As acting-Nevada GOP Chairman Paul Willis continues his refusal to step aside - under the brilliant political advice from the party’s Secretary, Carolyn Mering - and allow Chairman-in-Waiting Sue Lowden to step in and pull the party from its nose-dive, the media smells blood. And they WANT him to stick around, as he’s making great copy.
Las Vegas Review Journal columnist John L. Smith concludes this morning’s piece with:
“Let me make one thing clear, Mr. Willis. I’d sooner draw water from a stone than ask you to resign. Please, stay right where you are. I call the unabashed friendship between the chairman of the state’s Republicans and the indicted owner of a whorehouse a natural fit.”
Ouch. And just how is THIS in the party’s best interest?
Meanwhile, Steve Sebelius, editor of CityLife newspaper, referring to Willis’ indecisiveness on major issues which have confronted him during his short tenure as Grand Imperial Pooh-Bah of the GOP, wrote:
“We know the GOP has a plan to install some adult supervision (Lowden), but we think party bigwigs should let Willis stay on, perhaps as spokesman. If we media types didn’t like the answer we got at 10 a.m., we could always call back at 2 p.m. for a diametrically opposed quote.”
Lovely.
The story line about Willis and his eye-raising relationship with a Pahrump brothel owner back when Willis was a member of the Town Board continues today, as well. As Smith notes, Willis spoke out publicly in favor of the brothel owner’s desire for a major change in the local brothel ordinance, saying, “It’s as much about freedom as anything else. The religious right doesn’t have the only freedom in the country.”
Now, I’ve had my own disagreements with social conservatives on any number of issues over the years, but is a person who slammed the “religious right” in such a manner on behalf of a brothel owner really the person the GOP needs right now to pull its act together and prepare for the 2008 election cycle? Put me down as a “no.”
Smith also reveals this morning that as an elected official in Pahrump, Willis “took the jaw-dropping step of writing a letter to the Pahrump Valley Times explaining his argument behind the proposed changes to the brothel ordinance.” Smith notes, “It’s not every day a politician writes a letter defending the position of a whorehouse owner, not even in Nevada.”
What the party SHOULD be focusing on right now is how to counter the Democrat agenda in the Legislature, especially this push for full-day kindergarten; how to bail itself out of financial bankruptcy; how to prepare to overcome the six-month jumpstart the Democrats have on Republicans in organizing next year’s presidential caucus; and how to make sure all those Democrat presidential candidate traipsing through Nevada these days don’t leave our state without a scratch.
Instead, it’s all about an acting chairman who should have stepped aside over a month ago and whether or not the FBI is investigating him over his relationship with a brothel owner under indictment for bribery.
In an AP story written by Brendan Riley last week, Willis stated categorically that, “The objective is to do what’s best for the state and for the party.”
Even Stevie Wonder could see that means it’s time for Paul Willis to hand over the keys.
Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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