Gibbons takes beating in debate; Beers clear winner
Inside Liberty Watch Today - August 12, 2006

RENO - Nineteen people stood outside Reno's City Hall last night wearing Jim Gibbons T-shirts and waving Jim Gibbons signs. Such a poor turnout on his home turf seems to parallel Gibbons' dwindling momentum as his campaign approaches its conclusion. That's likely due to his inability to understand issues important to Nevada. 

Take, for example, Gibbons' explanation of TASC, which looks to allow voters to approve new taxes and increased tax rates. He dishonestly (or ignorantly) used a 5,000-acre fire burning in the western Reno area Friday to sketch an image of how life would be like in Nevada under TASC. He said the state legislature would have to hold a special session to get funding to extinguish the fire.

Uh, what?

Under TASC, emergency funds would already be built into a rainy day fund. We thought only liberals resorted to scare tactics like using burning buildings, homeless children and released convicts to stimulate voters to accept bigger government. But when you look at Gibbons' record, you find he often exercises liberal habits.

"Jim Gibbons is one of only two Nevadans to be awarded the Porker of Month Award by Citizens Against Government Waste," Beers said during the debate. "The other: Harry Reid."

Gibbons touts cutting taxes 250 times. However, approving a balanced budget in his 10 years in Congress has been a challenge. Rather, his congressional actions have contributed to a national debt of $8.4 trillion, which means each citizen's share of this debt is more than $28,000.

Thanks, Jim. 

Fiscal conservation isn't Gibbons' game. Rather, as Lorraine Hunt articulately labeled his political forte during her opening statements, Gibbons possesses a "Washington D.C. spend-at-will mindset."

While Gibbons' fiscal record is eye-opening, it's nothing compared to how completely detached he is from his message and the truth. Anyone who knows Bob Beers knows that this candidate has fought tax hikes and overspending more than any politician in recent Nevada history. So why in the world would Gibbons use his only question to Beers during the head-to-head portion of the debate to defend Gibbons' politically twisted accusations? 

Gibbons says that Beers voted for three "record" budgets and for a 15-percent pay raise. Truth is, each session that a state budget has been approved, that budget has been a record amount. Gibbons voted for three of them as well during the early '90s. Also, that 15-percent pay raise translates to $600 because state lawmakers only earn $3,900 a year. Gibbons earns $175,000 as an ineffective congressman.

Of that $175,000 annual salary, Beers suggested Gibbons should return $20,000 for missing so many votes. Gibbons again resorted back to percentages, saying he has cast 92 percent of the votes this year. The only reason why he was not present for more votes was because he was at home for a week with his son, who had just graduated school. 

In one week, he missed 8 percent of this year's congressional votes? Please.

Another arena where Gibbons continued to mislead viewers last night involved him claiming that he has been debating Hunt and Beers the entire campaign. He said that the three candidates have all been in the same forums several times this year, and those instances should be considered debates. Problem is, those forums were usually in private parties where audiences were made up of members of a specific, elite group or they had to pay a nice price to attend. The general masses, on the other hand, were excluded. 

At one of these "debates" - at the Nevada chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in March - Beers called Gibbons out on his collective bargaining position. Gibbons accepted a $5,000 check from a state union then came out a week later in favor of extending collective bargaining to state unions. So what was Gibbons' response at the meeting? He did not respond - which is his preferred way of debating. 

His clumsy performance last night reinforced that poor-performance sentiment. In fact, upon walking out of the debate, the number of supporters outside again reminded Liberty Watch of his overall dismal performance this campaign. He has avoided voters, twisted messages about well-intended candidates, and lied directly to the cameras. It left us wondering where the so-called front-runner's supporters have gone. At this point, we're convinced they've changed shirts and are now waiving signs that read "Bob Beers."

Mike Zigler Editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine

Mike Zigler also manages internal communications for several Strip properties. He is former news editor of Las Vegas CityLife and former editor of the UNLV Rebel Yell.

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