Ensign Calls Out Angle on Nevada Jobs

When you have John Ensign chiding you for being too conservative on an issue, you know you're in trouble. Jon Ralston has the details of Ensign's comments, which pertain to a major construction project in Las Vegas prominently supported by Harry Reid, among others:

Sen. John Ensign said on Alan Stock's radio show Monday that he only made "one call to one of the banks at the time....I thought CityCenter was an important project....I thought it was important to do what we could...All I wanted to do was make sure the banks were doing the right thing."

You may recall that U.S. Senate nominee Sharron Angle criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for making calls and said she would not have made them.

He went on to say: "We may disagree on this particular point, but as Ronald Reagan said...and I'm sure Sharron disagrees with some of my viewpoints....but we agree at least 80 percent of the time....that's your friend not your enemy."

As is the case with Sharron Angle's comment that she would have opposed Katrina aid, the real problem for the Republicans is not just that they chose as their Senate nominee someone who holds beliefs outside of the mainstream, it is that their candidate proudly trumpets these positions. Here, as there, when Angle's ideology goes up against reality (there millions suffering from the impact of a Hurricane, here tens of thousands of workers who would have lost their jobs had the project gone under), the ideology seems to win. And for voters who care more about results than ideological extremes, the decision to vote for an unpopular incumbent becomes a whole lot easier.