A funny thing happened …

jim-gibbons-821-cropped-proto-custom_2I was touring the Erotic Heritage Museum, when my guide, doctoral student Amanda Morgan, made the following observation: “As you know, Nevada is very conservative. If you look at the population of people in Las Vegas and looked at the type who are involved in higher government, it might give you some insight into why they’re so conservative.”

Scarcely more than 24 hours later, KLAS-TV‘s George Knapp reported that Gov. Jim Gibbons swears he has taken a vow of chastity dating back to the 1990s (encompassing the period during which he was married to Dawn Gibbons). Midnight Jim must have a will of iron; I’ve seen him in action at Nevada Hospitality & Lodging Association shindig at MGM Grand, and he was catnip to the ladies. Ten-plus years of celibacy must be a heavy crucifix to bear, governor, especially with all those lovelies flocking to his side.

(I suspect the reason Midnight Jim crashed the NHLA party was because MGM Mirage was conducting a video preview of CityCenter. MGM CEO Jim Murren had just announced that the company would be backing Rory Reid for governor and Gibbons saw a chance to play Banquo’s Ghost in Murren’s backyard. That’s just a hunch but Gibbons rarely shows his gubernatorial countenance around Vegas, so payback makes an extremely plausible motivation.)

The KLAS story, which alludes to a “love condo” in San Diego may explain a recent one-day constitutional crisis set off by a secret trip Gibbons took to California (so top-hush he didn’t even tell his staff). As reported at the time in S&G, since Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki also had business out of state, that made state Sen. Mike Schneider (D) governor for a day. The Democratic-dominated Lege could have passed all manner of mischief and sent it to Schneider for John Hancock but Schneider, being a responsible solon, let it be known there’d not be any such hijinks.

As for Midnight Jim’s threat to sue Knapp, he’s stepping far out of his weight class. The latter has risked his reputation to conduct a wide variety of investigative adventures and remains Nevada’s go-to guy for enterprise journalism. He’s got balls the size of Elko County, so if I were Gibbons I’d just lie low (something at which he’s normally very adept) and wait for the storm to pass.

This entry was posted in California, CityCenter, Election, MGM Mirage, Midnight Jim Gibbons, Politics, The Strip, TV. Bookmark the permalink.