A Harry Reid radio ad playing in Nevada this weekend uses a sentence taken out of context from an opinion editorial endorsing Sharron Angle to try to turn rural voters against her.
The op-ed was panned by Ely Times Editor Kent Harper and addresses a key aspect in the argument for Reid and against Angle, namely that Reid’s influence is needed in Washington and Angle, as a junior senator, will be largely irrelevant if elected. But Harper says that argument is, in itself, irrelevant. The sentence quoted in the 60-second radio spot is in bold text below:
You’ve been deluged with mud-coated messages since well before the spring primary election, and you’ll hear more over the next six days.
Claims you’ve heard, however, that Sharron Angle is dangerous and too extreme for Nevada are irrelevant.
That’s because, if elected, the Tea Party’s Cup o’ Tea will, herself, be irrelevant. She’ll be a back-bencher with no seniority and no worthwhile committee assignments. Her only influence will as a member of the GOP’s senatorial tea party caucus, which will attempt to woo other Republicans to their austere view of government.
Electing Sharron Angle to the Senate would be a monumental sacrifice for Nevada and White Pine voters.
Harry Reid has done a lot for and to White Pine County over his years in the U.S. Senate. We’ll leave his statewide track record for others to praise or damn.
The radio ad starts off by listing a number of job-creating construction projects that exist because of Harry Reid, and then adds:
That’s why the editor of the Ely Times says, quote, ‘electing Sharron Angle to the Senate would be a monumental sacrifice for Nevada and White Pine’, from wiping out Social Security to tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs to China, Angle’s crazy ideas are why more and more business leaders and Republicans are supporting Harry Reid.
But while Harper does list Reid’s many gifts to White Pine County over the years, his conclusion is this that getting rid of Nevada’s senior senator may be worth the sacrifice:
Yes, dumping Harry Reid would be a sacrifice for White Piners.
But it’s a sacrifice many are ready to make. And not because of past grievances.
If you believe the Obama Administration has gone too far in its efforts to right the social wrongs of the past, running up unsustainable debt in its effort to provide healthcare for the underclass at the cost of the nation’s economic health, then the sacrifice is small.
If you believe returning Reid to the Senate will continue the erosion of private enterprise, the establishment of greater government regulations and diminishment of personal liberties, then the sacrifice is small.
And what’s so bad about Nevada sending a freshman senator to work with the others of the new tea party generation.
Harry Reid started off as a back-bencher with no seniority and no worthwhile committee assignments.
Dumping Harry Reid will be a sacrifice. But it may be the kind of sacrifice Nevada needs to make for the good of the nation.
Here is the full audio of the radio spot: