Dissecting the debate

The first debate in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race is in the books, and it wasn’t exactly Lincoln-Douglas. In fact, it wasn’t much of anything beyond a live-action political ad mercilessly drawn out over an hour.

But with the race essentially tied, what should we expect? Neither candidate wanted to stumble Thursday night, so we were treated to repeated scripted references to “Big Oil” and “killing Medicare.” (If those were the words in your drinking game, you’re probably reading this column after waking up in UMC’s intensive care unit.)

There were a few things of note, however.

-Heller and hobos. Sen. Dean Heller answered a question about whether he was calling Nevada’s unemployed people “hobos” with a chuckle, denying he’d said it.

“This is the hardest part of an election, proving something you didn’t do or say. And in this case, this is something that I did not do, and something that I did not say,” the Republican said.

But that’s not true.

In February 2010, Heller questioned the wisdom of extending unemployment benefits for people thrown out of work by the recession. He told the Elko County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner that the longer a person is out of work, the smaller the chance they’d eventually be re-employed. “Is the government now creating hobos?” he asked, according to the Elko Daily Free Press.

Heller’s campaign has tried gamely to explain this comment, asserting that Heller never called anybody a “hobo” and suggesting that the word came from a presentation made to House Republicans by a former White House official. But Heller clearly wondered whether unemployed people receiving government payments – including those in Nevada – would become hobos.

Ironically, Heller later voted to extend unemployment benefits, apparently taking the risk of creating hobos.

-Heller and the Department of Education. Everybody from Ronald Reagan to Rick Perry has targeted the poor federal Education Department for elimination, but Heller denies he’s in their company. In a story in the March 9, 2011, Pahrump Valley Times, Heller is quoted as saying he wanted to eliminate the Education Department. After saying there were plenty of places to cut the federal government, he launched immediately into a broadside against the Education Department.

“Just to give you an idea of how they decide how Pahrump Valley High School should be run, we have 3,500 people back in Washington, D.C., in the Department of Education that average more than $100,000 per year per person. Now you can’t tell me you can’t take that money, move it to the states and be able to teach better, giving it to the teachers, the principals and the parents,” Heller said.

Heller’s campaign insists he was not calling for the department’s elimination (thus losing any chance of picking up random votes from Ron Paul supporters). The campaign circulated a clarification that reads, “U.S. Sen. Dean Heller says he never advocated abolishing the U.S. Department of Education.” That’s certainly not a retraction, or even a correction, and we’re left with the impression the newspaper continues to believe Heller said exactly that.

-Lie of the Year. Rep. Shelley Berkley is fond of accusing Heller of wanting to “kill Medicare,” or “end Medicare,” and the Democrat repeated that assertion at the debate. Heller accused Berkley of telling the “Lie of the Year,” according to Politifact, a fact-checking website.

Indeed, Berkley’s construction was wrong: Heller did vote (twice!) for a House Republican budget that would have initially turned Medicare into a privatized voucher-style program. Medicare would still exist, albeit not in its present form, and seniors in the program would pay more, the website found.

Politifact has clarified to say if a person says that GOP budget would “end Medicare as we know it,” the charge is true. Without those words, however, it’s not. And Berkley – as well as some of her surrogates – omitted the phrase.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.