Sharron Angle met with third party candidate Scott Ashjian to ask that he step aside in the challenge for the Nevada Senate seat, basically so that they did not cancel each other out and allow Harry Reid to walk away with reelection.
Ashjian recorded the call, then released it to Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun.
Angle had some harsh words for the GOP establishment and spoke very bluntly.
At the meeting’s outset, Ashjian seems open to a deal, suggesting if he can get an apology from the Tea Party Express, “we can get on board.” He claims he does not want money, wants the lawsuits about his candidacy to go away – remember those voicemails from GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell posted elsewhere on my blog suggest she was trying to “settle” something with him. By the end of the meeting, it’s clear this attempted backroom bargain is going nowhere – and I’m not sure Ashjian ever wanted it to.
There’s a lot more, too, including:
----Angle’s open disgust with her own party’s leaders and principles (or lack thereof)
----James’ obvious abandonment of Ashjian’s candidacy and insistence that Angle will lose unless he withdraws and that there is still time to get his name off the ballot
----Some brief trashing of Sen. John Ensign by Ziser and Ashjian
----Ashjian’s claims of physical threats and of being followed
----Angle’s agreement with him that both major parties are “corrupt”
----Angle’s claim to have taken over the Washoe County Republican Party and having her “guys” in the Clark County GOP
You can read the whole thing for yourself at Las Vegas Sun.
One quick point here is by turning this tape over, it does speak volumes about Ashjian's ethics since Nevada is a state where consent of both parties must consent to being taped in order for a recording to be lawful and Ashjian did not obtain that consent.
The Politico gets to the point quickly in their piece about this:
The recording is worth listening to in full despite its poor quality. It suggests that -- at least for the purposes of this conversation with a Tea Party figure -- behind the facade of a real grassroots outsider who hates the organized Republican Party is ... a real grassroots outsider who hates the organized Republican Party.
Well said.
The tape does not, in any way, show Angle to be anything but what she has claimed she was the entire race.
If anything, I believe this tape will garner Angle more support from Independents, Moderates and Tea Party supporters who want things in Washington to change and know that it takes more than one person to be able to actually make a difference.
Listen to the audio recording.
Related:
Nevada's Largest Newspaper Endorses Angle
Steele rallies GOP in Nevada
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