Sharron Angle Compares Herself To America's 'Founding Fathers'

Republican candidate Sharron Angle, who's fighting to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, says she's no different than the country's "founding fathers" when it comes to criticism she's faced for maintaining extremely conservative, and in some cases controversial, views.

The Tea Party-backed hopeful drew the comparison in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday.

"I'm sure that they probably said that about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin," explained Angle on any suggestion that her positions are problematically too far to the right. "And truly, when you look at the Constitution and our founding fathers and their writings, the things that made this country great, you might draw those conclusions: That they were conservative. They were fiscally conservative and socially conservative."

The Senate hopeful, who has developed a reputation for being press-shy since winning the rights to take on Reid, reportedly "spoke slowly and cautiously" to the Times and "appeared reluctant to engage, frequently reciting stock answers to questions."

On the heels of Nevada's GOP Senate primary, Angle similarly refuted the idea that the positions she maintains are extreme. In a radio interview, the conservative contender insisted that she's "more mainstream" than Reid and blasted the four-term incumbent as a "whack job."

Reid signaled to the Times that his camp anticipates Angle's harsh rhetoric could prove to be her Achilles' heel, but added that he's not "discounting" the conservative challenger as a viable threat to his reelection.

"Our focus groups that we've done, my staff tells me this -- her statements, they can't believe that anyone would say that," explained the Senate leader. "That's why most of our TV just has her talking... In spite of the work we've done, people need to understand more about her. There are some unusual stands she has."

Comments

[RyanC1384]

10:50 PM on 08/24/2010

Did you guys see this? 2 potential news worthy stories within this audio. Sharron Angle agrees that we have domestic enemies within the Congress, & she is a hypocrite when it comes to the Constitution...

http://www.doubledutchpolitics.com/2010/08/sharon-angle-strict-constructionist-or-hypocrite/

[taddles]

01:44 PM on 08/23/2010

Only if our Founding Fathers were ignorant religious zealots.

[bitterindependent]

11:05 AM on 08/23/2010

our founding fathers were not republicans.......

[Johaely]

02:49 PM on 08/21/2010

Why is it that these tea-party candidates keeep comparing themselves to the Founding Fathers? There are and will always be completely different and uncomparable.

[Brane]

10:58 AM on 08/21/2010

There were "fiscally and socially conservatives" who were contemporaries of the Founding Fathers, Ms. Angle. They were called "Tories". They did not contribute to the founding of the nation.

[CessnaDriver]

02:32 PM on 08/21/2010

Am I the only one who remembers that the "Founding Fathers" on the subject of slavery fell into two basic groups: The first: "Slavery Forever!"; The second: "Slavery? We'll fix it later."

[fla kracker]

07:15 AM on 08/21/2010

If Angle had been one of the founding fathers we would be living in Somalia in stead of the the USA. Her version of governance is the chaos those poor souls enjoy today.

[CessnaDriver]

02:30 PM on 08/21/2010

People like her have talking points to address your excellent point, but the talking points are too insipid to repeat.

[fla kracker]

09:36 PM on 08/21/2010

Yeah she needs to realize going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going to football game makes you a quarterback

[pkafin]

08:32 PM on 08/20/2010

That's funny, when I read the Constitution, I am struck at how liberal the framers clearly were. Some of the freedoms they ensured for themselves and future generations are the very things that conservatives today seem abhor.

Conservatives wish to push religion into the public square. The first Amendment discourages that.

The Conservatives want to take away the protections of the 5th Amendment: rights not be denied, without due process, life (wars of choice), liberty (habeous corpus and building Muslim community centers), and the pursuit of happiness (gay marriage).

They are for taking away 6th Amendments rights to consul for American citizens arrested on terrorism charges.

They regularly rail against federal judges who are tasked by the Constitution to try cases as "activists".

There is very little left of the Constitution that the Conservatives actually understand and honor.

[CessnaDriver]

02:34 PM on 08/21/2010

Funny you never head conservanazis complain about the activist judge that reversed Oliver North's convictions for what was essentially treason.

[taddles]

01:49 PM on 08/23/2010

I'll have to take issue with that, trading weapons to our enemies to keep our citizens hostage to win an election isn't essentially treason, it IS treason.

[chicamorena]

03:52 PM on 08/20/2010

Jeez, Sharron, how many times do I hafta tell ya: LAY OFF THE STOOPID JUICE!

[GrannyForObama]

12:13 PM on 08/20/2010

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness".

"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause".

The above two quotes are from our first President George Washingon, both written in letters from 1792.

"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."

This is from Thomas Jefferson in his Autobiography and is talking about the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

I am thoroughly delighted to know that Ms. Angle identifies with the Founding Fathers and believes her thoughts should align with those of the Founding Fathers. I hope she begins this alignment process in the near future.

[Ojodelgato]

11:48 AM on 08/20/2010

I thought she meant she's been dead for 150 years.

[chicamorena]

03:52 PM on 08/20/2010

She's been brain-dead since she was hatched.

[JMBrodie]

06:41 AM on 08/20/2010

Angle is like the Founding Fathers. Does she own slaves too? But wait, she's a woman. She wouldn't have been able to own anything.

[CessnaDriver]

02:35 PM on 08/21/2010

Women could hold property as long as they weren't married. When Washington married Martha, he came into possession of her property.

His will freed her slaves without any compensation to her. She was, by all accounts, unamused.

[JMBrodie]

10:10 AM on 08/22/2010

Thank you for the correction.

As I recall, weren't the slave to be freed after her passing? I wonder what it must have been like for her -- living with people who were waiting for her to die.

[donnie-cheesehead]

05:33 AM on 08/20/2010

Hey now boys and girls --------- Let's all give Sharon the bennefit of a doubt.

When she compared herself to the Images on mount Rushmore, what she meant
to say, Is that like them, her brain is also rubble and stone. Thats all she way sayin'
she too i think also she is a great grizzly mama that would protek he kubs,

[RodbfromNC]

05:03 AM on 08/20/2010

Yep..Sharron does, like many of our founding fathers, want to own her own slave.

We might all bust a gut laughing at her but do remember (as I do from my own childhood) that her kids have had to grow up with this narcissist and will have to have therapy in perpetuity. And that, my friends, is the sad thing.

[David VeLar]

07:50 PM on 08/19/2010

I really support equality in all ways for women and the strength of the feminist movement, and as a man I want to deep down apologize sincerely for the level of brainwashing stupidity that we have inflicted on so many women that it would cause this terrible distortion of womanhood to be inflicted to our society's consciousness. I am well aware that this grotesque shadow of feminine strength, will impact true feminism in a way that sends things backwards a bit.

Palin, Angle, et. al.

So seriously I know it's bigoted controlling and superficial men who, in their hometowns sent messages that taught these women to be grafty crafty political gold diggers, and for that I seriously apologize. Watching Palin use some teenage flirty attempt at charm to get votes, and watching this woman Angle literally beg for money... yes it's humiliating for all Americans.

Please forgive the men who sent those backward values to them.

[zendem1]

07:23 PM on 08/19/2010

This just in from the departed spirit of Patrick Henry:
"She said what?....wow, you guys down there are skrewed!"