will keep business from moving to Nevada - FL, TX, and WA (among others) rely on business taxes (no state income tax) and they are thriving compared to us.
Which brings me to my last point. This whole "not with my tax dollar" thing is getting really old. You don't pay state income taxes and, I'm guessing, the property taxes on your travel trailer aren't enough to worry about.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Isn't it about time to move your trailers to a compound in Montana?
Angle backs Reid into the corner,Reid throws a low blow, Angle uppercuts Reid right in the nuts! Big time play for Angle!...Reid kicks for the c---ch and Angle throws a roundhouse punch to Reid's ear rendering him punch drunk...then Angle finishes him off with a kick in the teeth...now she has him on the ropes an Reid frantically screams..nooooooooo!..in the end,angle 49% Reid 46%
Oh gosh, sevenhills.
I watched that link to the video on YouTube you posted. I didn't know whether to laugh or be horrified.
Thanks.
pmontg53, you drag out that same lame link every day on every article. YAWN. The vote was in 2006. The amendment to the bill didn't pass. Who controlled the Senate that year? Republicans. Who proposed the bill? Republicans. 11 Republicans voted the same way as Reid on that amendment to the bill.
Your own link doesn't even list all of the people who voted. It's missing close to 30 votes. Here, try a real link: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/ro...
Anyone that campaigned against masturbation loses my vote.
Pleeeeese Nevadans, Please don't send "Old Harry" back to Washington. Our Country just can't afford him.
sevenhills...
Enjoyed the vid, & found the one AFTER that VERY interesting; Senator Franken @ MN State Fair rappin' with the Teabags... worth a view!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNs7Zpqo...
It shows the tea party rabble at it's very ESSENCE, and simultaneously shows how a typical dem in Washington is viewing the issue of Health Care Reform...RATIONALLY, in opposition to repub/teabag histrionics, lies, misrepresentations and distortions of reality.
And how GREED is the CORE of the PROBLEM.
Sharron Angle is everything the billionaire Koch brothers & Dick Armey hoped for when they backed her (and her teabagger brethren):
small minded back-room dealing politician who will help drive the USA into oblivion.
Angle knows all the angles doesn't she? LOL
Politics as usual. Of course groups like "freeDUMB JERKS," "Americans for Prosperity for inherited Wealth Rich People," and other Koch Bros (recently condemned by name by Arnold Schwarzenegger for their pro-pollution agenda) a*troturf groups are shills for the corporate greed lobby.
Angle's backroom deal making and juice selling is typical. She voted for the insurance mandates before she was against them.
FIX News (headquarter in the Arab Gulf) has a phony poll out, and even that shows Reid even.
Greta Van Sustern, Ann COulter, Rasmussen and others are saying the Repubs won't take the Senate. Even if they do, they won't have a veto proof majority. The Farm Bill, the Highway Bill, the Defence Bill and Congressional Pay Raise Bills will passed regardless. It will be business as usual in D.C.
Speaking of Hypocrites I heard Ensign talking about traditional marriage when he was getting his morning Shoe Shine on the Heidi Harris Train-wreck Show on Kdumb Radio.
So they whine about Angle doing what Harry Reid says is the reason to keep him (he has clout)
REAL SMART
Removed my comment. Looks like the Sun is a Harry Reid paper.
I still say, "Harry Reid the best friend that Illegals have"
It is not about masturbation or crazy or extreme...its about the issues.....and all of you that work on the Reid campaign that part of your strategy is to post here on this liberal blog all day will realize after November 2nd that it was all about the issues which you have forgot to talk about on this blog since all of Reids issues are failures
Sharron Angle will make a great senator. FOX NEWS released a new poll this morning giving Angle a 3 point lead over Harry Greed. This will be a great victory for not only nevada but for america. Cant wait.
NoVaseline - Are you sure it's not about masturbation? It is for me. It tells me that her religious views are clouding the answers to the real issues Americans are facing. Masturbating is not one of them.
November-red; if you believe ANYTHING you hear on FAUX news, you are as dumb as Sharron Angle. By the way, Rasmussen has Reid up by four points. So much for the phony FAUX polls, they only query the idiots that watch them.
Crazy back room Sharron won her primary (with the carpetbaggers help) by getting 16% of the GOP vote. Harry Reid won his primary by getting 78% of the democratic vote. Hummm....
I see the idiot is out in force.
Why would anyone with a brain support a person that is totally crazy and is trying to overthrow the Government?
None of you can say any facts that Harry Reid did anything wrong..
Maybe the only fact you have is that he is a Democrat..
