Sharron Angle: 'Sometimes Dictators Have Good Ideas'
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Nevada Republican Sharron Angle -- who fell short in her quest to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid earlier this month -- found herself back in the spotlight on Wednesday after questionable comments she reportedly made towards the end of her campaign came to light.
"Sometimes dictators have good ideas," explained the Tea Party darling at a private campaign event, according to Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston. At the Las Vas Sun, he writes, "Her staff fretted the line would get out. It did not. Until now."
Angle, who developed a reputation for sparking controversy over the course of her campaign, reportedly made the remarks in arguing that the country's Social Security system should be privatized. She cited right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet and a system he implemented in Chile in 1981 to make her point.
Angle invoked the same reference over the summer. Ralston reports, "[She] had not used it since her staff shut her down. But that day, with no media there, saying her staff had warned her not to use it, she raised the Chile example again."
The Nevada Republican's position on Social Security repeatedly proved to be a stumbling block throughout her campaign. While Angle has taken a hiatus from the political realm since her defeat to Reid, she recently signaled her intention to make a roaring comeback. The Las Vegas Review Journal reports:
Angle, making a spontaneous visit to the Las Vegas Republican TownHall group, vowed to continue her crusade to shake up a national political scene she says has drifted too far from values the Founding Fathers held dear, even though she lost by 5 percentage points a race pundits once thought would be the biggest prize in a Republican wave.
"Our freedom is at stake. We knew that two years ago when we started running for the U.S. Senate, when you started helping me, you knew we couldn't stop," Angle told an audience of a few dozen Republicans in a banquet room at Charlie's Lakeside restaurant. "And we can't stop now."
One day following Angle's loss in Nevada's midterm election, HuffPost's Nick Wing reported on the possibility that the conservative firecracker could inject herself into the 2012 political mix. Whether a congressional or gubernatorial campaign, or a bid to unseat GOP incumbent Sen. John Ensign -- who despite being embroiled in immense controversy stemming from a 2009 sex scandal recently signaled he intends to seek another term -- it seems that for Angle, all options remain on the table.
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The Huffington Post Elyse Siegel First Posted: 11/18/10 01:18 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:15 PM ET