EDITORIAL: Blown speaker
November 25, 2014 - 12:01 am
In resigning his speakership before it ever really started, Assemblyman Ira Hansen showed he was unfit for leadership in the first place. The Sparks Republican suffers from Nixonian paranoia and Clintonian denial, blaming a vast moderate conspiracy for his demotion when, in fact, it was his own repugnant writing that marginalized him.
Long before he was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 2010, and long before he was voted speaker-designate by a Republican caucus that won a stunning majority in this month’s elections, Hansen was a columnist for the Sparks Daily Tribune and a radio talk show host. Last week, Reno News &Review reporter Dennis Myers dug into microfilm to document Hansen’s screeds, an alarming number of which dealt with matters of race, gender and sexual orientation in offensive or outright ignorant fashion.
“Hansen has said he keeps a Confederate battle flag on the wall where he writes his columns. ‘I fly it proudly in honor and in memory of a great cause and my brave ancestors who fought for that cause,’” Mr. Myers wrote. In a state with a shameful history of segregation, such loyalty is disgusting.
Hansen frequently attacked gays as pedophiles and deviants. And as a radio host, Hansen argued that the Clinton administration was responsible for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people and injured hundreds. And, as reported Sunday by Review-Journal columnist Steve Sebelius, last year Hansen wrote on legislative letterhead that being gay is as much a choice as incest or bestiality.
In response, Hansen apologized last week — not for what he had said and written, but that it had offended anyone. By that point, he had become a national story and the latest political embarrassment for the state. On Sunday, he announced he would withdraw from his leadership post in a fashion fit for one of his columns or radio shows.
“This has been a carefully orchestrated attack to remove a conservative Republican from a major leadership role in state government,” he said in a statement.
“Ultimately, this whole attack has very little to do with my views. The powers that be are planning a massive, more than one billion dollar, tax increase and I stood in the way as speaker. I have already served two terms as an assemblyman without any of these vicious attacks. It was only when I had risen to leadership that this smear campaign occurred.” He said more of the same in a recorded interview that airs on “Nevada Newsmakers” today, blaming Gov. Brian Sandoval and his consultants for making him “the bad guy.” Oh my.
Actually, it has everything to do with his views. And power matters. When Hansen had no power, when he was in the Assembly’s minority, outside leadership, his opinions had no influence on state policy. Once someone seeks or gains greater power, they can expect more attention and more vetting.
The Assembly Republican caucus has plenty of fiscally conservative members who could serve as Hansen’s replacement. The next speaker designate, who will be named early next week, might draw a stronger line against tax increases than Hansen would have. But it’s hard to imagine anyone having more divisive personal views than Hansen.
And that matters. The work of the 2015 Legislature is too important to be sidetracked by needless distraction. The policy behind education, government and tax reforms must be the focus of debate, not the motivations of the person proposing it.