Category Archives: Sharron Angle

October 4, 2010 · 1:10 PM

Sharron Angle Slams Republicans For Losing ‘Their Principles,’ Says She’s ‘Not Sure’ If She Can Win

Huffington Post

Republican candidate Sharron Angle privately took aim at the GOP establishment and expressed doubt over her ability to win Nevada’s Senate race last week in a closed-door meeting, Jon Ralston at the Las Vegas Sun reports.

During a discussion with the other conservative Senate candidate Jon Scott Ashjian — who will appear on the Nevada’s ballot with the affiliation “Tea Party” next to his name — and Tea Party of Nevada Chairman Sid James, Angle criticized the integrity of Republicans and establishment efforts to direct the trajectory of her campaign.

“The Republicans have lost their standards, they’ve lost their principles,” charged Angle in a thirty-eight minute audio recording obtained by the Sun. “Really that’s why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me… They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government.”

The GOP hopeful went on to address the tense relationship that has evolved between herself and the Republican establishment.

“The one thing you said about the machinery that has endorsed me, they have no choice,” she told Ashjian of her campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle suggested she reluctantly accepted the support because she understands “third parties can’t get traction,” but it has nonetheless been problematic for her political operation.

“You gotta get my armor off and let me pick up this sling,” she said drawing a comparison between her fight and that of David and Goliath. “That’s exactly where I am right now, is trying to get them to leave me alone for long enough so I can get my sling and go after this guy. There are just these issues.”

Angle asserted that Republicans on Capitol Hill don’t want her “back there.” She explained, “They know I’ll shake this mess up” and added that “there was no one more shocked than they were when I won that primary. When I went back to Washington, DC, they were still moaning and groaning and weeping and gnashing teeth over [defeated primary candidate] Sue Lowden…I said I am what ya got, this is it.”    Continue reading…

For those remarks and more, click here.

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September 28, 2010 · 4:50 AM

Newsweek: What does ‘Mama Grizzly’ really mean?

Newsweek

Sarah Palin says that a new crop of conservative women will ‘rise up’ to protect their cubs. But will they?

ma·ma griz·zly noun, pl. -zlies

1. Large brown bear, female of the species, native to North America with big claws. 2. A certain breed of U.S. politician, female, who stands for…

…what exactly? On some level, the term isn’t hard to figure out. A mama grizzly is a conservative woman with “common sense,” as Sarah Palin puts it, someone who “rises up” to protect her children when she sees them endangered by bad policies in Washington. She is fearless, and that, in combination with her femaleness, makes her scary—a new kind of political predator. She will take on any foe and, the implication is, rip him or her to shreds.

Palin first described herself as a mama grizzly during her 2008 vice presidential run. She floated the current usage—as a movement—in a speech before a pro-life women’s group in May, and soon she was reflecting on the special qualities of mama bears on her Facebook page. “Mama bears not only [forage] for themselves to prepare for winter, they [work] twice as hard to slay salmon for their cubs, too.” By late June, Palin’s political-action committee had realized the emotional power of the image, and made an Internet ad—nearly half a million views to date, titled “Mama Grizzlies”—which is as plaintive and urgent as a 1960s protest song. It calls America’s women to a sisterhood of grizzlies “because moms kind of just know when there’s something wrong.”

Political pundits and journalists were delighted. Like beauty-contest judges, they began to bestow the mama grizzly title upon the women Palin endorsed, such as Nikki Haley, who is running for governor in South Carolina; Carly Fiorina, a Senate candidate in California; and Susana Martinez, a gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico. Palin was soon anointing mama grizzlies herself. When she endorsed Arkansas congressional candidate Cecile Bledsoe on Facebook, Palin explicitly referred to her as part of a growing list of “commonsense conservative ‘mama grizzlies.’ ”  Continue reading…

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September 25, 2010 · 3:02 AM

Reid-Angle forum ends with scuffle in crowd

Las Vegas Sun Times

If Sharron Angle thought a forum hosted by Christian groups would provide her with a friendly audience, she was wrong.

