With 71% of precincts reporting, the AP has called the Nevada U.S. Senate race for Harry Reid.
When I saw this reported on Real Clear Politics, I got teary. Tears of joy.
The Democrats got crushed Tuesday, but the re-election of Reid will be one of the best political moments of my life.
As a Mormon Dem, we have few victories..but Harry Reid is still in the U.S. Senate. I am going to bed happy.
Yeah, it’s a bitter pill for me. I completely disagree with his politics, which his fine. But he’s a nasty, mean-spirited cur which is a big disappointment. For the most powerful Mormon politician, ever, the Church could do a lot better.
Another six years to torment Mormon Republicans, and at least another two as majority leader. As I just put up on my Twitter feed, the NV GOP could have nominated the rotting corpse of Adolf Hitler and beat Harry Reid, but they managed to pick the one person in the whole state of Nevada who could lose to him. At least the corpse of Hitler wouldn’t have said so many dumb things.
Yay!
“The Democrats got crushed Tuesday, but the re-election of Reid will be one of the best political moments of my life.”
…
I was preparing myself to be quite disappointed with Reid’s loss. I share your joy. Regardless of Reid’s religion, he’s one of the few politicians I truly admire. His being Mormon is just an added bonus.
Jana,
Did you have a question or comment?
I too am happy with Harry’s win. After all the flack Obama got from what his pastor said, conservative Mormon Harry haters turned a deaf ear to what Sharron Angle’s pastor says and believes about Mormons in general and not just Harry Reid. Wake up folks, right wing evangelical nutjobs have no love for the LDS people.
scw
The phenomenon we see with Mormon conservatives is akin to a loser nerd wanting to be a part of the cool crowd, willing to do anything, to bear any humiliation, as long as they can say they belong. If it means tolerating someone deriding your own religion, so be it. As long as you feel you belong.
As if….can anyone name me an LDS politician who hasn’t done tough things in an election campaign? Go back and examine the dirty tricks Wallace Bennett used in 1950 to defeat George Thomas. One of the dirtiest campaigns in Utah political history.
Have read a lot of the blog for a long time. Never commented before. But, Reid is a little bully. He sold his soul and sold out his values. All those D.C. Mormons who reassured people that Reid would do the Church proud were simply taken in, just like the Arkansas doctors that reassured us that Clinton would be okay for medicine and that he would never try to nationalize medicine. I would not vote for Reid for dog catcher and certainly never entrust him with any more authority than that of a dog catcher.
In his acceptance speech last night, Harry should have said, “I’d like to thank all those Tea Party activists who selected a psycho-whack job to go up against me….”
While I’m glad a Mormon kept the job as Senate Majority Leader, I hope that Harry returns to his original moderate Democrat leanings. That he has helped spend over 5 Trillion dollars in the last 4 years alone has me gagging for air.
Oh, and that 5T is just deficit spending alone….
I really like Harry Reid as a person, and think he has a great story. However, I don’t see any data to support the claim that “conservative Mormon Harry haters turned a deaf ear”, especially since Harry won.
Anyway, I was pleased Harry won, and wish him well.
Ironically, this could actually work to Mitt Romney’s advantage. Any claim that he would be taking orders from Salt Lake is undermined by Reid’s status as both a powerful office holder and a member in good standing. Had Reid lost, it could have been spun (without basis, but when did that ever matter?) that the Church deliberately undermined him (by canceling firesides he was to speak at, for example) because he did not tow the Mormon line.
I am a bit tired of the why do we political support those who dislike us religiously debate. In a two-party system there will be people who you less than love in your coalition. The liberal secularist crowd doesn’t like us either, I just agree with them politically.
Paul,
I am often accused of being a political bully on the bloggernacle. No wonder I like Reid.
Nevada escapes Utah’s fate of sending a right-wing wacko nutjob Tea Partier to the Senate — I congratulate Nevada, although I don’t think any of my Nevada friends voted for him. I wish I could have.
Harry Reid fought Yucca Mountain. If Environmental Solutions wants to store nuclear waste in Hefty bags on downtown Salt Lake street corners, they’ll have a champion in Mike Lee.
I’m happy that Reid won because I see it (along with Tancredo losing in Colorado) as people rejecting the more extreme candidates that the GOP/Tea Party served up. I’m still waiting for Alaska before I’m totally satisfied, I’m hoping Miller will lose as well.
