Tell us what you really think, Ms. Angle
Jon Ralston today posted a remarkable
audio recording of Nevada Republican Sharron Angle meeting privately with a conservative rival, Scott Ashjian, and his allies.
The recording is worth listening to in full despite its poor quality. It suggests that -- at least for the purposes of this conversation with a Tea Party figure --
behind the facade of a real grassroots outsider who hates the organized Republican Party is ... a real grassroots outsider who hates the organized Republican Party.
“The Republicans have lost their standard, they’ve lost their principle," she tells Ashjian. "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 regulation."
In opposing her, local Republicans are "coming out and showing their colors" she said. "ThatÂ’s kind of good."
Angle's words may not have an immediate political impact, but they show what a profound challenge she and a handful of other Senate candidates pose to the Republican leadership, should they win. Angle's view of herself is clearly of an insurgent, a subversive force within the GOP.
"We need to work from within," she tells Ashjian. "And we have actually taken over the Washoe County Republican Party."
"The only thing thatÂ’s different between you and I is, I guess, I was pragmatic enough to know because of other battles [that Angle has been involved in] that third parties canÂ’t get traction," Angle told Ashjian. "So I said all right, IÂ’ll work with it. Just show me what the rules are, and IÂ’ll work with. And the rules are there are Democrats, you got Republicans. And so what I set about [was] bringing myself up within that Republican rank."