The Republican U.S. Senate candidate got booed, heckled, mocked and interrupted during an hour-long question-and-answer session at Faith Lutheran Jr./Sr. High School in Las Vegas.

So did Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But he wasn’t there to hear it.

Reid was in Washington, D.C., because Congress is in session. He taped answers to questions asked by moderator Mitch Fox weeks ago and appeared in video on two jumbo screens hanging above the stage.

A fight among audience members broke out toward the end of the forum as Reid supporters tried to leave while Angle was still speaking.

Kelly Tanaka said an unidentified man pushed her over and punched her friend Thursday after the forum. The man was detained by school officials.

The 27-year-old Tanaka said the fight occurred because she walked past the man, not because she supports Reid and he backs Angle.

On the issues, neither Reid nor Angle’s answers to the six questions about the economy and small business were surprising.

Reid touted his record of saving jobs and promised to create more. He highlighted his efforts to make Nevada a renewable energy leader and stressed the importance of tourism. Angle vowed to cut taxes, blasted what she called a government blinded by “the fog of taxation and regulation” and promised to “reclaim education for Nevada.”

Both candidates easily controlled their individual conversations with Fox in what was not a true debate format. Each relied heavily on campaign talking points and told personal stories of the hardships they’ve witnessed and the people they’ve helped.

What was far more surprising was the passion Reid and Angle stirred in the crowd of about 800 gathered to listen.

The audience, seemingly split in their loyalties, drowned out both candidates with competing jeers and applause. Pleas for decorum by organizers were ignored.

The video-version of Reid remained unfazed as audience members hissed at him and mocked his claim that “in three years, everyone will have health insurance like I do.”

But Angle looked nervous and flustered by the rowdy crowd. She stumbled on her words and looked down at the stage. Still, she smiled through the awkwardness.

Among the comments that garnered Angle the biggest response — mostly negative — were advocating building two coal-fired plants in Ely, encouraging more lithium mining in Nevada and promoting the state’s potential for nuclear energy.

Angle earned the biggest cheers when she said there’s nothing wrong with the health care system.

“We have the finest health care system in the world,” Angle said, noting that the problem is the cost, which “Obamacare” doesn’t address.

Security at the school was high. Guards checked women’s purses and turned people with campaign signs away.

Posters on nearly every door stated that cameras and video equipment were not permitted. Giant screens warned, “NO questions from the audience or the media allowed.”

“Wow, it’s a debate. That’s a lot of security,” said former Republican Gov. Robert List, who attended the event.

As the forum ended and Angle turned to leave the stage, a woman approached her to ask why she wants to limit help for people with autism. The Reid campaign this week released video of Angle in which she appears to criticize a Nevada mandate that requires insurance companies to cover treatment for autism.

Angle ignored the question. Her handlers had warned that she would not be speaking with anyone after the event. They had to whisk her away to catch a flight to Reno for a morning fundraiser.

Angle looked past the woman, waved to the crowd one last time and walked away.

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September 23, 2010 · 2:32 AM

Sharron Angle Slams Mandated Health Care Coverage For Autism Treatment, Maternity Leave (VIDEO)

What boggles the mind here is how there is at least 30% of  people who vote that agree with Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul and Samantha…uh…I mean Christine O’Donnell on the issue of repealing Health Care Reform.  I guess my point of view as a human being who cares about others who may be suffering financially, physically or emotionally, is why not let the government help where help is needed most?   The right feels that everything should be left to the free market to take care of and that eventually, the less fortunate will reap benefits from the “trickling down” of money to address their needs.

Excuse me, but we’ve tried that, under conservative majority rule for over thirty years, since Reagan’s presidency and today, we are STILL feeling the effect of the “free market theory” espoused by conservatives.

The tea partiers and conservative ‘populous’ have bought and been sold a bogus plan that only helps the top 3% of this country.  That would be, the wealthiest Americans.  Many of those viewers and listeners of Fox and Limbaugh are fighting against their own economic interests and it boggles my mind…

Huffington Post

Speaking at a Tea Party rally last year, Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle appeared to mock the notion that health care coverage for autism treatment and maternity leave should be mandated.