In two years the economy will be better, and so will the number of Democrats that win.
Mike Lee is eager to get that constitutional amendment going about balancing the budget. So much for protecting the constitution and whatnot. (Not that he has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting something like that passed anyway. Good thing he’ll be wasting time and taxpayer money to do it, though!)
Here’s a fancy reply:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700066412/Balanced-budget-amendment-is-dangerous-gimmick-not-solution.html
Romney’s done. Methinks the next Mormon we might see taking a viable shot at the White House will be Huntsman in 2016.
#20 A while ago Axlerod (or some other Obama adviser) said that they viewed Huntsman as the potential GOP candidate they feared most. The cynic in me says that his appointment as ambassador was to hopefully take him out of the 2012 race.
Huntsman would never get the nomination in the current climate of the GOP. Or am I being overly cynical? I just think he’s too moderate.
I was overjoyed to see Harry won. It’s true that he would have lost to just about anyone considering his unfavorable ratings 6 months ago, but the tea party jammed their candidate in and she imploded. It’s also nice to see you can’t get elected by refusing to talk to anyone but Fox News. And you can’t say that you’ll reveal your foreign policy after you get elected. You can’t use decoys to avoid taking to the press
I wished LDS folks would embrace Senator Reid a little more just to show that you don’t have to be a Republican to be LDS. It might help missionary work. When people wonder how I can be LDS and a Democrat, I tell them that Harry Reid is a Democrat. I don’t tell them that most of the Church hates him.
Huntsman can talk the conservative talk in primary if he has to; and if Palin & Co. accuse him of being a Johnny-come-lately who wouldn’t step up to the plate during the Tea Party Uprising of 2010 he can honestly reply that he was serving his country overseas.
(Sorry–hit “submit” too early.)
I personally don’t think Hunsman’s going to squander his political capital in 2012 by giving up his ambassadorship and running against an incumbent who (though it pains me to say it) is probably going to get re-elected anyways.
I think the Republican Party is on the brink of civil war between the old guard (Murkowski, Crist)–who have shown themselves to be willing to destroy the GOP if they can’t be the ones running it–and the tea party fringe, who are tired of taking orders from “RINOS”. Whichever wing gets the Republican 2012 nomination, the other wing won’t fall into line. Then comes four years of infighting and blame, after which–voila!–knight errant Jon Huntsman returns from across the sea to unify the party and save the country. The party will be so glad to have a savior (or so exhausted from all the infighting) that his religion won’t matter much, even to the Mormon haters like Huckabee.
I can not stand any Mormon being in politics. Heck, I can not stand any politician. From my point of view they are the gadiantons that the Book of Mormon was warning about, there are other gadiantons out there also but our government just is corrupt. Republicans and Democrats both suck.
Read Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen written by H. Verlan Andersen, who was a General Authority. President Monson has spoken very highly of him.
You can read the book here for free:
http://www.latterdayconservative.com/docs/H-Verlan-Andersen_Many-Are-Called-But-Few-Are-Chosen.pdf
It is clear that Republicans have won largely because they lie effectively. Barack Obama has submitted one budget so far. The budget for his first year in office was submitted by George Bush in October 2009, as the fiscal year runs from October to October. Overwhelmingly George Bush is responsible for most of the debt we have. His war in Iraq was based on lies. Bush did the trillion dollar bank bailout. Of course, the Republican strategy is lie, repeat, repeat. Harry Reid is an honest decent man. Of course it is easier to blame deficits on Barack Obama–because he is a Nazi, a muslim, etc etc etc….and oh yeah, he’s black.
I was pleased to see this, though not happy to see a Dem sweep of Dallas County.
“The party will be so glad to have a savior (or so exhausted from all the infighting) that his religion won’t matter much, even to the Mormon haters like Huckabee.”
JimD–have you ever lived in the South? Until there’s a Republican strategy that doesn’t need Southern Evangelicals, no Mormon will ever win.
#27, don’t you think that there is more than enough lying going on with both parties? Let’s not put all the blame on the Republicans, because George W. Bush’s last budget was written and created by the Democratic Congress. Guess what? They were both involved! So, let’s be realistic about it, and stop becoming the type of “liars” we portend one or the other party to be.
