Nevada Tea Party second banana awakens from stupor, gets the hook

It’s interesting to see Tea Party of Nevada Chairman Dr. Sid James finally drop Jon Scott Ashjian and embrace Republican Sharron Angle in the U.S. Senate race. It’s interesting because it took this reasonably intelligent man so long.

Angle did a really dumb thing when she agreed to meet with Ashjian in private to talk about whether he would be willing to drop out of the race. She didn’t need to meet with him, and she should have anticipated he would record their conversation.

In fact, far from being a major factor in the race Ashjian’s polling pulse has gone from weak to faint. His 1 percent is no better than the Independent American Party’s Tim Fasano. (The IAP of Nevada was brought into the world with help from Angle.)

Ashjian has never been much of a factor. I’ll speculate that the weather on Election Day will be more important to the outcome of the race than the fact the faux Tea Party representative is on the ballot. If this were vaudeville, they’d be getting the hook.

Not that Ashjian might have grown into a factor. With more money and less mystery surrounding his shallow candidacy (that feeds conspiracies that it's a put-up job by the friends of the Senate Majorty Leader) he might have attracted a sliver of legitimate attention. That's not possible now.

Fact is, the biggest factor Ashjian has played in the campaign came when Angle agreed to meet with him and he recorded their hardly startling conversation. Although much is being made of Angle’s lack of faith in the Republican Party, anyone who has spoken with her for more than five minutes knows that’s her strong opinion. She doesn’t trust the Republicans to do the right – as in conservative – thing. No Republican should trust the GOP just as no Democrat should blindly accept the rhetoric of that party.

But that’s not news.

At last, neither is Ashjian.