“Take off the mandates for coverage in the state of Nevada and all over the United States,” she charged in making remarks that were captured on camera and now are being circulated by the Nevada State Democratic Party. “You know what I’m talking about. You’re paying for things that you don’t even need. They just passed the latest one, is everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under ‘autism’.”

In video shot of Angle making the criticism, she can be seen making air quotes as she says “autism.”

The Tea Party darling went on to say, “So, that’s a mandate that you have to pay for. How about maternity leave? I’m not going to have anymore babies, but I sure get to pay for it on my insurance. Those are the kinds of things that we want to get rid of.”

Nevada-based station My News 4 reports:

Her comments regarding autism coverage refer to Assembly Bill 162, which passed with sweeping bipartisan support in the Nevada Legislature in 2009. Only two Nevada legislators voted no on the bill: Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa, Churchill, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Mineral, Nye counties, and AssemblymanDon Gustavson, R-Sparks, Humboldt, Lander, Washoe counties. The bill passed 60-2 in both houses with one legislator absent.

The Las Vegas Sun first reported on the clip of Angle’s comments coming to light on Wednesday.

Angle is vying to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. The four-term incumbent’s camp didn’t hold back in reacting to the matter.

Story continues below

In a statement, Reid campaign spokesman Kelly Steele said, “Sharron Angle’s extreme and dangerous agenda for Nevada has included some exceptionally callous rhetoric, including calling out-of-work Nevadans ‘spoiled’ by unemployment benefits and saying that rape victims should ‘make lemons into lemonade’ by having their attacker’s child, but mocking those suffering with autism – and in fact scapegoating their coverage for our nation’s current health care woes – is exceptionally cruel and represents a new low, even for Sharron Angle.”

WATCH: Angle Slams Mandated Health Care Coverage For Autism Treatment, Maternity Leave

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September 17, 2010 · 1:56 AM

The Nevada dogfight: Reid blasts Angle as “crazy”

The Plum Line

This new ad from Harry Reid, hitting back at an earlier spot from Sharron Angle blasting him over immigration, is the clearest indication yet of what a brutal dogfight the Nevada Senate race has become:

Reid’s ad is a response to the Angle spot earlier this week that declared Reid “the best friend an illegal alien ever had.”

Reid has come out in support of immigration reform, part of an effort to boost the Latino turnout that will be critical to his chances, but the Reid camp’s swift response to the Angle spot illustrates how lethal the politics of illegal immigration remain.

Also note the spot’s quick pivot at the end back to one of the core issues in the race: Angle’s suggestion of phasing out Social Security. And: After hinting at it for weeks by characterizing Angle as “extreme and dangerous,” for the first time, the Reid campaign has come right out and used the word “crazy.”

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September 9, 2010 · 3:35 AM

Reid campaign: Angle is crazy and a liar

Senator Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader

Image via Wikipedia

 

The Plum Line – Greg Sargent 

As I’ve noted here before, what’s striking about the Nevada Senate race is that the primary source of ammo Harry Reid has employed against Sharron Angle — really, the only source of ammo — has been nothing other than her own spoken words. 

Now the Reid campaign is out with a new Web vid — to be blasted to the press later this afternoon — that takes this to a new level, splicing multiple Angle quotes to make the case that she lied three times in one interview about previous controversial things she herself had said. 

The hook is Angle’s interview with ABC News that aired today, in which she was asked to clarify her claim that Obama and Dem big government policies are a violation of the First Commandment. Angle denied she ever said it, but the video evidence suggests otherwise: 

 

The above video also shows her seeming to deny she ever used the phrase “Second Amendment remedies,” and it shows her insisting that her agreement that there are “domestic enemies” in Congress was taken out of context — both of which are also contradicted by the video evidence. 

The degree to which Angle’s own words have become far and away her most glaring vulnerability really is remarkable. Of course, it’s equally remarkable — and a sign of just how unpopular Harry Reid and Obama/Dem policies are in Reid’s state — that a candidate with Angle’s verbal track record stands a perfectly reasonable chance of becoming the next Senator from Nevada. 

