Good news for Harry Reid in Nevada Senate race between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. Today, Harry Redi got the endorsement of the REPUBLICAN Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio.
His endorsement of Harry Reid included the standard bashing of the liberal agenda and Obama, but what is interesting is his comments about Angle:
"What is difficult to overlook is her record of being totally ineffective as a four-term assemblywomen, her inability or unwillingness to work with others, even within her own party, and her extreme positions on issues such as Medicare, social security, education, veterans affairs and many others.
"Some supporters tell me we need to support her because we need her vote in the U.S. Senate as a Republican and she ‘can't do much harm as a junior back bencher’! Since when should this be the criteria on how we select and vote for a U.S. Senator to represent our State?, I ask.
"Other than my inability to accept her extreme and often even radical ideas and positions, if there was any concern about my natural preference to endorse a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, it was removed altogether when Angle, in a secretly taped conversation, expressed her true feelings by slamming and disavowing the Republican Party saying it had ‘lost its standards and principles.’
This should help Reid with independent and more moderate voters and also further divide the Republican party in Nevada.
Since bad news for Angle is good news for Reid, her Pastor just went on record trashing Mormonism:
The LDS church, in fact, pushes one of Pastor Reed’s buttons, and the fact that Harry Reid is a member seems to be only a part of the reason.
"His religion’s a cult," Pastor Reed said. "The Christian community—all the Christians, theologians and scholars, all recognize that, that Mormonism is a cult. I have books in my library on cults, and it lists Mormonism right there with all these bizarre cults. Well, there must be a reason. I mean, here a member of a cult is one of the most powerful people in the United States. Doesn’t that alarm you? And his allegiance is to Salt Lake City. Something is up with that. Something’s weird. But nobody touches that. ... Harry Reid’s allegiance is to Salt Lake City. The Mormon church is rich, powerful, they do illegal things. They do secretive things. They’ve got all this money. They own American businesses. There’s weirdness going on there. Churches are not multi-millionaire organizations like the Mormon church. You know, there’s some weirdness with that, but nobody questions it, nobody asks one question to Harry Reid and says, ‘Tell us about your faith. What does a Mormon believe?’ Ask him about the holy garments that he wears that protect him from evil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about getting his body parts anointed by oil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about when he goes to the temple and he gets baptized for dead people. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about the hit squad of the Mormon church and why they need people to kill Mormons that go against them. Isn’t that controlling? Ask him how they shun people, then they get their family members to disown them and divorce them if they dare leave the Mormon church. Isn’t that cultish? I mean, I could go on and on. The Mormon church is a cult, and Harry Reid is a powerful person in a cult, and nobody even questions it."
He suggested Reid has made "secret promises" to the LDS church.
Considering Nevada's large Mormon population, this is not good news for Angle. According to David Schwartz's, Political Reporter for Las Vegas Sun, twitter account, Angle's spokesperson has disavowed her Pastor's statement and claims that Angle has not been a member for 6 years. However, Angle included that church in a 2008 questionnaire under community involvement.
Links to GOTV and/or Donations to help re-elect Reid and keep Angle out of the Senate:
Organizing for America
Nevada Democratic Party
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
Harry Reid's ActBlue Page
Updated: Angle's Pastor interviewed by Las Vegas Sun:
...in July 2008, as a candidate for state Senate, Angle included "music ministry, Sonrise Church" on a candidate questionnaire published by the Reno Gazette-Journal, listing it as one of three ways in which she was involved in the community. In the same survey, she also listed herself as a member of the Fellowship Community Church, also in Reno.
In an interview with the Sun, Reed said that Angle, a Southern Baptist, had been a member of his church for "over a dozen years" and for the past year has had "dual membership" in the two congregations. She attended his church as recently as a couple of months ago, he said. He attributed her recent absence to the busy campaign.
Reed confirmed that he was quoted accurately in the article and stood by his statements about the Mormon religion. The pastor said he was surprised that Angle, whom he described as "the perfect candidate," was attempting to distance herself from him and his statements about the LDS church.