An overly ambitious Alaska woman who loves both herself and power in equal measure decided today to abandon the people who had put her into elective office, as their petty concerns were interfering with her plans to run for the White House in 2012.

Sarah Palin, 45, of Wasilla, Alaska, told reporters in a news conference today she would resign as governor of Alaska by month’s end. “We know we can effect positive change outside of government,” she said, although it was not immediately clear why she was using the plural tense.

But as blogger and Various Things & Stuff-ignorer Chris Cilizza of the Washington Post has noted, not being governor would make it easier for Palin to run for president.

Sure, Palin promised “faithfully discharge my duties as governor to the best of my ability.” Sure, she knew the term of office when she was last elected. And sure, waiting until next year (when her term would be up, a full two years before the presidential election of 2012) wouldn’t have hurt her chances much. But what is your word when placed up against your soul-inflaming quest for power? You do realize that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is robotically campaigning right now, don’t you? And that Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota decided not to run for re-election, so he could concentrate on a presidential bid, right?

In a way, what Romney and Pawlenty have done — give up elected office before seeking a higher office — is an honorable thing, since they know their attention would be divided between their full-time current job and the job they actually want. Palin could have joined them in the honorable camp, had she served out her current term and left office next year.

Alas, she decided to up and quit right now, as if to cement her reputation as somebody whose word you really shouldn’t trust. In other words, what a great way to kick off a presidential run! You betcha! (Wink.)

Oh, by the way, if you haven’t read this piece by Todd Purdum, it’s pretty good. Seriously, Palin writes e-mails from God. Not even joking.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid may have made a mistake on Thursday when discussing high-speed rail at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. And it couldn’t have pleased officials of the Las Vegas Monorail, who showed up at the event.

KVBC Channel 3 reporter Tom Hawley asked Reid about the ridership studies for the thus-far-privately funded DesertXpress train, which would run from Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif., and to which Reid gave his full-throated support Thursday. Those studies were conducted by the same people who studied potential ridership for the Las Vegas Monorail, Hawley noted, and monorail ridership is far less than predicted. Why should we believe the newest numbers?

“The difference between the Las Vegas Monorail and the DesertXpress is that one is a government program and one is private,” Reid said.

Whoops. The Las Vegas Monorail has repeatedly insisted that it is a private project, built without government assistance. Check this from the monorail’s website:

The Las Vegas Monorail Company runs the only privately owned public transportation system in the United States. The Monorail is privately-funded, utilizing no public funds to build or operate the system.

In truth, as we have pointed out many times, the monorail relied on tax-exempt, state-issued bonds to be built, and has been generously favored with tax breaks that allow it to skip most levies that would be owed by a truly private system. (For the record, a “private” system is one built entirely by investors without any government assistance whatsoever. The use of any government resources — be it state-backed tax-free bonds, government loans or grants is something we like to call “sucking at the public teat.”)

Then again, the monorail — which has never made a profit, except for salaries paid to its founders; has seen its bonds steadily decline further and further into junk status; and is now in danger of defaulting, according to analysts — has been making noises about getting government help recently. An infusion of federal funds, state funds or an outright takeover by the Regional Transportation Commission would turn the monorail into a government project, no?

Hey, maybe Reid didn’t make a mistake in describing the monorial after all. Maybe he’s just ahead of his time.

The federal government has officially designated a high-speed rail corridor between Las Vegas and Southern California, a move that will allow developers of super train projects to apply for federal money. The move was announced at a news conference today attended by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who was key to getting the long-awaited designation.

But you knew that already, since we recklessly speculated that might be the case yesterday, and the Las Vegas Sun’s Lisa Mascaro had the story this morning. (We Tweeted it — complete with pictures! — for those lucky few who follow us on Twitter.)

Reid’s role in the designation shouldn’t be understated — the senior senator worked behind the scenes with LaHood, Vice President Joe Biden and others to get the Las Vegas-to-Southern California route considered. And he helped considerably when the Barack Obama administration wanted to designate $8 billion in in the stimulus bill for high-speed rail projects. So, train lovers, would-be Vegas vistors who live in Southern California and Las Vegans who want a quick trip to the Golden State owe Reid one.

“It is something that is essential for this part of the country,” Reid said at the event. “I’ve dreamed of a high-speed rail connection between Nevada and Southern California for more than 30 years.”

