Congressman Dean Heller vs Senator Harry Reid

Republican Congressman Dean Heller, Nevada Congressional District 2

Democratic Senator and Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid

I enjoyed reading Jon Ralston’s column yesterday in the Las Vegas Sun. He has a way with words. “Let us turn our attention today from the train wreck unfolding in Carson City” he began, inviting our attention to Nevada Senator and Majority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid.

Senator Reid is of diminutive size, with a soft voice. Nevertheless, make no mistake; he is commanding increasing attention of Nevada politicos, particularly the Nevada GOP. In disarray in Nevada, the GOP desperately wants to find someone within their ranks to beat Senator Reid in the 2010 election. As Ralston noted, they are bantering about the names of Sharron Angle and John Chachas as possible candidates to run against Reid.

Angle is sort of a fringe possibility. She has a following. But it is small and composed of anti-tax advocates. A one-issue group. I met Angle once at a Pahrump Fall Festival. Very attractive woman, but a one-issue candidate.

Chachas I have never heard of. However, I am not wired into the internal workings of the GOP. Ralston says Chachas is a New York Banker. Nevadan’s seem to prefer candidates that have been bred, born and lived a lifetime in Battle Born Nevada. I do not know how being bred, born and raised in Nevada makes them any more competent, but that seems to be the view. Maybe it is something in the Nevada water that makes the candidate more capable. I doubt that.

Ralston mentioned Chuck Muth. I blogged about Muth a few days ago. His dream of Dean Heller running against Senator Reid somehow leading the way for the GOP to overthrow the Democrats’ political influence in Nevada.

Ralston thinks Heller would be the GOP candidate with the best chance of ousting Reid. “He is telegenic and has a rock-solid base and few negatives,” he wrote. He has a point. Voters are naive and tend to look no deeper into the competency of candidates than their good looks. The GOP has a way of selling candidates, like a brand of toothpaste. Bumper sticker politics. Heller is handsome. Has a good smile. Probably an affable demeanor. He may cause GOP women’s hearts to flutter. That has nothing to do with the ability to fill the shoes of a senator. The GOP in Washington, says Ralston, think Heller is God. I find that amusing, since the GOP think Democrats see Barack Obama as the messiah. That is what Dan Schinhofen told me. Dan only smiled when I responded Obama can walk on water. Heller is really more of a Dan Quayle or another Jim Gibbons. “All hat—no cattle” as Putin once noted about George W. Bush.

With due respect to Mr. Heller, he doesn’t have the capability to be a United States Senator in these times of complex problems of the economy, two wars, job losses in the millions to name a few.

Heller, during his term in the House of Representatives, tends to vote against the interests of ordinary people and in favor of big business. He voted to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, repeatedly voted against tax policies needed for development of renewable energy, voted no on mortgage restructuring in bankruptcy, voted no on oversight of TARP, voted no on reauthorization of Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), no on prescription drug imports, again voted no on the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Act, no on the National Volunteer Program Expansion, no on the Equal Pay Bill, no on Alternative Energy Tax Incentives, and no on Expansion of the G.I. Bill. There is more but you get the idea.

He gets most of his campaign money from the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industries.

Related posts:

1. Voting records of Dean Heller, Harry Reid and John Ensign
2. Republican Congressman Dean Heller’s Dilemma
3. Heller Won’t Challenge Reid
4. GOP cannot find anyone to challenge Reid
5. GOP problems finding candidates