Sharron Angle: “Republicans Have Lost Their Standards, They’ve Lost Their Principles” [Updated]
John Ralston, the Las Vegas Sun reporter who recorded Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle bragging about how much money she raised with the help of outlets like Fox News, is at it again.
As Elyse Siegel writes at the Huffington Post, Ralston obtained a 38-minute audio recording of Angle speaking with Jon Scott Ashjian, a man apparently running for Senate as a member of the Tea Party. (And here we thought that Angle was already the movement’s representative in Nevada.)
During their “closed-door” meeting, Angle harshly criticized the Republican establishment: “The Republicans have lost their standards, they’ve lost their principles… Really that’s why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me… They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government.” Later, she slammed the GOP’s bigwigs once more:
“The one thing you said about the machinery that has endorsed me, they have no choice,” she told Ashjian of her campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle suggested she reluctantly accepted the support because she understands “third parties can’t get traction,” but it has nonetheless been problematic for her political operation.
“You gotta get my armor off and let me pick up this sling,” she said drawing a comparison between her fight and that of David and Goliath. “That’s exactly where I am right now, is trying to get them to leave me alone for long enough so I can get my sling and go after this guy. There are just these issues.”
You can listen to the audio in full below; beware, though, that Angle’s voice is pretty soft, so it’s difficult sometimes to decipher what she’s saying. The money quote comes around the 3:30 mark—that’s where Angle begins to talk about how the GOP has lost its way.
Update: Hot Air is reporting that Ashjian himself is the one who secretly taped his conversation with Angle, then leaked the audio to Ralston. Just when you thought Nevada politics couldn’t get any dirtier…