We’re sure Reid was dreaming of it during a recent car trip from San Diego to Las Vegas with his wife, where he reports he was stopped at least three times, once for 45 minutes. We’ve made that same drive, and suffered in some of the same traffic.

But the news conference was not just about the high-speed rail designation. It was also the scene of the ongoing not-so-subtle tug-of-war between backers of a magnetic levitation train that aims to run directly from Las Vegas to Anaheim, Calif., and the DesertXpress, a conventional electric train that aims to run from Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif., and from there eventually connect to a $10 billion intrastate rail network contemplated for the Golden State.

Reid made it clear what side he was on recently, when he switched his longstanding support from the maglev project to the DesertXpress, which is backed by, among others, Sig Rogich, the Republican consulant who now co-chairs the group Republicans for Reid. At times, the news conference seemed like an informerical for the DesertXpress as much as the announcement of a federal transportation milestone.

Calling the DesertXpress the “first shovel-ready high speed rail project” in the country, Reid predicted the completion of an environmental review by next spring and a groundbreaking sometime in the next quarter. “We can’t simply continue to study this project,” Reid said, in a dig at the maglev train, which has been planned in one form or another for three decades.

Asked specifically about the maglev, Reid slammed the project he used to advocate: “We just simply don’t have the money,” he said, estimating the maglev’s cost at $40 million and saying other developers were rejecting the technology.

For his part, LaHood remained agnostic about which project would be the winner, saying his office would evaluate proposals starting in the fall, and begin to parcel out money by the end of the year. That schedule would seem to favor the DesertXpress, which has come a long way in the last three years in terms of preliminary work. The maglev project, however, is also working on an environmental review.

But Will Kempton, director of CalTrans, seemed to endorse the DesertXpress, too, mentioning linking Nevada’s rail system with California’s. Since the DesertXpress is limited by terminating in Victorville, a link to the high-desert city of Palmdale is necessary for riders to take advantage of California’s other lines, which are planned to run eventually from San Diego to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, and many points in between. (A map put up at the event showed a DesertXpress route to Victorville, a spur to Palmdale and the proposed California rail network.)

The heavy focus on the DesertXpress seemed to take maglev backers by surprise. Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, said he was surprised by the focus on his competitor.

“It’s not a good deal in this press conference for the maglev,” a downcast Cummings said afterward, adding it was “too early to tell” whether Reid’s endorsment was going to hurt his efforts.

Maglev backers say their project is superior, in that it runs faster and has a more direct route into Orange County. The technology — electricity is used to power magnets that levitate the train above its tracks and move it along its route — is more rare, and more expensive, than the conventional steel-wheel electric train contemplated by the DesertXpress.

But the maglev project has also been beset by delays, whereas the private DesertXpress is moving along more quickly. Although its backers have thus far used only private money for the project, the use of federal loans is still contemplated for about half the cost, Reid said. (The total cost is estimated at $5 billion total.)

UPDATE: The DesertXpress people, waiting in politics for what is referred to as a “decent interval,” put out this statement to express their happiness at the news, not only of a high-speed rail corridor, but also that so many powerful folks seem to love their project.

With regard to the announcement made by U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, Cal Trans Executive Director Will Kempton and State of Nevada representatives, DesertXpress said today that they are thrilled that the Administration recognizes the importance of the extension of the California High-Speed Rail Corridor from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas.

“The solid support expressed for our privately-funded DesertXpress project today as part of a great solution to I-15 congestion and as a life line to Nevada’s tourism industry, is significant as we move forward. We are anxious to work together to make DesertXpress the nation’s first high-speed passenger rail system that will connect Las Vegas to Southern California without the government having to foot the bill,” said Tom Stone, President of DesertXpress.

Note: Government loans still count as footing the bill, we think. But that’s just us.

Hey, kids, did you know there’s a big news conference being planned for Thursday afternoon, one involving U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Caltrans Director Will Kempton and Regional Transportation Commission General Manager Jacob Snow?

And did you know the event is slated for the future site of something called the Central City Intermodal Transportation Terminal, in downtown Las Vegas?

And did you know, according to a news release from Reid’s office, the officials are going “…to make a major announcement involving Southern Nevada and Southern California”?

