It must be the Gibbons Curse

DID A GYPSY PUT A CURSE on Gov. Jim Gibbons? Did a herd of black cats walk through the delivery room on the day he was born? I'd say the governor is snake-bit, but there aren't enough snakes in the entire state to account for the venom that's been spat in his direction over the past 18 months.

I was wading through a box of old papers last weekend, trying to decide what to save and what to keep, and came across a column written by my pal Jon Ralston and published in the Review-Journal back on March 3, 1989. You can tell by looking at the photo of the tie-askew, thickly coiffed columnist that the column was written a long time ago, but the headline slug could have been written yesterday.

"Embarrassing woes of Nevada Republican Party intensify," the headline declared. It was about assorted infighting among big-shot Republicans and a snafu caused by a meeting of state GOP honchos. Ralston used fewer big words back then, but otherwise, it all sounded very familiar.

Fast forward to the latest headache emanating from GOP Central, the nasty dustup between Bruce James and John Mason, a pair of wealthy Lake Tahoe Republicans who are now ready to rip each other a new one. As readers know, Mason quietly accused James of being way out of line a few years ago because James allegedly got hammered and then hit on Mason's daughter at a D.C. restaurant. James has denied any wrongdoing and has hinted that he will drop a few bombs of his own if Mason makes good on his threat to open the door to a certain closet filled with skeletons.

Imagine if you're beleaguered Gibbons -- after being pummeled by the Chrissy Mazzeo scandal, news of the FBI investigation, all sorts of mistakes in the appointment of state officials, ill-considered remarks about the endoscopy crisis and then the little matter of a nasty divorce being played out in the public arena -- and you might have been hoping for a little good news for a change.

Creating a new blue-ribbon commission to study Nevada's budget and spending isn't exactly brilliant or groundbreaking, but it at least made it look like the governor was trying to get the state moving forward again. But a week after appointing the savvy James to head the commission, Gibbons got the incendiary e-mail from Mason, including a demand that James be removed from the commission ... or else.

It's the "or else" that has Gibbons and other GOP leaders worried. They're not sure what to make of the mercurial Mason. If Mason really does have the goods on James, as he has strongly implied to Knappster and to others, or if he has some of the dirt and then James fires back with some dirt of his own, and the two of them start lobbing nukes at each other in an expression of mutually assured destruction, it's going to be ugly, about as appealing as a wool turtleneck that got tossed into the clothes dryer. It will mean that the important work of the SAGE commission could be delayed, the credibility of the commission permanently damaged or worse. And with all the other bad news in Gibbons's world right now, it's the last thing he needs.

When he finally gets the missus to pack her stuff and vacate the mansion, maybe the governor should hire a shaman or a holy man or a witch to come in and burn some herbs or incense or whatever it is that seers use to ward off evil spirits and clean the bad stuff out of a house. Knappster has some experience in these matters, and I know a few "sensitives" who can perform this service, free of charge. Whether you voted for Gibbons or not, this string of troubles he's having isn't good for anyone, even if some of it is of his own making.

Although the way Gibbons' luck is running, the cleansing ceremony will probably start a fire and burn the place down.

OTHER STUFF

Remember the huge flap about taxi driver kickbacks and how it borders on extortion for those nightclubs that don't want to pay? Despite numerous attempts to clean up the problem, including toke truces arranged by the clubs themselves, the tip war is back in force. Some adult clubs are paying the cabbies $70 for each customer delivered to the club. A few drivers are giving free rides to tourists, offering them a guided tour of 4-5 gentlemen's clubs in a single night. It's great for the drivers, but murder on the clubs. One of the leading nightclubs in town took in $58,000 in sales on a recent Saturday night. Not bad. But the club had to pay out $38,000 to cabbies on that same night. If they refuse to pay, they simply won't get tourist business since, as has been proven many times over the past 20 years, at least some drivers will blatantly divert customers to some other place that does pay a bounty. No one wants the hard-working, much-maligned drivers to suffer since they already take a lot of lumps from limos and doormen, but this can't continue. Better fix it before the IRS comes calling, because you'd better believe this situation is on their list. ... Sen. Harry Reid's new book The Good Fight is a great read and a wonderful insight into the senator's long and illustrious career, even for those who are not necessarily fans of Reid. But in all of the book reviews I've read, I've seen hardly a mention of what surely ranks as the most inflammatory pieces of info ever uttered about a Nevada politician. In the photo section of the book, there's a snapshot of young Harry standing with Nevada's lone congressman Walter Baring (and with the Cherry Blossom Princess wedged between the men.) Reid's caption notes that he was with Baring on Nov. 22, 1963, the day John Kennedy was assassinated. Baring reportedly told Reid it was a "good thing" JFK had been murdered since Kennedy was leading the U.S. down the path to communism. A U.S. congressman says it was a good thing JFK was shot and killed? Holy crap. Did everyone else miss this little tidbit? ... TV reporter Ky Plaskon, a cerebral guy who came to TV after reporting for KNPR, has cut a book deal with Stephens Press. Plaskon's first book, Secret Heroes of the Cold War--Declassified is an account of the highly classified 1955 plane crash atop Mt. Charleston. The passengers and crew who died in the crash were all associated with a top secret military program at a new testing facility that would later be known as Area 51. Anyway, I've read the draft of the book. It's absolutely fascinating, even for non-history buffs, since the issues of excessive secrecy still resonate today, maybe even more than back then. Plaskon hopes the book is on the shelves by the end of the year. No word on what the second project will be. (Stephens Press is affiliated with Stephens Media LLC, owners of CityLife.) ... State Senator Dr. Joe Heck is back from a tour of duty in Iraq. He's getting loads of accolades, deservedly so, but I was just wondering -- did that seem like a quick tour to you? Seems like it was only 90 days ago that Heck was shipping off to hostile climes, and now he's back. I'll bet there are a lot of infantry guys who wish their tours, some as long as 15 months, would go by just as quickly as Heck's did. ... Hey, what happened to that deadline imposed by Judge Q in the Noel Gage trial? Didn't the judge order federal prosecutors to grant immunity to a defense witness or else he would drop the charges against Gage? That was two weeks ago. The feds told him they had no intention of granting immunity to the witness. So what happened to the judge's line in the dirt?

George Knapp is a veteran investigative reporter for KLAS-TV Channel 8. You can reach him at gknapp@klastv.com.