Well, it started off good.
However, on Sunday the Clark County District Attorney announced that it would be seeking a felony arrest warrant for Scott Ashjian, the Tea Party's controversial candidate for Reid's Senate Seat.
Ashjian is facing felony theft and bad check charges that allege he bounced a $5,000 business check in Las Vegas last year. Current Justice Court Department 14 candidate and head of the Clark County DA's bad check unit, Bernie Zadrowski, will reportedly be filing the charges today.
Earlier this past week, the "Independent American Party" (source of the picture above) filed a lawsuit in Carson City that challenges Ashjian’s membership in the Tea Party of Nevada. Documents filed with the lawsuit appear to show that Ashjian changed his voter registration on March 2, the day after he filed his declaration of candidacy.
Ashjian is one of 22 candidates who will be running for Harry's seat this election term.
Conflating the Tea Party rally with that joke Scott Ashjian show you haven't been reading the papers. Ashjian's fake tea party has only 3 members, and it is widely believed he is a shill for Sen Reid (to try and syphon off votes from the real tea party movement). Ashjian was specifically banned from speaking at the Searchlight function (any other candidate from either party was welcomed).
ReplyDeleteWhether you like or dislike the tea partiers that went to Searchlight, you can't blaim them for Ashjian's crimes when they are his avowed enemy and the opposite side of a lawsuit.
"it is widely believed he is a shill for Sen Reid"
ReplyDeleteOh please.
"it is widely believed he is a shill for Sen Reid"
ReplyDeleteThe hard right is loaded with absurd conspiracy theories these days.
Can I "blaim" them for taking a moron like Palin and making her their mascot?
ReplyDeleteI think we'd all benefit from knowing the party registrations / philosophies of this blog's writers so that we can assess its forays into politics. I don't really care as long as there is disclosure.
ReplyDeleteIf Ashjian was indeed banned from the Searchlight event, then this article is pretty weak stuff, regardless of who is to "blaim" for it.
word verification: "connall" quite appropriate for a political post.
Ashjian in fact was not welcome at the rally in Searchlight. Almost immediately after he created the Tea Party of Nevada, he and his party were roundly condemned by virtually the entire community of grassroots conservatives.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem stems from the fact that the term "Tea Party" is in the public domain. In the Tea Party movement itself there are half a dozen organizations using that name. And there are many other grassroots conservative organizations who consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement.
Another reason for the backlash against Ashjian is that absolutely no one in the Nevada grassroots conservative community had ever heard of him. It seemed very much like an opportunistic appropriation of the name on his part.
I'm not greatly inclined to think he's a flying a false flag for Harry Reid. Harry is, to quote Jon Ralston, the most ruthless politician in Nevada, and I think he would have chosen a better stealth candidate who could go the distance.
9:21 AM, I am a registered Republican. In the further interest of disclosure, I am the County Whip for the Clark County Republican Party.
Conspiracy theorists unite!!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain the connection between the Tea Party and the IAP? As I recall, years ago the IAP was big in the anti-gay movement. Wasn't it the IAP that years ago took a strong and loud stand in Nevada AGAINST repeal of antiquated 19th Century sodomy laws? Is that going to be a plank in the Tea Party's platform going forward?
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party actually has some good ideas relative to making government more efficient; however, if they get involved with the crazy gun, anti-abortion, and anti-gay crowds, their message will be lost.
Don't you think Sen. Reid would pick someone a little less toxic than Ashjian?
ReplyDelete-Life long D
How many minorities do you see at these Teabag rallies? Probably the same number you see on Fox News.
ReplyDelete10:09, besides adding zero to the discussion, you're the definition of racist: you imply that we should judge people by the color--or lack of color--of their skin. shame on you. go watch msnbc with its all-white primetime lineup, because the lack of minorities there won't bother you and they're as hateful as you are. idiot.
ReplyDeletereid is a lot of things, but i doubt he is dumb enough to enlist ashjian.
i was at searchlight (i'm a libertarian conservative) and any time people participate in civic life, it's by definition a good thing. if the Chai folk stick to freedom and fiscal responsibility, there might be hope...
10:09 does bring a point although somewhat inartfully, the right or the tea bag movement is largely older and white. The demographics of this nation are trending far away from that description. How does the Republican party move past its real or perceived composition? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html
ReplyDeleteThis is one opinion on the matter. You may not agree with the analysis but the question is legitimate.
10:56 -- what gives? you act like you're trying to engage in civil discussion and then use a slur?
ReplyDeleteare there any leftists out there who aren't nasty intolerant people projecting themselves all over?
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1436
according to that, 12% of the tea partiers are non-white. as the fiscal and political landscape shifts, who's to say that number won't increase? the tea party movement was basically nothing 14 months ago. in any event, i don't want the movement to start offering special deals by race...
I don't really think it's racist to point out that there are few people of color in the Tea Party. I'm sure Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, etc. are just as mad about the government's actions as white people are...I'm genuinely curious why they aren't represented proportionally at these rallies? Are they being excluded for some reason?
ReplyDeleteI personally have absolutely no problem with Teabaggers speaking out about taxes...I just wish they would use more civilized means. They attempt to achieve their "noble objectives" through threats of violence and secession, racist/homophobic epithets, and conspiracy theories regarding our president's birthplace. That's not revolutionary in my eyes---that's desperate and ignorant.
