Right wing in tizzy after budget deal

By Jon Ralston

Friday, June 3, 2011 | 6:24 a.m.

After months of elevating Gov. Brian Sandoval to Zeus-like status for his no-tax promise and for his effective GOP woodshed, the righties are having a public meltdown that Irwin Allen couldn’t have filmed.

Why? Because the governor and leaders of both parties, hamstrung by the state Supreme Court, have transformed an awful budget into a bearable one.

The horrors of compromise and cooperation have turned these flamethrowers into a vituperating, vengeful pack who appear ready to burn down the Capitol and Legislative Building. General fund spending is down $700 million from what was approved in 2009 — and still they want more carnage.

Americans for Prosperity has started robocalls to get people to call Sandoval. The Nevada Policy Research Institute declared taxpayers the “losers” in the deal and circulated a video of freshman state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer promising not to extend sunsetting taxes. And smash-mouth activist Chuck Muth has been slashing away on his blog, on Twitter and in emails, calling Republicans spineless whores.

If we could harness all that anger, all that venom, all those recriminations and turn them into productive energy, maybe we could create jobs and juice up the economy. But instead of stepping back and trying to understand that this budget is fairly parsimonious, they have resorted to trying to intimidate those, like Kieckhefer, who changed their minds rather than inflict more cuts. Instead of giving them credit for flexibility, they fulminate about a silly tax pledge some legislators signed and Sandoval never should have made, as if these folks had just defaced the “Mona Lisa.”

Except for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, which has proposed budget and other reforms, nearly all of these righties are about tearing down and battering anyone who does not hew to the no doctrine.

I have written that those on the left can be nastier than those on the right — some of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada members and others in their orbit regularly disgorge the most vile calumny for those who disagree.

But the right generally is characterized by a different kind of attack mode: Either a dismissive intellectual condescension or accusations of union captivity or liberal bias. Neither side can see straight — or, more accurately, to the middle.

I’m not suggesting compromise doesn’t sometimes mean capitulation or a betrayal of core principles. But that is not what happened here.

What occurred is that the governor decided not to chance his budget being undone in the courts and took an expansive view of the ruling, believing it affects other funds in his budget. Rather than cut another $650 million, he decided to work with lawmakers to reach a compromise and assure some substantive reforms — first steps, maybe, but significant — were passed in education, collective bargaining and public employee benefits.

And if truth be told, many Republicans here were always willing to vote to extend the sunsets but their loyalty to Sandoval trumped that inclination. And unlike most of those whose heads are exploding now, these Republicans have taken a look at the cuts and believe some went too far.

(I still think lifting the sunsets is as bad a policy as imposing sunsets in the first place. But this has never been about policy — it’s about getting to a budget number, as it is every session.)

The votes are there in the Senate — four Republicans came to “The Almost 63 Musketeers” news conference with Sandoval as d’Artagnan. Others are now going through contortions to justify their “no” votes.

Take Michael Roberson.

The rookie senator, one of Muth’s conservative heroes of a lifetime, or some such thing, showed a little open-mindedness a few days ago in a Sun interview right after the court ruling:

Roberson, a Las Vegas lawyer, said the ruling “appears very broad.” He added, “I have not heard anybody say they can cut $650 million.” Asked if that means backtracking on the GOP pledge not to raise taxes, Roberson said “I’m for a balanced budget.”

Then, either after being subjected to a rightie woodshedding or suddenly reversing his legal opinion, lawyer Roberson said to the Sun on Wednesday:

“My strong belief is that the Supreme Court decision creates an unexpected $62 million liability for the state,” he said. “That’s easily managed without the sunsets. We can’t make decisions based on hypotheticals or the fear that someone is going to sue us. You can’t be afraid to make tough decisions for the state.”

What a difference a few days make.

And a few days from now, the session will be over, a compromise will be ratified and the apoplectic conservative caucus can start searching for primary candidates who will, perhaps, disappoint them by having minds of their own.