I am trying to help the Republicans land the 2016 national convention in Vegas, but they are so….helpless.
As I have previously declared, I want my city to get the convention because it would finally get rid of all the Rodney Dangerfield references, because it would force everyone to pronounce the state’s name correctly and, well, because it would be good for a Nevada journalist with a television program. Not necessarily in that order.
But why, oh why are these people trying to sabotage my efforts by branding themselves as rank nincompoops and rabid dogs? Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki is doing yeoman’s work as the convention’s salesman-in-chief -- who gets such fawning coverage and that headline, too?!
And the website is gorgeous, although I do wonder why the Bellagio is front and center on the home page and the place run by the man who can buy the thing for us is cropped out. Really, guys, Steve Wynn doesn’t even own the Bellagio anymore (and I think that Murren fellow is a Democrat!) and Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian should be the centerpiece, no? (UPDATE: I was being facetious, but I also am told the home page regularly changes, so it's just Bellagio's day today. So rest easy, Gondolier Numero Uno.)
Also, the so-called Facts page is a little heavy-handed, including this: “Over 30% of the residents of Las Vegas are Hispanic.” As one wag put it: “Read: LATINO VOTE!”
But those are quibbles, and now is not the time for subtlety.
The not-so-subtle impediments, though, are the folks doing the impossible, which is making the GOP brand here even worse as it is beginning to look like a cross between the anti-Mensa club and the Sharron Angle Second Amendment remedies society. And, Republicans, can’t you shut your chairman up?
Las Vegas has everything a GOP convention could want: Fun, Adelson and hotel rooms galore.
I had thought the GOP vaudeville show would be a minor hurdle to overcome, but I had no idea they would keep the showroom open almost every night. To wit:
►The Jim and Michele Show: Assembly colleagues Jim “put a gun to my head and I’d vote for slavery” Wheeler and Michele “I break gun laws because I believe in the Second Amendment so much” Fiore are twin nightmares for the serious types here and in DC trying to corral the convention.
Wheeler now has a comical video in which he not only plays the victim but blames special interests and lobbyists – you know, the people trying to bring the convention here! And then there is Fiore, who went on the radio last week and suggested Culinary picketers would get “a bullet to the head” in Brooklyn and then revealed that she and a pal brought guns to the picket line. Oh, and she bragged about packing in gun-free zones.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Nevada Republican Party, you have met the enemy and it is you. Speaking of which….
►Chairman Ø: Not since the days of Gov. Jim Gibbons have I used that sign, but Culinary lobbyist Michael McDonald, who moonlights in the vacant office that once housed the state GOP (no employees left and no money), keeps earning it. After refusing to step aside for a credible chairman pushed by party leaders – i.e. Gov. Brian Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller – McDonald continues to put forth the façade that he still matters.
Look at what Chairman Ø told the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Ray Hagar:
“The only Achilles’ heel we have right now is the rumor mill, about the governor and party, that the governor is not supporting the party, and this and that,” McDonald said. “But we’re fine. The governor is doing his thing and we are here to support him and we are here to give all candidates an equal chance to get elected. “But people have been putting stuff out there — tweeting — that we’re fighting, but there’s nothing to fight about,” McDonald said. “But when some people called last week (about the convention), they said, ‘How do you expect us to come out there (to Las Vegas) if the party and the governor are not getting along,?’” McDonald said.
People are tweeting! The horror. The horror.
There are only two explanations here: Either McDonald is lying or he is utterly clueless.
Nobody who matters here – the RNC folks, Adelson, Wynn, GOP donors – care what he says or thinks. He is considered a nuisance, presiding over a shell, barely able to keep the lights turned on. He is the Achilles heel, along with his enablers and the Jim and Michele Show.
That sound you hear is Brian Krolicki wailing as he pulls out his hair. Or is that my voice….
As I have previously declared, I want my city to get the convention because it would finally get rid of all the Rodney Dangerfield references, because it would force everyone to pronounce the state’s name correctly and, well, because it would be good for a Nevada journalist with a television program. Not necessarily in that order.
But why, oh why are these people trying to sabotage my efforts by branding themselves as rank nincompoops and rabid dogs? Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki is doing yeoman’s work as the convention’s salesman-in-chief -- who gets such fawning coverage and that headline, too?!
And the website is gorgeous, although I do wonder why the Bellagio is front and center on the home page and the place run by the man who can buy the thing for us is cropped out. Really, guys, Steve Wynn doesn’t even own the Bellagio anymore (and I think that Murren fellow is a Democrat!) and Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian should be the centerpiece, no? (UPDATE: I was being facetious, but I also am told the home page regularly changes, so it's just Bellagio's day today. So rest easy, Gondolier Numero Uno.)
Also, the so-called Facts page is a little heavy-handed, including this: “Over 30% of the residents of Las Vegas are Hispanic.” As one wag put it: “Read: LATINO VOTE!”
But those are quibbles, and now is not the time for subtlety.
The not-so-subtle impediments, though, are the folks doing the impossible, which is making the GOP brand here even worse as it is beginning to look like a cross between the anti-Mensa club and the Sharron Angle Second Amendment remedies society. And, Republicans, can’t you shut your chairman up?
Las Vegas has everything a GOP convention could want: Fun, Adelson and hotel rooms galore.
I had thought the GOP vaudeville show would be a minor hurdle to overcome, but I had no idea they would keep the showroom open almost every night. To wit:
►The Jim and Michele Show: Assembly colleagues Jim “put a gun to my head and I’d vote for slavery” Wheeler and Michele “I break gun laws because I believe in the Second Amendment so much” Fiore are twin nightmares for the serious types here and in DC trying to corral the convention.
Wheeler now has a comical video in which he not only plays the victim but blames special interests and lobbyists – you know, the people trying to bring the convention here! And then there is Fiore, who went on the radio last week and suggested Culinary picketers would get “a bullet to the head” in Brooklyn and then revealed that she and a pal brought guns to the picket line. Oh, and she bragged about packing in gun-free zones.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Nevada Republican Party, you have met the enemy and it is you. Speaking of which….
►Chairman Ø: Not since the days of Gov. Jim Gibbons have I used that sign, but Culinary lobbyist Michael McDonald, who moonlights in the vacant office that once housed the state GOP (no employees left and no money), keeps earning it. After refusing to step aside for a credible chairman pushed by party leaders – i.e. Gov. Brian Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller – McDonald continues to put forth the façade that he still matters.
Look at what Chairman Ø told the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Ray Hagar:
“The only Achilles’ heel we have right now is the rumor mill, about the governor and party, that the governor is not supporting the party, and this and that,” McDonald said. “But we’re fine. The governor is doing his thing and we are here to support him and we are here to give all candidates an equal chance to get elected. “But people have been putting stuff out there — tweeting — that we’re fighting, but there’s nothing to fight about,” McDonald said. “But when some people called last week (about the convention), they said, ‘How do you expect us to come out there (to Las Vegas) if the party and the governor are not getting along,?’” McDonald said.
People are tweeting! The horror. The horror.
There are only two explanations here: Either McDonald is lying or he is utterly clueless.
Nobody who matters here – the RNC folks, Adelson, Wynn, GOP donors – care what he says or thinks. He is considered a nuisance, presiding over a shell, barely able to keep the lights turned on. He is the Achilles heel, along with his enablers and the Jim and Michele Show.
That sound you hear is Brian Krolicki wailing as he pulls out his hair. Or is that my voice….
(Image from bleedingedge.pynchonwiki.)
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