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September 1, 2010 · 3:25 PM

Sharron Angle Denies Saying Federal Government Initiatives Violate ‘The First Commandment’

Huffington Post

On Tuesday, Republican candidate Sharron Angle, who’s challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, denied she said during an interview earlier this year that certain government initiatives represent a “violation of the First Commandment,” the Las Vegas Sun reports.

Angle told TruNews Christian Radio’s Rick Wile back in April, “I know people are very frightened about what’s going on in this country. And these programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government.” She added, “We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government. And you’ve just identified the real crux of the problem.”

But, yesterday, when ABC News asked Angle about the remarks at a campaign event in Minden, Nev., the Tea Party-backed contender reportedly asserted, “That’s not what I said.”

Angle then revived a similar line of defense she’s turned to before when she’s found herself under fire for appearing to flip-flop.

“You speak in the language of the folks that you’re communicating with and I was speaking in their language,” explained the Senate hopeful. “And the language that I used is that our country, we have become a country that has put our faith, not in ‘God we trust’, which is on our money, but in government we trust and that is what I was referring to. We have allowed government to take the place of God.”

The comments echo an explanation provided by Angle to the Las Vegas Review Journal editorial board last month in discussing the changes her campaign had undergone amid the transition from the primary to general election season. She said, “Understand, the rhetoric of a primary is a little different because obviously your audience is a little different so you’re going to say things in a little more guarded way when you get into a general election precisely since your opponent is looking to cut up your words.”

(Via Jon Ralston at the Las Vegas Sun comes audio of what Angle originally had to say about the First Commandment.)

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August 31, 2010 · 4:47 PM

Sharron Angle’s Plan For Education: Eliminate All Of It

Think Progress

Speaking at a forum for the right-wing Steamboat Institute last week, Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle effectively declared that public schools should cease to exist. Early in her speech, Angle reiterated her belief that America should abolish the federal Department of Education because education is “better taken care of at the state level.” Yet, in response to an audience member’s question, Angle also highlighted her work to de-fund Nevada’s public schools:

We had a two-thirds rule in our constitution, that the people passed not once, but twice, saying that it would take a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature to pass a tax increase.  We had 15 strong assemblymen . . . of which I was the whip.  And I began to do what you do as a whip, and that was to say to these guys, “guys, we need to hold strong against this tax increase.  We cannot stand a big tax increase like this. …”

During that time, the governor sued the legislature to make us raise taxes by a simple majority and the supreme court went along with it.  At my own expense, I hired a fellow out of Claremont Institute, Dr. John Eastman, to take this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, to fight for our Constitution.

Watch it:

Angle’s tale of her bold battle against taxes is only half of the story. In 2003, the Nevada legislature enacted a budget which did not include education funding, on the theory that they would take up a second bill which ensured that the public schools could remain open when the school year began. Because the Nevada Constitution requires both a balanced budget and the state to fund education, this second bill would include a combination of tax increases and education spending.

The two bill strategy broke down, however, when a minority of the state Assembly — led by Sharron Angle — refused to enact any bill which raised the new revenue required to reopen the public schools. Because a two-thirds majority is necessary to enact any tax increases, Angle’s minority was on the verge of shutting down all public education in the state of Nevada.

Eventually, the Nevada Supreme Court thwarted Angle’s plans. The court case which Angle refers to, Guinn v. Legislature of the State of Nevada, waived the two-thirds supermajority requirement in order to ensure that the state met its constitutional obligation to provide public schools. So when Angle says that she appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court “to fight for our Constitution,” she really was fighting against the Nevada Constitution’s requirement that all children have the opportunity to obtain a public education.

In other words, Angle supports a two-step process to reform education in the United States:

  • Phase One: Eliminate all federal funding of education.
  • Phase Two: Eliminate all other funding of education.

