GOP DEBATE PRE-GAME SHOW

Here’s what our pal Rich Galen of Mullings.com says to look for in tonight's Myrtle Beach debate in South Carolina:

• “Romney can't look like he has this wrapped up tonight. He has to engage, but not bully; respond, but not rise to the bait; and, most of all, remind South Carolina voters they he is the only candidate on the stage who has a shot at beating Obama.”

•  “Gingrich does have some distance (in the polls) between him and Ron Paul/Rick Santorum so his task tonight is to go back to ‘Professor Newt’ and use the next week to ensure he can make the logical political case to go on to Florida.”

•  “There are two truths in this year's GOP Primary: Ron Paul will not be the nominee, and Ron Paul will not get out of the race. . . . For tonight's debate, Ron Paul has the easiest task: He just needs to be Ron Paul. His supporters love it, his opponents ignore it, and he gets to keep going as long as he wants.”

•  “Santorum can't get to Romney - he's too far ahead - and he doesn't need to get past Paul for the reasons we discussed above. Perry is a non-factor, so Santorum's only target tonight must be Gingrich.”

 

GREETINGS, ROSS MILLER…YOU’VE BEEN SUED

Citizen Outreach is joining activist/lawyer Kermitt Waters in a lawsuit against Secretary of State Ross Miller challenging his AB81 election reform bill from the last legislative session (as well as SB 224 from 2005) for “violation of the single subject restriction of Article 4, section 17” of the Nevada Constitution.

Here’s the wording of Article 4, section 17:

“Each law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one subject, and matter, properly connected therewith, which subject shall be briefly expressed in the title…”

AB81 “is 55 pages in length and…is composed of 69 sections and amends, adds or deletes more than 50 separate freestanding NRS Statutes,” reads the complaint.  “Even though the Nevada Constitution prohibits legislation that exceeds a single subject, this Bill addresses more than 30 different subjects and amends more than 50 separate statutes.”

AB81, by the way, includes the NRS language change Miller proposed to redefine the meaning of the term “express advocacy” which, of course, is what Miller is using to sue Citizen Outreach for mailers that were mailed out a year before Miller’s unconstitutional law even took effect.

All of which is the latest example of how Ross Miller – the boy who would be governor - is perhaps the worst Secretary of State in Nevada history.

PAGING KEVIN PAGE

Very interesting, classy and magnanimous tweet from former University Chancellor Jim Rogers today about a Republican elected official…

“In the year I have written 260 twitters, I have tried to be accurate.  I have reread each and every one of these twitters and find I would change only one of them.  In my analysis of the 13 members of the Board of Regents, I graded each of them.  I stand by those grades except for Kevin Page who I gave a C-.  I was wrong.

“I should have given him an ‘A’ because I failed to fully understand all of the hard, productive, thoughtful work, total passion and sound thinking of this very smart public servant.  (The pay is less than fifty cents an hour.)  In the last several months, I have seen him assume a real leadership role in the Higher Education System.  He has learned the intricacies of how the eight institution system works and, with very limited financial support, how the system makes a valiant effort to improve the lives of all Nevadans.

“Regent is a part-time job that requires full time effort, perseverance, dedication, thoughtful consideration, along with the ability and character to stand up for what is good for Nevada’s education.  Kevin has all of these attributes.  I apologize to Kevin for misjudging him.”

I guess what Mr. Rogers wrote about me being born with “somewhat less than half a brain” still stands.  Oh, well. 

THE RALSTON RANT

Nugget #1: In criticizing Citizen Outreach’s presidential preference poll last week, Jon Ralston whinnied about how we didn’t include Jon Huntsman as an option.  Well, as you probably know, Huntsman’s has dropped out of the race. 

So it looks like our poll was prescient, while Ralson’s criticism was petty.

Nugget #2: In criticizing Citizen Outreach for being part of a new lawsuit challenging Ross Miller’s election law bill last session (AB81) for violating the constitutional single-subject requirement (see above), Jon Ralston accused us of being a partisan and a right-wing front group. 

I’ll plead guilty to right wing, but “front group”?  For whom?  Fellow right-wingers?

And as for being “partisan,” not true.  Just ask Republicans such as Pete Goicoechea, Bill Raggio, Randolph Townsend, Francis Allen, Jim Gibbons,  Brian Sandoval, Garn Mabey, Heidi Gansert, Lynn Stewart, Joe Hardy…and of course, Mark Surewould. 

Fact is, I’ve been harsher on some Republicans than on Democrats because…well, I expect Democrats to vote for higher taxes and bigger government; I expect better from Republicans. 

So we’re not partisan; we’re conservative.  But Jon likes to make words mean whatever Jon wants them to mean.  Kinda like Humpty Dumpty and Ross Miller.  It’s part of his “airquote” schtick.

POLITICAL POTPOURRI

* Jon Huntsman is a moderate.  And most of his voters picked Mitt Romney as their second choice.  Because Romney is a moderate.  Therefore, no surprise that Huntsman endorsed Romney when he quit the race.  Which is also meaningless to conservatives because Huntsman was never a “not Romney” alternative since he’s a philosophical moderate like Romney.  We now return to our regular programming.

* “Jon Huntsman tried to rerun the successful John McCain 2008 game plan,” writes Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform on Huntsman quitting the presidential race.  “(But he) forgot to spend the necessary quality time in a POW camp to get a pass from Reagan Republicans on policy lapses.”  Ouch.  That’s gonna leave a mark.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Dems blame GOP for partisanship---Republicans just accept partisanship as part of the process since our Founding.” – Tweet from Ron Futrell

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