They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but this gives the phrase a whole new meaning!
Dennis Hof owns the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Carson City — the flagship of seven legal brothels he owns in Nevada — along with dozens of other successful businesses. For those of you with HBO, you may have seen the reality show he starred in called “Cathouse.”
Anyway, the political “ladies (and men) of the evening” who work at that other Carson City brothel — the government-owned one known as the Nevada Legislature - gave taxpayers the royal shaft last year by passing the largest tax hike in state history.
That tax hike included the creation of a new business income tax, along with a new “Nevada IRS” to enforce paperwork compliance from businesses that don’t even owe the tax!
To put it mildly, this did not make Mr. Hof a happy camper — especially when you consider the truckloads of taxes he already pays. And RINO Assemblyman James Oscarson, who represents the district where two of Mr. Hof’s brothels are located, broke his word and voted for the hike.
So last March Hof filed to run against Oscarson, and a mutual friend recently suggested he and I meet to discuss his campaign.
I’m #NeverOscarson. And our Citizen Outreach PAC had already endorsed Mr. Hof. So we had dinner in Vegas a couple weeks ago and hit it off immediately. But I knew virtually nothing about the brothel industry and had never been to one (wives are funny about things like that).
So while Dennis and I were in Lake Tahoe attending the recent Donald Trump fundraiser, he invited me to spend the weekend and take a tour of the Bunny Ranch and three of his other properties right down the street.
I gotta be honest: I approached the gate with considerable angst and nervousness. I had my own pre-conceived notions of what a brothel would look like on the inside and what would be going on (aside from the obvious).
But it turns out it was nothing at all like I imagined.
In fact, it was actually great fun — even though all I did was sit at that bar and lounge and have a few cocktails with Dennis and some of his provocatively-dressed friends. And I learned an awful lot that I didn’t know and had a lot of myths dispelled.
Look, I know many people have moral objections to this industry, and that’s fine. I completely understand and respect that. But this is a legal business in Nevada in which grown adults voluntarily negotiate an arrangement for payment of services rendered.
In fact, when you think about it that way, it’s just like donating to politicians like James Oscarson!
There is one thing I still don’t understand. I learned that brothels aren’t allowed to advertise. Yet politicians can. And do. That ain’t right. There ought to be a law.
And I know just the guy to introduce it!
Chuck Muth is publisher of www.NevadaNewsandViews.com. You can read additional columns and/or contact him at www.MuthsTruths.com