Opinion

Nevada Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, RINO-Reno, was a disaster as leader of his caucus in the 2013 legislative session primarily because of his hostility toward anything conservative, as well as his propensity to roll over and hope the Democrats would rub his widdle tummy every time a controversial bill or issue came up. When it comes to appeasement, this guy makes Neville Chamberlain look like a Mongolian general.

The Republican Empire, led by Lord McConnell and Darth Boehner, isn’t taking primary challenges by tea party insurgents lying down, and an all-out intra-GOP war is breaking out.

Most of Nevada’s beleaguered taxpayers focus on the fact that Gov. Brian Sandoval broke his word not to raise taxes by not once, but twice raising the “temporary” tax increases approved in 2009; taxes that were supposed to “sunset” in 2011. But the governor also is responsible for another tax hike coming to Nevada e-shoppers everywhere on New Year’s Day.

When it comes to colossal product launch flops, you’d be hard pressed to top the epic failure of New Coke. People perfectly content with “the real thing” had no interest whatsoever in the product despite a massive marketing and public relations campaign.

Although it will again be impossible for the GOP to gain a Republican majority in the state Assembly next year, the developing conservative uprising in Nevada — what I’ve been referring to as “Conservageddon” — could result in a new (and desperately needed) conservative majority in the Republican Assembly caucus.

On this coming Thanksgiving holiday, I would be eternally grateful if our government-run education camps would teach the next generation of Americans the true story of Plymouth Rock rather than the romanticized fairy-tale version.

Free speech. Anonymous speech. As American as apple pie.

When it comes to fixing our nation’s illegal immigration problem, we face two serious problems: One is plugging the gaping holes on the enforcement side; the other is figuring out what to do with those who are already here in the U.S. illegally, many of whom have been our neighbors, friends and co-workers for many, many, years.

Exactly how many more innocent, unarmed teachers and students need to be slaughtered on a school campus before people get angry enough to demand that the Nevada Legislature abolish these absolutely insane gun-free zones?

So when all was said and done, the government reopened, Democrats got the gold mine, Gumby Republicans got egg on their face, and conservatives got the shaft. The more things change …