Reid’s seniority too big an asset to lose

To the editor:

Nevada's U.S. Senate race will no doubt feature many pros and cons about both major candidates. However, a very clear-eyed view is needed if Nevada's voters select GOP challenger Sharron Angle.

Here's what happens:

She will be Nevada's new junior senator. The new senior senator will be scandal-ridden John Ensign (who may or may not choose to or be able to run for re-election, but that's another story).

She will not be the Senate majority or minority leader or the Senate majority or minority whip. Those positions will go to other, more senior members of the Senate.

She will not be named to the plum committee assignments (appropriations, defense, etc.). Those positions will go to other, more senior members of the Senate.

She will not be the chair of the Senate Women's Caucus. As a freshman member of that group, it is more likely that Ms. Angle will be serving tea and coffee to the more senior members.

Despite her primary election night boasts, it is difficult to imaging Sharron Angle bossing around other senators to her way of thinking. In senatorial rankings, she will be in the bottom 10 percent.

There are some who have anger and frustrations with the current political system or who may disagree with some of Harry Reid's votes or opinions. But it is clear that Nevada's citizens might have to wait years, or even decades, before our state has a political figure rise to the position of Senate majority leader.

Nevada's voters should not kiss off that level of political power in a fit of Tea Party pique.

JAMES WALTERSSON

LAS VEGAS

Back to work

To the editor:

I believe Sen. Harry Reid wanted the unemployment extension legislation to fail, thereby allowing him to say, ad nauseam, that it's all the fault of Republicans.

The Democrats could have voted to pay for the extension with funds they have already collected, fraudulently called the "stimulus" package, but Sen. Reid would rather hurt many people in Nevada and other states to further his political career.

The irony is that if he were a competent leader, and had done the work necessary to spur job creation in our state -- i.e., cut taxes and reward entrepreneurship (rather than increase taxes on it) -- we might not have to be talking about extensions at all.

Beware, every day there are thousands more jobs being shipped overseas. But do you hear either Sen. Reid or Barack Obama address this? They only vilify business and continue to create ways to overregulate and overtax.

But I guess I shouldn't worry. Sen. Reid's answer is, "It could be worse."

Michelle Duncan

Las Vegas

Doesn't speak well

To the editor:

Anyone who really cares about America and is considering voting for Sen. Harry Reid should weigh his quotes involving the "Cornhusker Kickback" and other bribes used to pass ObamaCare.

For instance, Sen. Reid suggested senators who didn't get a payoff were not doing their jobs.

"I don't know if there is a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that is important to them," he said. "And if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them."

That is government leadership at its worst.

ALLEN D. STRUNK

LAS VEGAS

Find your bootstraps

To the editor:

In response to the Sunday letter from Brian Hughes on the failure of Congress to extend unemployment benefits:

Mr. Hughes' problem is not caused by the Republicans or the rejection of yet another unfunded bill that was to once again extend unemployment benefits. Mr. Hughes' problem is looking him in the mirror every evening when he wakes up. Unemployment benefits are to help a worker after losing his job until he can get back to work. This is not a weekly entitlement.

I have a fellow co-worker, well-educated in his technical field, who has taken on an evening and weekend job delivering pizzas to help provide the lifestyle he wants for his wife and children.

People are now crying that their benefits are expiring, which means they have been without any job for at least 26 to 39 weeks. Any job? This entitlement feeling is not that of hard workers who are down on their luck, it is that of a thief. A thief who expects his government to steal from the future of my co-workers' children so that they can make a weekly walk from their bedroom to the mailbox.

I agree with Mr. Hughes on one thing: "It's time the voters of this country send a message and fire these politicians who have absolutely no clue as to the problems that they have caused."

It is those politicians who force socialistic policies on us that turn promising and constructive citizens into unproductive individuals who rely on the government for rent, food and health care that our country and our future are being destroyed to provide.

EDWARD POTTS

NORTH LAS VEGAS