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August 19, 2010 · 5:11 PM

Sharron Angle Campaigned Against Black Football Jerseys On Religious Grounds: Color is ‘Thoroughly Evil’

Ok, I’m running out of patience with this woman…

The question is who’s more batshit crazy…Angle, Taitz, Bachmann or Palin?

Huffington Post

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle once partook in a campaign against a local high school’s use of black football jerseys, arguing that the dark color was ungodly and wicked, Bill Roberts of Nevada’s Pahrump Valley Times recently reported.

It was Homecoming of 1992 and Nevada’s Tonopah High School football was seeking to depart from their school colors, specifically in wearing black jerseys instead of the usual red and white. The uniform change was meant to be a display of solidarity; the year before, the team had suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of a rival that had, up to that point, been winless. The Homecoming game in 1992 was their chance to make up for that plaguing defeat in front of the whole school, and they wanted to do something special to build the team’s spirits.

Enter Sharron Angle and her color-crusading cohort.

While some detractors made the argument that adopting the new color was unacceptable simply as a breach of tradition, Angle — who was in the midst of an eventually successful campaign for school board — and others argued that wearing black jerseys was closer to sacrilege.

“I cannot quote scripture as they did to justify their point but the gist of their argument was that black as a color was thoroughly evil, invoking the supernatural and especially the devil,” Roberts reports. “Whichever argument prevailed, school administrators caved in and prohibited the Muckers from wearing the black apparel.”

The black uniforms were then confiscated and held under “lock and key” by the administration, which refused to compensate the team for the money they had spent acquiring the jerseys.

Though Sharron Angle sought to downplay the nearly 20-year old incident at a press conference Wednesday, claiming that she had “no recollection of the controversy or any position she may have taken,” such a stance would not be entirely uncharacteristic of the deeply religious Senate candidate that Angle has shown herself to be since capturing her primary victory in June.

From the “the beginning,” Angle has described her campaign as divinely inspired, and said in July that she believed God had called on her to run for the U.S. Senate. She has also repeatedly made clear her positions on abortion — that it shouldn’t be accepted even in the cases of rape or incest — and has expressed skepticism over the true necessity for a separation of church and state. Earlier this month, Angle painted the Democratic agenda as a “violation of the First Commandment,” because it supposedly created idolatry in making the “government our God” with entitlement programs. Just a day later, she filled out a questionnaire of her religious views that uncovered her dislike of gay adoption, her support for the clergy taking part in politics, and a promise not to take money from any PAC or corporation that supported gay rights.

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· 1:02 AM

Sharron Angle Compares Herself To America’s ‘Founding Fathers’

Well, keeping with the mission of this blog: sorting out the crazies, Sharron Angle strikes again!

Huffington Post

Republican candidate Sharron Angle, who’s fighting to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, says she’s no different than the country’s “founding fathers” when it comes to criticism she’s faced for maintaining extremely conservative, and in some cases controversial, views.

The Tea Party-backed hopeful drew the comparison in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday.

“I’m sure that they probably said that about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin,” explained Angle on any suggestion that her positions are problematically too far to the right. “And truly, when you look at the Constitution and our founding fathers and their writings, the things that made this country great, you might draw those conclusions: That they were conservative. They were fiscally conservative and socially conservative.”

The Senate hopeful, who has developed a reputation for being press-shy since winning the rights to take on Reid, reportedly “spoke slowly and cautiously” to the Times and “appeared reluctant to engage, frequently reciting stock answers to questions.”

On the heels of Nevada’s GOP Senate primary, Angle similarly refuted the idea that the positions she maintains are extreme. In a radio interview, the conservative contender insisted that she’s “more mainstream” than Reid and blasted the four-term incumbent as a “whack job.”

Reid signaled to the Times that his camp anticipates Angle’s harsh rhetoric could prove to be her Achilles’ heel, but added that he’s not “discounting” the conservative challenger as a viable threat to his reelection.

“Our focus groups that we’ve done, my staff tells me this — her statements, they can’t believe that anyone would say that,” explained the Senate leader. “That’s why most of our TV just has her talking… In spite of the work we’ve done, people need to understand more about her.   There are some unusual stands she has.”

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