The lies about his causing Nevada any harm is totally BS.
The lies that he is the cause of the Housing market failure is Totally BS.
The Lies that he is trying to give illegal everything is total BS.
The People that want him out for only one reason he is doing his job and doing it very well.
In the past two years we Americans have got more benefits and protection then was generated in the past 24 years. Even under Clinton.
Yea you idiot want to elect a person that is advocating a armed attacked against our government and the killing of senators who have views different from her.
Wake you and be An American for once in your life!
Throughout this country,Americans have to decide if this is the start of a renewed American Congress and the gradual change and return to more liberty and less taxes or a continued downward spiral that Reid and his D.C. cronies represent.Your desire for a weak central govt and strong individual rights STARTS with your VOTE on 2Nov.2010 it does not end by simply voting. Freedom from the tyranny of the takers requires contant Vigillance.The socialist values of reid,obama,mccain and the rest of the RULING CLASS must be erradicated and that takes more than a vote. It took 70 years to arrive at the door of progressive fascist rule, it won't change in a day.Sharron Angle has my vote despite her inexperienced moves. In a way it shows her desire to succeed at all costs. It is no coincidence that Ashjian set her up for reid's benefit and immediately made all the morning propaganda media shows. The fascists are desperate and will stop at nothing to get elected and keep sucking the blood out of this country(you).They are EXPERTS at it,thats what keeps them in power. For the good of this REPUBLIC,we need to vote these bast#%ds out.Sharron may put her foot in her mouth on occasion but reid has a shotgun to your head and is more than eager to pull the trigger should he return.
The measure of success is not on the amount of"BENEFITS" taken from one American and direct deposited to another "BENEFICIARY".More benefits mean more taxes and fees out of someone else's pocket. The "BENEFICIARY" becomes a SLAVE to the fascist MASTER.Facsists always need a lending
source of CAPITAL or a printing press to keep their false Utopia greased.
I am beyond amazed that anyone in Nevada cannot look at the record of blind union support...blind allegiance--aiding and abbetting--what is clearly the worst and most deceitful and incompetent admins of all time...there can BE NO POSSIBLE WAY TO VIEW IT OTHERWISE and find it in your grey matter to even CONSIDER this embarrassing loser. Have you totally lost it?
Even as recently as last week, he was trying to railroad union pandering legislation down our throats!!! Please wake up. He is bought and paid for. He stands for the failure that your state...2nd worst in employment...is wallowing in...time for smart change.
I didn't want to vote for Reid but with Angle soaring off of this world and reality it looks like the best choice of the 2. hmmm. As Angle said make lemondae out of lemons and I guess Reid is my lemon now.
If anyone could possibly think that reid's constant trampling of the people's desire...his passing unread bills and huge pork to unions--his complete indebtedness to unions....and find this any thing but a no brainer --- you have to be totally out of your mind. And with a state that even with the "pull" of the head of the Senate is still in horrible condition....please....give ..... me a break. It is very embarrassing and destructive to your state and this country. Look at the issues and the stances...healthcare is, daily, exposed as a lie...as a deceitful underpriced wreck that this the total incompetent reid slammed down at midnight without the respect/duty to EVEN READ....and anyone sane can support this disaster....WAKE UP!!!! Focus on the issues...read the issues...look at the record....you are sinking.
There has been nothing that Angle has done that comes close to comparing with the emabarrassment of this incredibly stupid and insulting little man. I would give him the credit for not being a part of a organized effort to destroy this country as obama and his band of miscreant, socialist czars, etc...he is far to dim...just a led little old guy who has 'peter principaled' out long ago.
Susan stands for great choices on the ISSUES--focus on the ball and rid yourselves of this anchor.
Im amazed at how scared these socialist are of an american patriot like Sharron Angle. If this is the case can I imagine what they will do when faced with the real enemy of america. The Tea Party movement already knows the answer. The enemy is already here dwelling amongst us calling themselves democrats. LOL. Sharron is going to win because of this mistake in the white house and the U.S. senate. Cant wait november 2
Sharron Angle is a Hary Reid agent.
Think about it. . . .
.-)
"Why in the world would she go out and meet with somebody who is polling at 1 percent?"
[x] She's stoopid.
[x] She's crazy.
[ ] She's politically astute.
[ ] She's got good organization.
[x] She's a Teabagger Nutjob.
I regret to inform everyone but......Sharon Angle is an underhanded DIMWITT
What a laugh, Sharron Angle doesn't care about
anyone but herself.
Another Sarah Palin wanna-be.
She has NO JUICE, for anyone except herself.
Keep this fool out of office.