Opinion: Nevada’s Sharron Angle returns to politics, as will all the ways Harry Reid slammed her
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Is Sharia law taking hold in U.S. cities? Are the unemployed spoiled? And what exactly constitutes a 2nd Amendment remedy?
Republican Sharron Angle gave us all sorts of things to ponder during her failed 2010 bid to oust Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. Now, Nevada’s doyenne of head-scratching statements -– who once characterized entitlement programs as a form of idolatry –- is returning to the political arena, where she’ll likely dole out more.
Angle, a former state lawmaker and a ‘tea party’ darling, announced this month that she would vie for the congressional seat that Republican Rep. Dean Heller is vacating to run for the Senate. Many Republicans in the Silver State groaned. They’d prefer an establishment candidate, such as Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki or state GOP Chairman Mark Amodei, who wouldn’t carry as much baggage into the general election.
In her race against Reid, Angle raised millions of dollars and charmed a number of voters with her warm persona. But the unpopular Reid still trounced her by about 6 percentage points. To be sure, Angle ran a flawed campaign, but what ultimately sank her was Reid’s barrage of commercials drubbing her lightning-rod statements.
Angle often speaks in fiery rhetoric that simultaneously rallies her conservative supporters and turns off moderates. For example, when asked what she’d tell a teenager who’d been impregnated by her father, Angle essentially said she’d encourage the girl to give birth, turning ‘what was really a lemon situation into lemonade.’
Not the best metaphor.
To outdistance Angle, a tireless campaigner, her rivals will likely ...
... copy Reid’s game plan and revive her choice utterances. And if the days after she announced her congressional bid are any indication, Angle will likely hand them more fodder.
In a fundraising pitch on behalf of a conservative veterans group, she said the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ political arm ‘betrayed America and American Veterans by endorsing liberal members of Congress’ such as Reid. Instead, she wrote, it should have backed candidates such as Arizona’s Jesse Kelly, a Republican.
Left unsaid: Kelly unsuccessfully ran against Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was gravely wounded in a shooting that also killed six people in Tucson. In the rampage’s aftermath, critics pounced on Angle’s campaign-trail comment that people might resort to ‘2nd Amendment remedies’ should control of Congress not change.
Not the best idea to remind voters of that.
Angle, the Associated Press reported, is now planning to self-publish an autobiography called ‘Right Angle.’ Who knows what gems it might contain?
Actually, we probably all will, after Angle’s opponents paw through it.
-- Ashley Powers
Twitter.com / latimesvegas
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