Nevada Tea Partier’s Memory Hole

Courtesy of <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MiGzkgtdfmw/SsTwm6B8DVI/AAAAAAAAAWs/x-UNlHABjlo/s1600-h/Sharron+Angle+Senate.JPG">Dullard Mush</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


[UPDATE: A version of Sharron Angle’s “issues” page has been revived, misplaced commas and all. How long will it last??]

That Internet thing is mighty tricky for Republicans to master. Sharron Angle—Tea Partier, Oath Keepers supporter, anti-fluoride crusader, and new GOP candidate for Senate from Nevada—is already demonstrating her solidarity with party luminaries like Ted Stevens, George W. Bush, and the entire House Republican caucus by staging an epic Web fail of her own. In a possible bid to play down her more right-leaning, less mainstream views—which are bound to be a liability in a general election fight with Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid—Angle’s campaign website was scrubbed of its spiciest material. Previously, her site featured an “issues” page, where Angle champions nuclear waste while deriding the UN, the Department of Education, “Obamacare,” “illegals,” and “an unscientific hysteria over the man-caused global warming hoax.” That web page became inaccessible.

Unless, that is, you search for the cached page.

So, here, saved for posterity with annotations, are 11 top “issues” statements by Sharron Angle that should be remembered…or at least fact-checked…between now and November:

  • “Like a soldier going to war, Sharron Angle has the training and is battle tested.  Sharron Angle is fighting for her country, the Constitution of the United States and a free society.  Sharron Angle has a proven record that Nevadans and Americans can trust.  It is not what Sharron Angle says Sharron Angle will do, but what Sharron Angle has done and will continue to do.” [Sharron Angle is a lot like Chuck Norris that way.]
  • “Sharron Angle does not accept money from casinos and unions. Sharron Angle does not oppose casinos and unions but wants to avoid the perception, by voters, that these groups might put undue pressure on her, as a legislator. All of Sharron Angle’s U.S. Senate contributions come from individuals, and seventy-five percent of those contributions come from small donors.” [Sharron Angle apparently counts contributors like the Minuteman PAC, Citizens United, Republican Majority Campaign, and Gun Owners of America as “individuals.” Sharron Angle also decries any campaign finance reform as a limitation of “free political speech.”]
  • “Sharron Angle will work toward making a basket of commodities (metals, oil etc.) as a basis for maintaining the value of the U.S. currency.” [A novel twist on the populism of William Jennings Bryan: Putting the dollar on a gold, crude, porkbelly, and frozen-concentrated-orange-juice standard.]
  • “Every child has the right to read and reading should be taught using scientifically-based reading research which emphasizes alphabetic principles (phonics).” [No word yet on whether Sharron Angle also favors “scientifically-based” research to teach children science. Also, every child has the right to be taught to recognize a runon sentence.]
  • “Cap and Trade, which is based on an unscientific hysteria over the man-caused global warming hoax, steps over the constitutional boundaries of the federal government and is merely another way to tax the people.” [Sharron Angle must be sore at the Nixon and Ford administrations, whose EPA regulations laid the groundwork for cap-and-trade. Also, Sharron Angle probably doesn’t read MoJo‘s contributions at ClimateDesk.org.]
  • “Sharron Angle would legislate to repeal regulations that prohibit off shore drilling, drilling in ANWR and development of American owned petroleum resources…Sharron Angle would: Promote Nevada, as the nuclear energy capital of reprocessing spent fuels for the United States…[and] educate Nevadans and Americans, on the safe transportation of nuclear spent fuels since 1954 over 400 million miles without an accident.” [Sharron Angle will also educate herself on the safe transportation of offshore crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the proper use of the comma.]
  • “Defunding ObamaCare is essential to the economic survival of the United States. The federal healthcare takeover offers no solutions to the cost issues or quality of care issues…Rationing healthcare will put huge segments of America’s population at risk.” [Sharron Angle may not realize that rationing isn’t mentioned in the health care legislation.]
  • “The U.N. has been captured by the far left and has become ineffective and costly.  The U.N. continually threatens U.S. sovereignty, with endless rhetoric and treaties and it has now become the ‘umpire’ on fraudulent science, such as global warming. The United State needs to withdraw from the United Nations and work solely with America’s willing allies.” [No word yet on what Sharron Angle would do with actual fraudulent umpires.]
  • “Sharron Angle supports an intensive physical presence on borders, including military assistance to help the Border Patrol do its job effectively…Sharron Angle opposes amnesty proposals, which send a ruinous signal that breaking the law is acceptable in the United States. “Illegals” must be discouraged from living comfortably within the U.S. borders. [Presumably, Sharron Angle will continue to permit “illegals” to live in the US uncomfortably. Which is good, since encountering an “intensive physical presence” on the border sounds painful.]
  • “Sharron Angle believes that the Federal Department of Education should be eliminated. The Department of Education is unconstitutional and should not be involved in education, at any level.” [Sharron Angle is proud to be endorsed by the Nevada Home School Network.]
  • “Sharron Angle is qualified for a concealed weapons permit.” [Translation: Sharron Angle is a Nevada state resident with no felony convictions. Phew!]

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate