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You are here: Home / Gibbons’ decline and fall

Gibbons’ decline and fall

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Living in New York, I’m generally not impressed with other states’ political shenanigans, but what’s going on in Nevada right now is pretty special. You’ve got a sitting governor, Jim Gibbons, who: (1) is being sued by a Vegas cocktail waitress for sexual assault, (2) publicly claimed to have not had sex for fifteen years after being spotted consoling a Playboy model, (3) was caught repeatedly lying about a trip to Washington with his alleged mistress, (4) was recently investigated by the FBI for 18 months (though eventually cleared of wrong doing).

And then you’ve got Republican Senate primary where the chicken-for-checkups advocate Sue Lowden is regarded as the more sane of two leading candidates:

And as part of this effort, (Senate candidate Sharron) Angle reportedly wants to go to the Senate to fight to privatize Social Security; build nuclear power plants inside Yucca Mountain; eliminate the federal income tax; pull the country out of the United Nations; and allow unlimited campaign contributions. She’s also a hard-right culture warrior, backing the far-right line on immigration and supporting bans on nearly all abortions.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, a conservative paper, conducted a survey that identified Angle as the Nevada Assembly’s “Worst Member.” Twice.

Angle and Lowden are neck-and-neck. Gibbons, unfortunately, is well behind in the polls.

Update. And, yes, I forgot about John Ensign.

Reader Interactions

50Comments

  1. 1.

    Dork

    And here I thought the post would be all Jane Goodall, Africa, and primate extinction discussions.

  3. 3.

    Brian J

    Hearing about candidates like this makes me feel just a little bit better about the midterms.

  6. 6.

    aimai

    Anybody remember when Gary Hart lying about having a mistress was reason enough for the entire press corps to stake him out, 24/7? In my day, when journalists were journalists, they’d have felt it their moral duty to find out if Gibbons *had* had sex in the last fifteen years. I mean, he’s asking for it, at least by the gold standard of journalism as we once knew it.

    aimai

  8. 8.

    c u n d gulag

    I never thought we’d come to see a time where the John Birchers seemed reasonable in comparison to many Republican candidates for office.
    Eliminate the Federal Incone Tax? Uhm, how do you plan to continue to run your beloved military?
    Nuclear power plants INSIDE Yucca Mountain? Why don’t we just build them inside your head? There’s plenty of room.

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    I seem to recall reading somewhere that, on top of everything, Gibbons rarely showed up for work, and his staff was stuck with the actual business of running the state.

    Frankly, the background on Nevada politics in general makes Harry Reid look like FDR.

  11. 11.

    Alex S.

    I knew that Sue Lowden would be a disaster as a candidate. After all, she was the chairwoman of the state GOP of Nevada.

  13. 13.

    Dork

    @Keith G: Not professing to be an apeologist.

    Had no idea the LVRJ was considered conservative. With all the smoking, drinking, clubbing, hookers, nudie baseball card handouts, gambling, and general debauchery going on in Vegas, kinda hard to picture anything in that town “conservative”.

  14. 14.

    bemused

    A Las Vegas relative was absolutely disgusted & flabbergasted when Gibbons won the governor seat. She couldn’t believe that many people actually voted for the creep.

  15. 15.

    Ash Can

    @Dork: I’m sure the conservative wackos are getting nice kickbacks from all that debauchery, so it’s all good as far as they’re concerned.

  16. 16.

    Dr. Squid

    These two loop jobs mean that Danny Tarkanian will get the nomnomnom. Here’s guessing his campaign is a wet towel to chew on.

    The teabaggers hate him, though.

  17. 17.

    r€nato

    @Ash Can: I read that last week, I was in Vegas so not sure if I read it there in a local paper or on the web while home. Anyway Gibbons sure believes in laissez-faire government; the guy basically didn’t want to be bothered with anything.

  18. 18.

    aimai

    @Ash Can:

    I read that article. It was pretty astonishing. He didnt’ even bother to look at the budget,s how up for any meetings on any topic, or to sign important legislation. And everyone knew it. His very high turnover staff did everything for him, including signing stuff. He just wasn’t interested.

    aimai

  20. 20.

    DanF

    We did test a lot of nuclear bombs in Nevada back in the day. That HAD to have some unintended consequences for the gene pool…

  21. 21.

    Mike Kay

    what ever happened to what happens in vegas stays in vegas?

    I no longer feel it’s a safe place to take my mistress.

  22. 22.

    lotus

    Meanwhile, DougJ, have you seen the story that Esquire‘s telling about Eric Massa (who’s telling a story about Cheney and Petraeus)?

    Woo-eee.

  27. 27.

    feebog

    The entire Republican bench in Nevada reminds me of the gang of weasels in “Who Shot Roger Rabbitt?”.

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    And you wonder why B.o.B. lives there?

    Nevada’s primary reason for being is to serve as a top speed test track for California motorists.

  31. 31.

    lotus

    DougJ and Persia, I know. Massa’s crazy as a betsy-bug, but then so’s Cheney. (I don’t think Petraeus is, though. Deluded about the effectiveness of COIN, yes, but not barking mad.)

