[img_assist|nid=2083|title=U.S. Rep. Dean Heller (R-Carson City)|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=240|height=216]The Las Vegas Sun ran a story Friday analyzing the national reaction to U.S. Rep. Dean Heller's (R-Carson City) comments that the Republican Party needed to "clean house."

After an initally strong reaction against Heller's remarks, the Sun noted that many conservatives came out in support of the freshman Congressman.

Below is an exerpt from the story: 

"Nevada’s leading conservative pundit, Chuck Muth, posted a blog entry giving Heller a hearty attaboy, writing that if a gaffe means speaking the truth, as a columnist once defined it, “Keep the ‘gaffes’ comin’, Congressman!”

“I thought, Wow, my own congressman gets it — this is great,” Muth said this week. “He was the first one to voice publicly what an awful lot of conservatives around the country are saying privately and publicly.”

Others in Washington also agreed with Heller this week.

The Club for Growth, the conservative organization that tried unsuccessfully to defeat Heller in the brutal 2006 primary election, said “Heller is spot on.” Spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik pointed out that Republicans are losing seats in special elections."

Heller's comments were first published in a July 8 story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Heller told the paper that the wave of freshmen Republicans elected to Congress in 1994 had
lost its momentum, and that the GOP had been corrupted by Washington politics.

Several days later, The Washington Post ran a story in which some party leaders snapped back at Heller. Heller's November opponent, Democrat Jill Derby has used the flap to her advantage as she takes a second crack at the 2nd Congressional District seat.