EUGENE PASLOV: Congressional delegation doesn't need another zero

I don't see Sharron Angle as a viable senatorial candidate. She is just strange - a reincarnation of a character from the Salem Witch trials (prosecutor) or some character from deep in the rabbit hole in the "Alice in Wonderland" phantasmagoria.

Angle is in the news almost every day. She talks endlessly, saying virtually nothing. Her talking points are held up to ridicule on all the major T.V. and cable stations, except, of course, for Fox News and the AM talk radio shows and now the conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal. I think even Fox News was taken aback when Angle told their reporter recently she only wanted him to report what she told him to report and to ask his audience for money. The Fox commentator was agape when he heard that gibberish.

Nevada is in the worst fiscal crisis in its history. Regardless of Angle's incessant and inaccurate political ads, substantively Sen. Harry Reid has done more to help Nevadans than any leader in the history of our state. He has supported veterans and their medical needs by earmarking millions of dollars for Nevada veterans' hospitals and facilities. He has supported urban and rural economic development throughout Nevada. He has saved thousands of teaching and public safety jobs. Sen. Reid has prevented layoffs from large and small businesses.

Angle is anti-government, anti-public education, anti-public employees and anti-intellectual. She is opposed to Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. Sounds like a loser to me. We need an intelligent problem solver, not a problem creator.

I heard Gen. Wesley Clark (former Supreme Commander of NATO and U.S. presidential candidate) recently say that Sen. Reid was one of the most honorable and hardest working, honest senators he had ever had the pleasure of working with. That is not idle praise from a four star general who had voted for Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

Sharron Angle has quickly aligned herself with the right-wing "just say no," radical conservative Republicans in Congress. These are primarily political opportunists who will do nothing (and know nothing) about and for Nevada. Our current junior senator, John Ensign is badly soiled with ethics charges and has contributed zero to solving the economic problems of our state, blaming everything on someone else. Dean Heller, our non-independent strictly party-line Republican Congressman, has contributed zero to solving problems. Angle also is a zero.

Add three zeros and you get zero.

Let's re-elect someone who is smart, honest and hardworking who can add to Nevada's need to prosper and grow. Angle does not fit the bill.

• Eugene Paslov is a board member of the Davidson Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno and the former Nevada state superintendent of schools.