Now, what could be going on here, we wonder? Could it possibly, maybe have something to do with interstate transportation? Say, by train? Say, designating a Southern Nevada-Southern California high speed rail route?

See, right now, there is no officially designated high-speed rail corridor between Las Vegas and Southern California, although there are a couple of projects that hope one day to ply that route. But in order to get federal assistance, you need such a designation, and we just wonder if tomorrow’s announcement is it.

Guess we’ll just have to show up and find out, huh?

UPDATE: Hey, look, we were right!

Gov. Jim Gibbons would like to remind you that today is tax day in Nevada, inasmuch as new taxes passed by the 2009 Legislature are going into effect. He put out a news release to that effect, just so you wouldn’t forget.

(Actually, technically, he put out two news releases, both titled “Governor Gibbons wants citizens to note higher taxes.” But apparently, the governor needs to note them, too, because in his first release, he said the sales tax was rising by .31 percent, when really it’s going up by .35 percent. Man, they don’t even read those bills before they veto them, do they? For the record, the tax bill can be found here, governor.)

“Working families are suffering through foreclosures, layoffs, higher gasoline prices and soon higher prices for electricity,” Gibbons said in his release. “When you put it all together, this sales tax increase is just another slap in the face to citizens who have already been forced to get by with less.”

Now, if that’s true, and if it’s also true that the tax package of 2009 is so damned egregiously huge, wouldn’t citizens notice on their own without the governor having to issue news releases about it? When the guy buying his new 32-gig iPhone 3GS has to pay the extra $1.04, he’ll no doubt see the extra tax and rise up in revolution, right? Or when they guy with the really old car expecting to pay just $6 (the former minimum car registration fee) has to pay $16 (the new minimum), it’s revolution time, right?

Actually, no. It turns out, the increases are actually very minor. So much so, they will probably go unnoticed, save for those loons who think Nevadans are going to stream north to buy big-ticket items in Oregon, where there’s no sales tax. Yeah, tell the NHP to watch for an influx of fridge-laden U-Hauls, will you?

Anyway, the governor calls this the Buckley/Horsford Tax Increase of 2009, after Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, and state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford. But we think he’s not giving himself enough credit: Remember, in addition to the sales tax/payroll tax/car registration tax/business license fee increase, there was the increase in hotel room taxes, which Gibbons allowed to become law without his signature. (He went back on his signed pledge to “oppose and veto” all tax increases, ostensibly because this was approved by a vote of the people.) So, shouldn’t the entire 2009 Legislature’s tax package be known as the Buckley-Horsford-Gibbons Tax of 2009? Just saying.

(We put these questions to Gibbons’s spokesman, Dan Burns, but we’ve yet to hear back from him. Maybe he’s on the road back from Oregon with a fridge?)

Anyway, all this focus on taxes reminds us that the beneficiaries of those taxes are mighty grateful to Buckley and Horsford and all the Democrats and Republicans who voted to pass them. The schoolteachers who get to stay employed are grateful. The infants and young children who will get health care are grateful. The mentally ill people (especially in rural areas) who will get local care are grateful. The drivers who use state roads and bridges are grateful, as are the private companies who will build and repair those roads and bridges. And lots of others are grateful, too.

So thanks for the reminder, governor. We’ve got a lot of people to thank.

In the wake of U.S. Sen.-elect Al Franken’s victory in the Minnesota Supreme Court Tuesday, we wondered about the possibilities. Not about the possibilities for the Democrats, who now have supermajorities in the Senate, the House of Representatives and hold the White House. No, we wondered what excuses the Democrats would make for not pushing a progressive agenda.

And we have a winner! Health problems!

The Review-Journal’s political reporter, Molly Ball, writes on her blog that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid immediately began referring to his majority as “60 on paper,” since U.S. Sens. Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy have been facing longstanding health problems, and are often not available to cast votes on the Senate floor. Therefore, Reid only has a working majority of 58 votes, not the 60 needed to invoke cloture and end the filibustering tactic favored by whichever party is in the minority. From that blog:

Because of those missing votes, Reid said, “it’s not a real 60.”

And thus, without a “real 60,” Reid cannot possibly be held accountable for failing to do something with the majority of Democrats sent to Washington, D.C. by the voters of the several states.