#23: As a conservative-libertarian, I was also glad to see Harry Reid win. Why? Because I felt he was better than the lunatic whacko Angle. I actually like Harry. He started out as a moderate, which was good. Pelosi and other liberals forced him farther to the left, over the last few years. Bigger government will never fix the economy. We’ve seen historical evidence of that from the Soviet Union, Europe’s economic collapse, etc. We’re having big problems in the USA, not because we don’t have enough government, but because we have too much. Between Bush, Obama and Congress, we’ve increased the deficit by over $5 Trillion!
People blame deregulation as the problem with the collapse. Well, the problem is they deregulated what the banks could do, but retained the safety nets, which caused the banks and others to do stupid things. Had we told them they were on their own, they wouldn’t have done what they did.
Who was in the middle of that housing collapse? Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. So, you see that BOTH parties have done us wrong by trying to manipulate the economy and creating yet another economic bubble. We need to let the States take over almost everything, as their people desire, and return the federal government back into a small thing that can’t destroy our economy and our freedom.
Bill Clinton became a very good president on the day he proclaimed, “the day of big government is over.” Congress, Bush and Obama seemed to ignore him regarding that key statement. We need to go back to it.
JFK told us, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” FDR insisted that all Americans share the pain during WWII. We need to quit demanding our entitlements, and begin demanding freedom and self-responsibility.
And I hope that Harry Reid will be the new Bill Clinton….
Bill Wattenburg is a right-wing host on KGO radio in San Francisco, who isn’t afraid to spend time bashing any left-wing group or individual that offends his sense of what’s wrong or right with the government, but the other night during his show, he came out in favor of Harry Reid’s relection, flatly stating that the good people of Nevada stood to lose a lot if they put Sharon Angle in there instead. He referred to Senator Reid’s honesty and just tried to warn Nevadans that they’d pretty much be cutting off their noses to spite their faces should they choose to dump Reid.
I was really surprised that ol’ Bill had anything nice to say about any Democrat at all.
I’m sorry, Mark N., I’ve heard that argument increasing to a fever pitch leading up to the election in Nevada, and I just don’t buy it.
The political action group “Friends for Harry Reid” took out numerous ads in LDS oriented publications in Las Vegas, and prominent, older LDS individuals wrote about how they didn’t agree with Harry Reid, his politics, his agenda, or his record, but they were voting for him anyway because either a) he’s so powerful in the Senate that Nevada would be foolish to vote him out, and b) he’s a man of integrity.
The power argument is a red herring for Nevadans. Tell me what good Harry Reid’s power in the Senate is when Nevada is at the bottom of federal stimulus spending, education funding, etc. and at the top of unemployment, bankruptcies, foreclosures … His so-called “power” has been fruitless for Nevadans, but has yielded plenty of fruit for him. I would have gladly traded an impotent lunatic for a powerful but stingy lunatic.
As far as integrity, I respect that he votes the way he says he’s going to vote. But if I don’t agree with the way he votes in the Senate, integrity or not, he’s not my kind of Senator.
Maybe, Kristine. On the other hand: if it’s between a Mormon and another Democrat after eight years of President Obama, the ‘gellies may decide not to be so picky.
A lot can happen in six years.
Kristine’s point is that it will not get that far.
Huntsman is a moderate who understand the world of global trade and finance. He would make a great president. However he took a major appointment from Obama. He is more likely to get lynched at a tea party than he is to attend one. These are people who think Ron Paul understands the banking system.
He is also moderate on social issues.
“He is also moderate on social issues.”
Burn him. BURN HIM!
Unless the Republicans make their focus fiscal conservatism, I don’t see him getting the nomination. I’d hope he wouldn’t pull a Romney and suddenly become a social conservative.
Maybe, Chris. It all depends on whether the tea party’s fury will have burnt itself out in six years. I would be that most of it will.
Huntsman is certainly no more of a moderate than McCain is.
McCain is just nutso. At least as bad as Angle. Huntsman would be a fantastic, fantastic candidate. But when he put out feelers the social conservatives in Ohio and the like made it clear he was unacceptable. I think last year when he chose Obama’s ambassadorship it seemed like Obama would probably clean up in 2012. Now I suspect the unemployment rate will still be above 7% with relatively slow growth. So I think it’s really open to a challenger.
The problem is that the Republican challengers are all pretty scary. (IMO) Palin worst of all.
I don’t think Huntsman is a moderate though. He’s just a really, really competent conservative. Exactly what the party needs right now to salvage it from the mess of the last decade.