  33. 33.

    MattF

    I guess Nevada is the place for people who have had their fill of Arizona goo-goo leftists.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    And you wonder why B.o.B. lives there?

    Srsly? Did he say so, or is there internal evidence from some of those photos he used to post? (Is he back, by the way?) I don’t know why, but for some reason I was under the impression he lived in Kansas or Oklahoma.

    Not that I have any plans to visit him . . . .

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @aimai:

    I think there was “a” BOB that was real. But I think some others–maybe even front-pagers–posted as BOB from time to time. There were at least two or three different “voices.”

  45. 45.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Man, the only way Nevada politics could get any better (read: crazier) is if Mark Noonan had followed through on his threat to run for Senator.

  46. 46.

    maus

    @aimai: Nope. He’s jumped over to Wonkette and other sites, as crazy as ever. I mean, he could be a “troll” in some vague sense, but the person running the persona is still nuts.

    Also, back to the main topic- making this even better is that Lowden’s opponent Sharron Angle is a Scientology shill, she espouses Hubbard’s “tech” programs like Criminon.

  47. 47.

    maus

    @maus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharron_Angle#Nevada_Assembly

    In 2003, Angle arranged a trip to an Ensenada, Baja California prison which employed an organization with affiliations to Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard, called the “Second Chance Program”. Angle sponsored legislation aimed at placing this program in women’s prisons in Nevada. Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley stated that Nevada lawmakers should not go on the trip arranged by Angle. “At a time when our kids might be going without books and teachers it would be impossible to justify spending money on an unproven massage, sauna and vitamin plan for prisoners. These gimmicky programs undermine successful rehabilitative programs”, said Buckley. In February 2003, the office of Governor Kenny Guinn announced that Corrections Director Jackie Crawford, who had previously traveled to the prison in Mexico, would not go on the trip to the prison. Trips to the prison were privately funded by an individual named Russell Suggs, a businessman from Arizona with connections to the Church of Scientology. According to the Associated Press, Suggs did not wish for his name to be associated with funding the trip for the lawmakers to visit the Scientology-affiliated drug rehab program in Mexico. “He is approached not only by non-profits, but politicians as well. And he doesn’t like his name spread around, but he would let it go if it would help me and the Second Chance Program,” said Angle. The Associated Press reported that Suggs was not initially identified as the individual funding the trip for the politicians, and the AP referred to him as the “mystery donor”, and noted that there would not be a public financial record of his expenditures. The Second Chance Program has been in operation at the Ensenada State Prison in Mexico since 1995, and it is licensed by the organization Criminon International. Criminon International is a sub-organization belonging to the group Narconon International. In the Second Chance Program, participants are given vitamins and minerals, in addition to massages and time spent in a sauna. A portion of the program is based on The Way to Happiness, a booklet written by L. Ron Hubbard. The press secretary for Governor Guinn, Greg Bortolin, stated that the Governor was not interested in the Scientology-affiliated prison program promoted by Angle, noting that the Office of the Governor was “moving in another direction” with regard to drug rehabilitation models for state prisoners. The Second Chance Program was rejected in 2002 by the state of Arizona. Angle asserted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the Second Chance Program’s ties to Scientology were not related to her efforts to promote the organization, commenting, “I don’t have any inclination toward Scientology. But when something works, you have to take a look at it.” According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “The Church of Scientology touts the benefits of the Second Chance Program, which it calls Narconon, on its Web site.” On February 17, 2003, Angle said she would end her efforts to have women inmates take part in the drug rehab program affiliated with Scientology. Angle stated her intention to cancel the March 1, 2003 trip funded by Suggs for politicians to travel to visit the Second Chance Program at a prison in Ensenada, Mexico. On Angle’s support for the Scientology-affiliated program, the Las Vegas Sun reported in 2010, that the politician “vehemently defends the program as an innovative approach that could have changed lives in Nevada”.

  49. 49.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    re John Cole “what are you talking about”

    Just to answer your question from my comment saturday. I am talking about fuckhead for a couple of months now using my dog as a weapon to attack me, and now recently by corner stone. I thought I heard, I did hear you say once that pets were out of bounds for such purposes, but yet you said nothing, assuming you read your own blog. Only Annie and Anne Laurie could be bothered to say it. I posted pics of
    charlie and talk about him as separate to the politcal and personal battles. As for the Glenbot reference, I think that should speak for itself, it is a political label, like me being called a “mindless Obot” and such. And where is the actblue page calling for Obama to be primaried. If I thought what he was doing with the guy in Yemen was as bad as Bush torture, what you and others opined I would not support him either, and would call for a criminal investigation. Though now that he has posted a new video promising to slaughter more Americans, he should be exalted to progressive sainthood and should maybe run for senator or something. Something for the disappointed prog population to rally around.

    Please don’t take my criticism personally, I don’t when folks call me pol labels of one sort or another. You are basically a good dude imo, and both of us can be jerks, nothing has changed there, but I am mad about the pet smearing shit. No lie on that.

    And I really really don;t like the liberal nutroots, no secret there. And will be by from time to time to mention it when you side with them for poor reasons. Obot troll.

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