"any time people participate in civic life, it's by definition a good thing"
ReplyDeleteHate to disagree, but we in the South called lynch mobs people participating in civic life. No, what we should be aspiring to a positive civil discourse on the pressing issues of our day. Not the BS, the conspiracy theories, not the spin created by talking heads.
Civil discourse is distinct from civic participation. Kent State was civic participation, as were the the protests to the Iraq war. Civil discourse should endevour to set aside the political slogans and rhetoric and engage in the actual issues on an intellectual level.
And I'm sure that somewhere there is a Teabagger that can do that, but what I've seen on TV and in the press doesn't make me encouraged that these idiots are no different than those on the extreme right or left we already discount.
All b.s. aside - tea party is not a political party, a grass roots movement with a political agenda. Last time I checked, they're not involving themselves in endorsing specific candidates, and those whom proclaim to be a "Tea Party Candidate" are a full of shiat as one would expect. Just as I doubt there will be any "Coffee Party" candidates.
ReplyDeleteI give 80:20 odds in favor of Vegas being the next Detroit by 2020, give or take a few years. Anyone taking the other side of that bet?
ReplyDelete12:03 -- I'll take those odds
ReplyDelete10:56 here,
ReplyDeleteWhat slur was used? It was a self anointed moniker. Tea party tea bagging etc. The fact that it is a double entendre is not the left's fault.
That point aside I would rephrase and say tea party. Accept my apologies.
While the political winds may shift there is a palatable distaste for non-whites in the tea party. It shows up in some of the propaganda depicting Obama, not to mention the outright hostility to Chicano/ Latinos vis a vis immigration.
How can the this movement actually engage these groups on issues other than fiscal conservatism?
Regardless of anyone's views on the Tea Party, the reality is that as soon as the Tea Party candidates siphon off votes from GOP candidates and result in GOP candidates being defeated, the GOP will turn on the Tea Party and denounce them. The Tea Party may be an issue in 2010, but will be a non-issue in 2012. The fickleness of politics.
ReplyDeleteCool picture on the post -- would be hilarious if that were an actual picture from the Tea Party Rally in Searchlight. The short guy in the leathers must be Palin's water boy.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is not a member of the Tea Come on....I was respecting this blog...but is it just going to be a partisan place? That guy is not in any way shape or form a part of a bigger movement other than his own (unless you believe that Reid has something to do with it. I have no evidence of that being the case.) So if you are going to try to put down the event at Search Light, don't think linking this rouge's activities to the movement gives you any credibility.
ReplyDelete"Don't you think Sen. Reid would pick someone a little less toxic than Ashjian?"
ReplyDeleteLet's see...a guy who has this in his background:
Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate Majority Leader and the national government's highest-ranking Mormon, has admitted now remarking apparently with some amazement on the nation's highest-ranking black Democrat as being notably "light-skinned" and having "no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."
(http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/01/harry-reid-barack-obama.html)
and:
"My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway, in the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true."
Sooooooo, No. He is not likely to have vetted anyone.
11:38 - I considered putting in a disclaimer for things like Nazi murders and KKK lynchings, but I didn't think anyone would be stupid or malevolent enough to infer approval of those types of things from an endorsement of "civic participation."
ReplyDeleteftr, although 11:38 considers lynching to be civic participation, i don't.
your projection is kind of offensive, really.
it's unfortunate, but this forum is another where people play the race card because they can't defend their views without it.
I hope 1:26 is right.
ReplyDeletePalin/Bachmann 2012
Has anyone thought about this theory????
ReplyDeleteIf Ashjian is considered to be a shill for Reid what would Republicans need to do to take down a potential hazard to over throwing the Majority Leader. Well they could get the former Clark County Republican Party Chair who works as a DA to file charges against him.
Bernie is a big time Republican. Who has many higher aspirations. It is interesting how this is coming up now. The Republicans don't want to straight out attack this fast growing movement directly but they do want to avoid the "Perot" scenario.
Just something to think about.
The TEa PArty never ever referred to themselves as TEABAGGERS. That is a term that is absolutley sexually charged. So the left, who used that name for them is either too ignorant to know better, though I doubt that...or they simply meant to use such a vulgar term on them as a group. The fact that it has been repeated on and on by the left confirms their desire to be vulgar...or we would not be hearing it even on the floor of Congress BY THEM!
ReplyDeleteI think there's FAR worse things they could be called.....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/tea-party-protests-nier-f_n_507116.html
1:52: I wasn't playing the "race card" although why most caucasian americans can't understand they are the minority and race is no longer about the color ones' skin, i don't know. If you'd like better examples of "civic participation"...the crack downs in the 1950's by communities on the gays, the entire McCarthyism shenanigins, or the Rubyridge/Freeman standoffs. None of which involved race issues directly.
ReplyDeleteRemember, one man's patriotism is another's crime of treason. Simply because a group of people gather to chant about some nutty idea doesn't make them any less dangerous than say: separatists, supremists, guerrillas,freedom fighters, milita members, or politicans.
The Tea Party is one bomb away from being the same movement that McVeigh and Kaczynski supported. Just don't want to be there when Foxnews has to try to make that distinction.
I went to a tea bag party at the Green Door once. It was a good time.
ReplyDeleteCan we have a party for pro-gay, anti-abortion, pro-corporate and millionaire taxation, anti-welfare, pro-domestic military, anti-world policing, pro-free speech, anti-illegal immigrants, pro-keep me safe, and anti-stay out of my personal life?
ReplyDeleteThat's the party I want. Sign me up! :)
This blog has been getting too many mental patients posting comments lately.
ReplyDelete