Spot the trend: Republicans endorse Reid

The only thing more comical than the notion that former First Lady Dawn Gibbons endorsed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Wednesday out of a “vendetta” against Sharron Angle is the idea that such things don’t hurt the candidacy of the Republican challenger.

One of the Reid campaign’s main goals in the coming weeks is to illustrate Angle as out of touch and extreme. The two best ways to do that, in my opinion, are to use her own words against her and to have well-known Republicans say publicly that they are compelled to endorse the Democrat.

Dawn Gibbons was never a political heavyweight, but then neither was Angle until her primary victory earlier this year. Gibbons was a Republican Assemblywoman and was a popular First Lady even after Gov. Jim Gibbons filed for divorce. (Perhaps even more popular after that, come to think of it.)

She also ran third in the 2006 Congressional primary behind Angle and winner Dean Heller. The idea that Gibbons has been sitting up late brooding the past four years because she didn’t beat Angle and finish second is positively daffy.

Gibbons served in the Legislature as a middle-of-the-road Republican. It’s not surprising at all that she would decline to endorse true-believer conservative Angle. If anything, it shows how conflicted the GOP remains in Nevada.

What is more surprising is that Dawn Gibbons would step up and ring the bell for Reid.

But, then again, that’s precisely what former National Republican Party Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf did with much less fanfare earlier this week, as reported in Review-Journal veteran reporter Howard Stutz’ blog.

He told Stutz: “The question is are you better off having the majority leader of the senate, who can control what gets to the floor to be voted on, or a freshman senator?”  For Gaming Inc., that's precisely the question.

Sure, Fahrenkopf and Reid have known each other half a century.  So I guess Angle supporters in her campaign and in the media could postulate that it’s a longstanding relationship that is behind it.

Then again, Fahrenkopf could feel compelled to back Reid out of an implied threat. Reid is known as a hardball political player, right?

Trouble with that rusty rhetoric is, Reid and Angle are in a dead heat. The best way to beat him is to have major players in Nevada business stand up and say they are supporting Angle’s “small government” candidacy.

In fact, if the big players on the Strip suddenly decided to stand in unison and blast Reid, it might be enough to send him into retirement.

If Angle’s team had the ground game, it might have someone knocking on penthouse doors and making her case at this moment.

But that’s the difference between wishful thinking and reporting.

In a race in which, as the ancient Chinese might say, a single grain of rice can tip the scale, an endorsement by Dawn Gibbons is a story. An endorsement by Frank Fahrenkopf is a story, too.

Don’t be surprised to see more high-profile Republicans going public for Reid in the coming weeks.

Now, if Angle can only gain the endorsements of Bonnie Bryan and Sandy Miller ...