Sherman Frederick/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Sen. Harry Reid called President Barack Obama today to protest his use of Las Vegas in a negative way.
Good for Harry, save for one thing — his call did no good.
The president wrote back this: “I hope you know that during my Town Hall today, I wasn’t saying anything negative about Las Vegas. I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun. There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations. I have always enjoyed my visits, look forward to visiting in a few weeks, and hope folks will visit in record numbers this year.”
What kind of stupid does he think Nevadans are?
No apology … just this strange note. I hope Harry writes him back an absolutely scathing letter. I’d start out like this:
“Dear Mr. President,
“In light of your failure to understand how much damage you have done to the Nevada economy, it would be best if you cancel your upcoming visit to Las Vegas. If you don’t, don’t expect any public official to stand with you on any stage here — and that starts with me!”
Think Harry’s got the eggs for that? I hope so because, gawd, Las Vegas could use a little backbone out of our so-called most powerful politician ever.
This city is ground zero for the recession and Washington has not been very friendly lately. Maybe a full-on, four-letter-word note to Mr. I-Can-Do-No-Wrong President will jerk him back to the reality of a city at 13% unemployment.
Like a typical Marxist, Obama throws people off the ship when he no longer needs them but union members in Las Vegas haven’t yet figured that out. These people came out en masse for this guy, organized to the hilt for him and this is how he repays them? These folks are trying to feed families on cabby wages and tips. They are the hotel housekeepers and casino dealers, construction workers and valets who all depend on tourism for their livelihood, directly or indirectly and who came out and elected this lame president. He repays them by denigrating their city… again.
Harry Milquetoast Reid’s weak response – Mr. President, you really should stop picking on Las Vegas – doesn’t cut it, either. But who expects more from this lap dog?
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who led the chorus of criticism last year when Obama warned against Las Vegas visits “on the taxpayers’ dime,” took his outrage a step further during a hastily arranged news conference at City Hall.
“An apology won’t be acceptable this time,” said Goodman, who changed his political affiliation from Democrat to nonpartisan in December as he pondered a bid for governor. “I want to assure you when he comes I will do everything I can to give him the boot back to Washington and to visit his failures back there.”
Goodman raised his voice repeatedly… [Oscar Goodman, mayor and former mob lawyer – only in Las Vegas – dontcha love it?]
Dean Heller, R-Nev., said, “At the same time the President tells people not to come to Las Vegas, he has no problems coming to our state to raise money.”
No problem whatsoever. I remember how they organized – and voted inside the casinos – to get out the vote for him and NOT Hillary, in the primaries.
I love Las Vegas and Nevada and it will always be home to me. I take his comments as a slap in the face and I hope that his beloved unions will eventually wake up and see that they too, are being slapped around by their idol.
And it might help Sen. Reid by allowing him to show Nevada voters he is willing to stand up to the president.
“This kind of separates Sen. Reid a little bit and shows he is supportive of his home state first and foremost,” she [Democratic consultant Ronni Council] said.
I’m so doubting that. His poll numbers are in the shitter out here. I have a feeling that Harry is dying right now, this is the last thing he needs. And it’s getting too late for CPR.
It’s unknown whether Obama, when he visits Las Vegas about Feb. 18, will participate in any campaign events to benefit Reid, who’s in a tough re-election battle.
Judging by Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Obama’s record at campaigning for fellow dems, sucks. I think I’d rather he stay away if I were running for something.
Council also said the fact Obama mentions Las Vegas in his speeches reinforces the desert destination as a top national getaway, even if it comes with a little scolding from an authority figure.
“Every time he says something negative about us we probably get more people who want to come here,” she said.
That’s not how Las Vegas boosters and gambling and convention industry officials viewed Obama’s first Las Vegas remark, delivered in February 2009 during a speech at a recreational vehicle factory.
I beg to differ with this democrat hack. It was reported that after Obama’s remarks last year, Las Vegas lost $400 million in tourist and convention dollars.
“You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime,” Obama said in a remark aimed at bailout-accepting bankers who had been accused of cavorting in Las Vegas as their companies collapsed.
But executives from Las Vegas’ biggest resort companies said the remark scared off business. The banking firm Goldman Sachs bailed out of a Las Vegas event to escape the perception of wasteful spending only to reschedule in San Francisco, a more expensive destination.
I’m anxious to see how he will be received when he comes to Vegas in the next couple weeks. Maybe I’ll try to be in the city that day.
But the best news of the day, also from today’s R-J:
Posted by Laura Myers
Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010 at 07:55 PM
Sarah Palin, who has achieved rock star status among conservative Republicans, is coming to Sen. Harry Reid’s hometown.
She’ll be in Searchlight March 27 to launch a Tea Party Express cross-country bus tour that ends in Washington, D.C., on April 15 – Tax Day – after stopping in 42 cities along way, according to organizers.
Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican John McCain’s vice presidential running mate in 2008, will help step up the Tea Party activists’ campaign to unseat Democrats and GOP incumbents who don’t adhere to the conservatives’ agenda of less spending, less taxes and less government. The Tea Party movement also is backing newcomer candidates who see things their way as well.
The hottest spot in Searchlight - Terrible Herbst's gas station/McDonalds/Casino. I can recommend this as a good, clean bathroom pit stop.
“We’re really excited,” Levi Russell, a Tea Party Express spokesman, said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We knew the Searchlight kick off was going to be big with all the conservative candidates runnng against Reid there to make this a referendum on Reid. But Sarah Palin has greatly magnified that.”
The confirmed GOP primary candidates seeking Reid’s seat include Sue Lowden, Danny Tarkanian and Sharron Angle, Russell said.
Sen. Reid responded to Palin with a bring it on invitation: “Make sure you stop by the Nugget for a ten-cent cup of coffee with free refills – and make sure to say “hi” to Verlie,” Reid said in a statement.
Reid grew up in Searchlight, a small mining town about 60 miles south of Las Vegas. He’s seeking a fifth term but he’s running behind his potential GOP opponents in early polls. And the national Republican Party is targeting him for ouster because, as Senate majority leader, he has led the unpopular effort to reform health care and do Obama’s bidding on Capitol Hill.
Palin is delivering the keynote address at the National Tea Party Convention this weekend in Nashville, Tenn.
The Tea Party organizers are hoping for big crowds in Searchlight, but even larger crowds in Washington, D.C. – hundreds of thousands, like the Sept. 12 rally last year, according to Russell.
The Tea Party movement of anti-tax and anti-big government conservatives formed last year and has grown larger and more popular across the country as voters have become disenchanted with Washington politics – even with mainline Republicans on Capitol HIll but especially with Democratic President Barack Obama and the Democrats who control both houses of Congress.
I’m not working that day and I WILL be in Searchlight – a mere 70 miles from me – to see Sarah and see this express kick off to a roaring start! I’ll take pictures, too!
~~~~ooOoo~~~~
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