Beau Biden criticizes ‘obstructionist’ GOP

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden on Saturday urged Clark County Democrats to overcome "obstructionist Republican policies" by working hard to re-elect President Barack Obama and maintain control of the U.S. Senate.

The son of Vice President Joe Biden also took a few swipes at Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, including for saying home values should be allowed to "hit bottom."

"Obama gets it," Biden told the county party's convention. "Do you think Mitt Romney gets it? He doesn't get it."

The Obama campaign sent Biden to fire up the Democratic troops in the most populous county of Nevada, a battleground state the president needs to win again in 2012 to return to the White House.

Romney has a strong following in Nevada, too, having won the GOP presidential caucuses in both 2008 and 2012.

About 1,400 Democrats attended Saturday's convention at the Riviera. A total of 1,096 were elected delegates to the state convention to be held June 9-10 in Las Vegas.

At the state convention, the party will elect 44 delegates to attend the Democratic National Convention in September in Charlotte, N.C., where Obama will formally accept the presidential nomination.

Biden and other headline speakers at the Clark County meeting argued that the best reason to return Obama to the White House is so he can finish what he started to revive the economy.

The president inherited a recession, and many states haven't recovered, including Nevada, which has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.3 percent.

"There's much work to be done," Biden said, including ensuring banks don't take advantage of people caught in the home foreclosure crisis that has hit Southern Nevada hard.

Biden and Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, who introduced him, led efforts in the states and by the Obama administration to win a $25 billion settlement from the five largest lending banks to help people whose homes are in foreclosure or have already been foreclosed.

Biden also made a pitch for the Senate to pass the "Buffett Rule," which would tax people making at least $1 million in income at a 30 percent rate. The GOP opposes it because it will do little to reduce the debt and deficit spending.

Biden decried GOP opposition, saying the word "compromise" is no longer in the Republican vocabulary.

"The Republicans literally have not been using that word," Biden said. "That's a statement in itself when you have Republicans who are fearful of using the word 'compromise.' "

The daylong Clark County convention included a long line-up of speakers, although U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sent a video message.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., went hard after her 2012 Senate opponent, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

She noted Heller voted twice for a GOP budget plan that would have changed Medicare to a private voucher system in the future. Republicans argued the reforms would save the program for future generations while preserving it for current seniors and those who are 55 or older.

"Dean Heller doesn't want to reform Medicare; he wants to kill Medicare," Berkley said to applause.

She also accused Heller of siding with "big oil" companies and corporations over the middle class, driving home her campaign's main theme against her Republican opponent.

"Will our next senator fight to save Social Security and Medicare?" Berkley asked. "I do and I have and I will."

Berkley addressed the Clark County meeting in the afternoon and Washoe County Democrats in Reno in the morning.

Heller, a former Northern Nevada congressman, is well known in Washoe, where Berkley is working to expand her support.

The outcome of the Nevada Senate race could determine whether Democrats lose their majority and whether Reid keeps his leadership job after 2012.

Former U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., won the most enthusiastic applause. She delivered a fiery speech, saying Nevada is "ground zero" in the 2012 election battle that will decide the country's direction.

"I want to go back to Congress, but I want to go back in the majority," said Titus, who is running for a safe Democratic House seat to replace Berkley.

In a call and response with the crowd, Titus asked:

"Will we win?"

"Yes!" the crowd cried in return.

"Will we turn Nevada blue?"

"Yes!"

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers
@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerslvrj.