Sharron Angle's Campaign Battles Reporter, Calls Him 'Term That Can't Be Repeated'

The YouTube hits keep coming for Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle -- who, despite ducking everything but conservative media, remains a must-watch figure among 2010 contenders.

The Tea Party favorite was en route to a softball interview with conservative radio host Roger Hedgecock on Thursday when a local Nevada television station swept in and posed very basic questions about some of her more controversial statements. Asked about calls to privatize Social Security and end the EPA, Angle accused the reporter of echoing Harry Reid's talking points. Pressed later (during her walk through the parking lot) about her predilection for "Second Amendment remedies" to deal with Congress's tyrannical ways, Angle refused to comment. Instead, her campaign called up the reporter after the questioning to call him an "idiot" and another term that, apparently, couldn't be repeated.

Angle has been seeking to avoid these types of uncomfortable media moments by forgoing formal interviews with actual journalists. National Republican Senatorial Committee John Cornyn is on record saying she won't be ready to face the press for "a few weeks" -- meaning that she's likely to be noncommittal on major questions about her policy platform and personal politics until she has a bit more seasoning.

But there has certainly been enough old footage to keep the spotlight focused on her. On Friday morning, for instance, Reid's campaign posted footage on its YouTube page in which Angle is quoted as saying that unemployment benefits actually make the unemployed "selfish."

"We have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don't want the jobs that are available," she said.

This is, of course, considered a philosophical truth among some conservatives -- though often said in more diplomatic ways. It's still a fairly jarring statement for a Senate candidate to make (Angle said it during the primary), especially when Nevada has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

Comments

[1johnf]

02:57 PM on 06/21/2010

And what must she be saying in private? Journalism is committing euthanasia on itself if it can't present relevant insight into candidates and their platforms. Blaming the internet is not recognizing the problem

[JavaManiac]

01:40 PM on 06/21/2010

Palin was still worse than Angle. FOX will try and save her.

[LiberalDem]

01:31 PM on 06/21/2010

So Angle "won't be ready" for a few weeks. I say let her keep talking. What is the GOP afraid of-that they can't control the bizarro world?

[Privatepractice]

12:56 PM on 06/21/2010

She should confer with Palin and the Chicken Lady. They are a hoot and should provide her with lodes of nonsense!

[WhatACountry]

12:51 PM on 06/21/2010

Another idiot set loose.

[bmike]

12:47 PM on 06/21/2010

when you can't answer the question accuse the person asking it a idiot and change the subject.

[LVorBust]

12:34 PM on 06/21/2010

We need some journalists with b@lls here that will dog her to answer questions. This business of shielding her from the press and coddling her with softball interviews in the conservative circuit is ridiculous. I'm waiting for the Las Vegas Review Journal or anyone that's supposed to have press credentials to really get on her @ss. Unfortunately, LVRJ is conservatively biased too, so they're probably doing her a favor.

[donniebnyc]

12:09 PM on 06/21/2010

So the 10 million people put out of work by Wall Street's criminal gaming of the economy are selfish and lazy for wanting unemployment checks to survive. Angle is the perfect corporatist repub. Blame the workers for the sins of the rich.

[woody7]

09:59 AM on 06/21/2010

I understand, that when I lose my "teaching" job, why can't I take a job mowing lawns. (nothing wrong with that)or cleaning restrooms, that job probably was the 1st one cut from the schools etc. is this woman for real? Apparently she has never been out of work, let a lone lose her job. It is a frightening thing. I lost my job of 25 years about 20 years ago. College educated, and it took me almost 3 years to find a new one. If it wasn't for the unemployment, I probably would still be unemployed. used it to retrain, and have been employed for the last 18 years. these people need to walk in the shoes of the people they despise.

[FR]

05:19 AM on 06/21/2010

Her one and only "issue" is to trash-talk Harry Reid, with pure rhetoric and not a specific in sight.
That isn't going to go all that far, especially when competing with the two feet firmly planted in her gullet.

[rebt]

08:00 AM on 06/21/2010

I agree. It is obvious she is falling back on the old rethuglican tactic of "defining your opponent" and not allowing the other side define you. She is just an oaf at attempting to do this. She would state "Harry Reid" over and over indicating the reporter was echoing his talking points when this stuff the reporter ask came straight from her mouth and her intertube site. She is just another heartless, mean spirited, grandiose rethug.

[bilo rile me]

12:07 AM on 06/21/2010

It's gonna be difficult, if the excuse is that she's not yet seasoned, to add spices after the pot's been boiling for a while. Like expecting Sarah to catch up withreality, or McCain's jive, at such short notice. Not gonna happen.

[jafsie]

09:46 PM on 06/20/2010

"National Republican Senatorial Committee John Cornyn is on record saying she won't be ready to face the press for 'a few weeks'"

...or at least until the brain transplant kicks in?

[FR]

05:15 AM on 06/21/2010

You're assuming of course the GOP WANTS women with brains.
Their recent track record and the 2008 slate strongly suggests otherwise ...

[ylobrkrd]

08:41 PM on 06/20/2010

Seriously, I am at a total loss for words at this comment. I don't even know where to begin to explain simple economics to her.

[Oldwave]

08:04 PM on 06/20/2010

Dear America,
Please stop electing the stupid to public office. On either side.
Thank you.

[NCAV2]

02:56 PM on 06/20/2010

Does anyone else see this disturbing trend of obnoxious female Republicans running for office?

[nestormcdade]

03:48 PM on 06/20/2010

Great observation! That's what you get when susbtance doesn't matter.

[FR]

05:09 AM on 06/21/2010

It's the Sarah Palin model.
Short on facts, information or truth, big on personal tr@sh-talk and smears, and NO willingness to learn a thing when you can blame everyone else.
Then there's the Republican model of stunt-casting someone like Palin when they had perfectly qualified seasoned women who had actually served out terms.

AND they seem to have missed the fact that Palin failed ...

[liveordie]

09:55 AM on 06/21/2010

Nice one.