Sharron Angle on CityCenter: Clueless or Lying

Would Not Have Voted for Nonexistent Stimulus for CityCenter

It’s become a familiar routine: Sharron Angle says something outrageous, offensive or just plain out of touch. Then she backtracks.

Take her assertion on a conservative radio show that she would not have picked up the phone to save the world’s largest privately-funded construction project and the 22,000 jobs attached to it. Angle went on to say that when Sen. Harry Reid encouraged banks to help keep alive the CityCenter project, at the time under construction by Nevada’s largest private employer, was merely a case of “shuffling… the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Well, tell that to the 12,000 people currently employed at CityCenter thanks to Sen. Reid’s efforts. Surely they’re glad to know that the woman who wants to be their next U.S. Senator wouldn’t have lifted a finger to ensure they could put food on their table and roofs over children’s heads.

Commence Project Backtrack.

Angle told a local television station that she “would not have voted for the stimulus for the CityCenter. And the reason is what happened there is Harry Reid rewarded some friends at the expense of other businesses in town. Stimulus does not work and we've seen that with the unemployment rate going up. We didn't see employment rates going down we saw them going up."

Is it just me, or does Sharron Angle – the supposed champion of private industry job creation – not know that CityCenter didn’t receive any public funding? That CityCenter was a privately-funded construction project by the state’s largest private employer? That she wouldn’t have voted for it not because she wouldn’t have supported it, but because there was never a vote at all?

While a Sharron Angle backtrack is always transparently disingenuous, seldom is it is so, well, ridiculous.

“Angle’s answer appears to conflate government stimulus spending and the use of political clout to facilitate a private business deal,” reported the Las Vegas Sun. “At CityCenter, Reid brought no government money, legislation or regulation to bear, only his clout as majority leader. The construction and resort jobs created were all private industry jobs.

“Angle’s campaign did not return calls Thursday seeking clarification of her remarks.”

“Sharron Angle has already proven she is heartless, dangerous and out of touch – just ask the 12,000 people working at CityCenter today,” said Phoebe Sweet, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party. “Now we’re wondering whether she’s also clueless. Or could it be they don’t have televisions or newspapers in Sharron’s bunker?”