Even as the astroturf is being laid out in nearby Searchlight NV for Saturdays "Teabag Woodstock" a political hit was executed on a member of the so-called movement in a foreshadowing of the internacine blood shedding that figures to ensue throughout the 2010 election calendar. The victim, a young Bagger who made the mistake of forgetting his role. The assassin, a longtime soldier in the GOP, no doubt acting on instruction from the nationwide network of governmental racketeers know as "The G.O.P.". In the organized world of political crime a man isn't erased from history without the highest authority.
UPDATE: G.O.P. operative Redstate.com has started burying the lede already as word has got out. One has to assume that hotels in Searchlight are abuzz at the fate of one of their own:
And so (I suspect) ends the sad, vaguely sordid, and rather bizarre tale of Scott Ashjian.
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Via Hot Air Headlines. The actual Tea Party folks have already been pretty adamant about pointing out that they don’t know this guy, but there’s nothing like a bad-check felony arrest to torpedo an election bid. Which means that the major Republican candidates can get back to the happy task of determining who is the most conservative of all...
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Scotty Ashjian should have known that his ticket was punched when he first read these revelatory words from the Los Vegas Journal Review Journal on Feb. 28, 2010:
A disaffected conservative running under the Tea Party banner would drain support from a Republican candidate, according to polling of a three-way contest.
In that case, Reid would draw 36 percent of voters, while the Republican nominee would get 32 percent and the Tea Party candidate 18 percent if the election were held today.
Although these reports received considerable notoriety on moderate, legitimate news/opinion outlets like the DailyKos, they were conspicuously muted in G.O.P. circles. Perhaps telling was a propaganda piece deceminated by self-styled "Pollster" Rasmussen Reports that came out only a week later:
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Sue Lowden, ex-chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, with a 51% to 38% lead on Reid. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, but just three percent (3%) are undecided.
Businessman Danny Tarkanian posts a similar 50% to 37% lead over the embattled Democratic leader. Nine percent (9%) opt for another candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.
Rasmussen, a longtime conselliere of the G.O.P., already was assuming that Ashjian would be a non-entity in the upcoming Senate race. There was no room for an independent, third party in this all-important race to unseat the Democratic Harry Reid, who had long been a foil to G.O.P. political dominance as Senate Majority Leader.
Scott Ashjian, an idealistic advocate of the "Tea Party" dogma, had over reached his usefulness to the party that had subsidized and initiated the faux-populist movement. While these innocent foot soldiers' naive dedication to jingoistic, homophobic, racist, anarchistic liberaterianism had been a useful tool in the battle to disembowel the functioning Federal government of the USA, it has become an increasing fear among the party powerbrokers that they would expect a real seat at the table. Ashjian's candidacy symbolized the hazards of letting the "real Americans" exercise real power at the polls.
On Friday the hit was put out under the smoke of tomorrows big TeaBag rally. Coverage was predictably smothered but this information was revealed by the Huffington Post:
LAS VEGAS — A Nevada asphalt contractor who faces a legal challenge to his Tea Party of Nevada candidacy for U.S. Senate was hit Friday with felony theft and bad check charges in Las Vegas that allege he bounced a $5,000 business check last year.
Scott Ashjian is one of a record 22 candidates, including 12 Republicans, running for the seat held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is seeking a fifth term.
Bernie Zadrowski, head of the Clark County district attorney's office bad check unit, said he would seek an arrest warrant Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. Ashjian could face up to 14 years in state prison if convicted.
The erstwhile Tea-Senator may have underestimated his enemies but he didn't fail to identify them prior to his political demise:
Ashjian said he's being targeted by unnamed people acting on behalf of the Republican Party.
"Clearly these people are afraid that I will siphon votes from their political party and from the Republican Party," he said in a statement in response to the lawsuit.
The logical "mechanic" in this rub out is a longterm low-level gunsel in the "Republican" ground organization in Nevada. His judicial aspirations would be a significant motive in the brutal act:
Zadrowski, a former Clark County GOP chairman now running for judge, said party politics had no role in his decision to file criminal bad check charges against Ashjian.
Ashjian was not contacted for comment but his requiem is not unusual in this state that is so well known for it's unseamly underside. Mr. Ashjian's dream of a legitimate Tea Party utopia where real, white, natural born Armenian anarchists can go from roofer to Senator without fear of being sent up the river for simply jacking bad checks. Shit ain't right.