Nevada newspapermen and their senators: No love fest

“There are many Senators whom I hold in a certain respect and would not think of declining to meet socially, if I believed it was the will of God. We have lately sent a United States Senator to the penitentiary, but I am quite well aware that of those who have escaped this promotion there are several who are in some regards guiltless of crime — not guiltless of all crimes, for that cannot be said of any United States Senator, I think, but guiltless of some kinds of crime.”
— Mark Twain in “Eruption”

Nevada newspaper folks have always had a certain affection for our elected delegates in Washington. We’ve dined with them, invited them to editorial boards, endorsed them on occasion when they were running for re-election. But we’ve never really been awed by them.

From the comments appended to R-J Publisher Sherman Frederick’s column today — there were more than 1,000 by mid-morning, thanks to a link posted on the Drudge Report, I suspect — I’d say that feeling is rather widely shared, not just in Nevada but all over the nation.

I thought his remark at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon a bit revealing. I’m not sure whether it is our polling or our editorials that he’d rather do without.