Horsford attacks Buckley

The inexperience of Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford showed tonight as he started a partisan war with the Senate GOP and managed to attack his own Speaker in the process.

Oops.

Reports are coming in that Horsford offered a sneak attack on Raggio & Company by making them vote against a K-12 accountability amendment that was introduced without warning. Sen. Horsford was probably feeling pretty smart about the fact that he forced all GOP Senators to vote against school accountability.

The problem, and Horsford's freshman mistake, came next when he stood up to defend his actions. "He would have gotten away with it if he didn't love to hear himself speak so much" said one politico messaging from inside the building. Horsford apparently defended his actions with some fiery rhetoric, announcing that the other side wanted to balance the state budget "on the backs of Nevada schoolchildren."

Sen. Horsford seemed to conveniently forget that Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley had just voted to balance the state budget on the backs of Nevada's schoolchildren.

"Someone needs to point out that he can't have it both ways" said one insider. "If he really believes that this bill balances the state budget on the backs of Nevada schoolkids, then he should have the backbone to stand up to the Speaker Buckley about it. But it looks like he is just trying to play games and only blame Republicans for something that was voted for by every Democrat in the Assembly."

Perhaps Horsford will get stronger with experience. More likely is that Sen. Terry Care will have a new leadership position come November.