Las Vegas Review-Journal - Steve Sebelius Slash Politics

From the very moment Brian Sandoval resigned his federal judgeship to run for governor, I knew we’d be hearing about the Nazi thing again.

Today, I was proven right.

If you don’t know, this is the Nazi thing: Back in 2002, Sandoval was running for attorney general. He came to visit the Review-Journal editorial board, which at the time included me. (I was the paper’s political columnist for five years, a fact certain editors would probably like to forget.)

The editorial board is a freewheeling affair, and each member had a different style of questioning. Assistant Editorial Page Editor Vin Suprynowicz is keen on picking up on a candidate’s statements and seeing how far they’ve really thought about their positions, and on that particular occasion, he had a doozy to work with: Sandoval said flatly that it was the attorney general’s job to defend the laws passed by the Legislature, no matter their suspect constitutionality.

Really? Vin pressed. Every law?

Red flags should have gone up, since every good lawyer knows there are exceptions to every rule. (In fact, law is more often about the exceptions than the rules.) But, in my view, Sandoval was possessed at the time with the politician’s vice that suggests an attenuated statement is a weak one, and allowing for exceptions makes one look weaselly instead of wise. (More recently, he’s shown he’s obviously been cured of that.) He told Suprynowicz that yes, every law should be defended.

Suprynowicz continued, closing the trap: If the Legislature passed a law that required Jews to wear a yellow star on their clothing, you’d defend that law in court?

Bam.

Now the thing to do in a situation like that is to frankly admit that, “you got me.” Say that there are certain laws so repugnant to human dignity that you’d never defend them. Say you’d rather resign than defend that (actual Nazi-era) law. Admit your earlier blanket statement was too broad, and that there are exceptions to every rule.

Sandoval didn’t.

Instead, realizing he’d been caught in a philosophical trap of his own making, he apparently reasoned that consistency was better than retreat. So he gave no quarter: Yes, he told Suprynowicz, he’d even defend that law were the Nevada Legislature to pass it and were it to be challenged in the courts. He’d hope the Legislature would never pass such a law; he’d advocate against the passage of such a law, he’d certainly not personally support such a law, but if he were to be serving as AG and the Jewish Yellow Star Act were to pass and be challenged, he’d defend it in court. “It’s my job to enforce it,” he said.

Of course, it was the wrong answer. It was an unbelievable answer, and a surprising answer, uttered by somebody who — let’s be honest — should have seen the trap coming a mile away and maneuvered to stay out of it. But it was also an answer without malice. (And here’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever find myself writing.) Brian Sandoval is no Nazi sympathizer. He was just having a very bad rhetorical day.

Suprynowicz wrote a column that mentioned the incident, and it was briefly featured in a TV ad by Sandoval’s lackluster Democratic opponent, attorney John Hunt. Sandoval won that race handily, 58 percent to 33 percent.

Flash forward to today, when the campaign of Gov. Jim Gibbons decided now — about a month from the primary election — it would be a good idea to compare Sandoval to the Nazis based on that long-ago editorial board. Here’s the statement (actually) put out by the governor’s campaign:

Brian Sandoval likes to talk about being a “reason to believe again”. But Jim Gibbons has found ANOTHER example of Sandoval having a “reason to deceive again”.

When Sandoval was running for Attorney General, a reporter asked him, “…if the Legislature passed a law requiring all Jews to wear yellow stars of David on the outside of their clothing, you’d enforce it?” Did Sandoval stand up for human rights? Did he defend the Constitution? NO. His answer? “It’s my job to enforce it.” This is the same excuse, “just following orders,” that the Nazi’s gave when they were asked, by American soldiers, why did they participate in the Nazi plan against the Jews in World War II.

That’s right. Brian Sandoval would not stand up for what is right and he would not stand up to the Legislature. Sandoval would not defend the basic human rights of Nevada citizens. Sandoval would promote ethnic bias and anti-Semitism, justifying this by saying that he would just be doing his “job to enforce it.”

“That is a disgraceful example of ‘going along to get along’ on an issue that epitomizes the way Brian Sandoval thinks and believes, this way of thinking is a sellout and a pitiful excuse for all freedom-loving people who expect their leaders to be strong and just,” Gibbons said. “I will stand up for what’s right, no matter what the odds. I would never surrender.”

Gibbons has exactly the opposite of Sandoval’s cowardly “appeasement” attitude. Gibbons fights for Nevadans. In uniform, Gibbons fought for the U.S. Constitution. In the Governor’s Office, Gibbons is still fighting for the Constitution.

Gibbons bypassed Democrat Attorney General Catherine Masto to file suit against the federal government and the Reid/Pelosi/Obama Nationalized Health Care law. That law is already costing Nevada taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, and will cost Nevadans millions, even billions, in the future.

Yes, Gibbons will not surrender when Nevadan’s rights are at stake. But to “appease” those around him, Brian “Spend-it-all” Sandoval would even make Jewish citizens in Nevada wear yellow stars “if the Legislature said so”.

Brian “Spend-it-all” Sandoval’s political philosophy is based on “appeasement,” a socialist European policy of “just going along to get along,” similar to our current Obama/Reid/Pelosi policy makers in D.C.

Gibbons stands for what is right and what is best for the Nevada people. Gibbons has and will continue to stands up to the Legislature, to Congress, to Harry Reid, to Nancy Pelosi, and – yes – even to President Obama. Jim Gibbons stands up for Nevada.

Oh, yes. That just happened. Gov. Jim Gibbons called Brian Sandoval a Nazi, an appeaser and an anti-Semite.

(UPDATE: The statement was finally posed to Gibbons’s campaign website.)

Sandoval did fall into a fairly obvious philosophical trap back in 2002. He’s got to own that. But Sandoval never said anything that could ever remotely justify Gibbons’s outrageous allegation in this news release. One rhetorical slip-and-fall cannot possibly cover tainting Sandoval with perhaps the most evil time in the history of the world.

In every campaign, there comes a time when one candidate goes a bit too far, steps over the line of decency and says or does something beyond the pale. Gibbons should turn around and start running. If he can keep up the pace, he might just make it back to the line of decency he crossed by June 8.

UPDATE: A Sandoval reply, courtesy of my colleague Jon Ralston:

“Jim Gibbons’ statement today is so repugnant it is beneath the dignity of the office of governor. It is sad for Nevadans to see him resort to such a ridiculous act of desperation. But unfortunately this is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Jim Gibbons and exactly why Nevadans overwhelmingly have rejected his misguided administration.”

Or at least they will, in a month’s time.

Or will they?

UPDATE 2: Nevada News Bureau Editor Elizabeth Crum has reaction and commentary.

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