Kettles are boiling over in Nevada.

The New York Times reports this morning that, Syd James, the head of the “official” Nevada Tea Party, resigned yesterday after the “official” Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Scott Ashjian, released a recording of Tea-Party/Republican candidate Sharron Angle asking Ashjian to bow out of the race and endorse her for Senate, complaining that if he did not do so, she would lose. 

Angle also criticized the leadership of the national Republican party, claiming they had lost their principles.  [In part because they supported Sue Lowden, her opponent in the primary.]

And Ashjian underscores his own and the broader lack of confidence in the electability of Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party candidate from Delaware.

Oooooops.

Writing in the Las Vegas Sun, Jon Ralston observes:

The conversation reveals Angle almost desperate to show Ashjian they are like-minded, that they both disdain the major parties, but insistent that the Tea Party of Nevada contender could help Reid win if he doesn’t embrace her candidacy. Ashjian emphasizes he believes a third party is the only way and that he believes he can garner a fifth of the vote, which seems fantastically optimistic, to put it mildly.

Ashjian received the support of only 1 percent of respondents in a recent poll.

The full transcript of the recording is available courtesy of the Sun.

Some snippets:

Angle: “The Republicans have lost their standards, they’ve lost their principles…..Really that’s why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me…..They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government.”

Worth repeating because, how true! “They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government.”

And:

Angle: “The one thing you said about the machinery that has endorsed me, they have no choice… …it’s me or Reid…that’s what they got…. also this is such a national race…so really we have them in a box…they are coming to us and saying, ‘We know we got to support you.’ ….In some ways, it’s exactly where we wanted that good old boy thing is in the box…….they have no choice, I’m the only game in town…. There was no one more shocked than they were when I won that primary, when I went back to Washington DC, they were still moaning and groaning and weeping and gnashing teeth over Sue Lowden…And I said I am what ya got, this is it.”

Angle goes on to say:

“I believe you (Ashjian) can do some real harm, not to Harry Reid but to me…I’m not sure you can win and I’m not sure I can win if you’re hurting my chance and that’s the part that scares me.”

Ashjian: “You have to understand, it’s not personal.”

Angle: “Everyone say it’s not personal but then Harry Reid wins.”

Angle: “(The Republicans in DC) don’t want me back there…because they know I’ll shake this mess up….…..I shook it up in Carson City, they hated me there…41-Angle was not a compliment……..When I go back, there may be five or six of us….maybe Joe Miller (Alaska), Ken Buck (Colorado), Christine O’Donnell (Delaware).

Ashjian: “She (O’Donnell) doesn’t have a chance.”

Angle: “Well I think she’s real.” She then skeptically mentions the Florida GOP Senate nominee as one of the group: “Marco Rubio, but that’s a stretch for me.”

Angle: Says the grass roots movement “gives me juice. That’s really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well…You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him….I go to Washington, DC and want to see Jim DeMint, he’s right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he’s right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he’s there.”

The Times notes:

[T]he incident is a reminder of how the Tea Party is proving a double-edged sword in Nevada. There are a couple of independent candidates on the ballot in addition to Mr. Reid, Mr. Ashjian, and Ms. Angle, as well as an option to vote for “none of the above.”

In a year when Ms. Angle has been portrayed as a Tea Party extremist and Mr. Reid has been blamed for everything but the weather, that last option may prove attractive. And Mr. Reid has held onto his office by less than a majority before, in 1998, when two candidates and the “none of the above” option took between 1 and 2 percent of the vote.