Time for a change?

And you thought the guy who said he’d vote to bring back slavery was the most outlandish of Nevada’s Republican elected officials.

Not even close.

Assembly Speaker-designate Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, once worked as a newspaper columnist for the Sparks Tribune and as a radio talk-show host. The archives of those columns sat undisturbed until Reno News &Review reporter Dennis Myers went looking for insights into the man Republicans chose to be the next leader of the Assembly.

Hansen once blamed the “sexual revolution” for social problems, occasioned by women having fewer children, entering the workforce and gaining access to abortion to end unwanted pregnancies. Or, as Hansen put it when describing a Supreme Court nomination fight, “As usual, it boils down to the issue of murdering unborn children, given the clinically sterile title of ‘abortion.’”

Hansen — writing in a room he said was decorated with a Confederate battle flag — occasionally used the term “Negro.” He labeled civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “a hypocrite, a liar, a phony and a fraud.” Writing for school choice, he ranted thus: “The relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple-minded darkies.” And, he added, “the lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to.”

On gays, Hansen was no more progressive. “Male homosexuals are grossly disproportionate in child molestation cases, and the youth orientation of male homosexuality drives this trend,” Hansen wrote. “Yet, one fact of homosexuality deliberately downplayed is the grossly disproportionate numbers of child molesters, called ‘pederasts,’ which fill their ranks.”

Yeah, he seems nice.

Hansen’s remarks went national last week, eventually drawing condemnation from Gov. Brian Sandoval, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, Republican and Democratic leaders in the state Senate and Assembly Minority Leader-designate Marilyn Kirkpatrick. In response, Hansen issued the sorry-I-got-caught type of non-apology apology one often sees in these cases.

“I am deeply sorry that comments I have made in the past have offended many Nevadans,” he wrote. “It is unfortunate that these comments, made almost 20 years ago as a newspaper columnist and talk radio host, have been taken out of context and are being portrayed as intentionally hurtful and disrespectful. These comments were meant to be purposely provocative in various political, cultural and religious views. I have the utmost respect for all people without regard to race, gender, religious or political beliefs.”

Got that? He’s not sorry he made the comments. He’s not sorry he gave voice to his twisted thoughts. He’s sorry they offended many Nevadans. And he nowhere distances himself from his words or repudiates his views, even if he says they were stated in a way to make them intentionally provocative.

Could that be because Hansen still believes what he said back then? I’ve obtained a missive Hansen wrote on his legislative letterhead in 2013, opposing a resolution seeking to repeal Nevada’s constitutional gay marriage ban, in which he equates homosexuality with pedophilia, incest, pederasty and bestiality. Being gay is not an innate facet of identity, it’s a choice, just like all those other things, he said.

“Thus, people who engage in homosexuality are not a ‘minority’ any more than adulterers are a minority. Would prostitutes be classified as an historically discriminated against ‘minority’ for special treatment under law?” Hansen wrote. “Sex is ultimately about reproduction. Until the term ‘pregnant man’ is not an oxymoron, male on male or female on female (pseudo) sex is by definition unnatural. A simple review of the body parts/orifices and their correct functions speak volumes.”

So do Hansen’s comments, then and now.

The issue here isn’t whether Hansen has the right to hold repugnant beliefs. The issue here is whether the Republican caucus in the Assembly is willing to stand behind Hansen as the best possible representative of their group, or whether someone else would be a better choice. Like, anybody else. Except maybe the slavery guy.

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.