Oh, and we may as well hand the next prize to Ball, too, because she garnered another quote from Reid hinting at what we think will be the next anti-progress excuse: Independent-minded Democrats! Here’s the line:

“I have an interesting caucus,” Reid said. “I’ve been so fortunate that we’ve stuck together throughout my years as the Democratic leader.” Given that wide range of views, he said, “Each issue that comes up, we have to work to come up with party unity, and we’ve done that and will continue to do that.”

Yes, they have to work to come up with party unity, darn it. And don’t you know, one of his caucus may go south on him, so let’s not expect big things.

You know, sometimes, we think Reid doesn’t want a true, solid 60-vote majority, because then he’d actually be on the hook for pushing a Democratic agenda through Congress, and for some reason, the leader of the Democratic Party in the upper house just doesn’t want to do that. Oh, that’s right: He’s got to get elected back here in conservative Nevada next year, doesn’t he?

Memo to Reid: There are almost 110,000 more Democrats than Republicans in your home state. Barack Obama won Nevada over John McCain 55 percent to 46 percent (120,909 votes!). Democrats have a veto-proof majority in the state Assembly, and took over control of the state Senate. The Republians don’t even have a candidate to run against you, less than a year from the primary election. Republicans nationally lost eight seats in the United States Senate. And they did it in a year that the man at the top of the ticket promised change, which has been pretty elusive since he was sworn in.

All of which leads us to say this: God damn it, if now isn’t the time to actually get something done, there will never be a time to get something done.

UPDATE: Oh, so it’s not just us.

Readers, we’ve been sitting here for about 30 minutes trying to come up with something to say about this. But we’re still speechless. So judge for yourselves. The money video is here. (And yes, that is Review-Journal editor Thomas Mitchell, in a video he posted to his blog.)

Readers, we’re used to being attacked for standing up for the truth. It happens all the time. But this time, we’ve been attacked from the ramparts of history itself! Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith has taken us on from the pages of a retro-designed Nevada section commemorating the centennial of Clark County.

(BTW, if you haven’t seen the print version of today’s Nevada section, you’re missing a really good look for the R-J. They should consider keeping it. It has the feel of authority that the modern version lacks. Plus, the retro photos of Editor Tom Mitchell - we assume those are retro photos - would fit right in. Only one quibble: The paper claims the look is an homage to an earlier incarnation of its 20th-century self, the Las Vegas Age. Really, the old Las Vegas Age was a newspaper purchased by an R-J ancestor in 1945, so saying the Age was an earlier incarnation of the R-J is like Fiat claiming the looks of, say, a 1967 Chrysler Imperial as its own, just because it bought the company. C’mon, people, we’ve been over this!)

Anyway, back to the outrage. Smith’s column, ostensibly about the centennial, contains this line, in reference to the city of Las Vegas “centennial,” celebrated with much fanfare, and not a few problems, back in 2005.

Sticklers for such pesky gnats as facts are quick to buzz that Las Vegas wasn’t officially incorporated until March 16, 1911. That date in 2011, they surmise, will mark its true centennial.

Goodman’s insistence on calling his 2005 party our “centennial” infuriated some the Keepers of Important Dates and sent his political detractors into a tizzy from which they spent months recovering. Of all the audacity: Throwing a party in Las Vegas on a false pretense. Whoever heard of such a thing?

Well, readers, we all know who Smith is talking about, since we were the ones who pointed out — over and over again, in the late unlamented R-J e-mail newsletter the EARLY LINE — that the city was holding a fake centennial. We were the ones who noted the actual date of the city’s incorporation, repeatedly. And we even once caught the city playing fast and loose with the facts on its website! So, maybe we did go into a tizzy.

Anyway, we know why Smith is angry. It’s because he bought into the fake centennial thing hook, line and sinker! The entire R-J did, publishing historical books, devoting reams of coverage and generally carrying on like it was the real centennial when we knew it was just an excuse for Mayor Oscar Goodman to throw a party. And who better than his authorized biographer - Smith - to defend the mayor, then and now?

Well, this outrage will not stand, readers! We will not allow our reputation to be tarnished by a paper that doesn’t even know who its real daddy is! We won’t allow a columnist to besmirch our reputation just because we can read a calendar and he can’t! It’s trash talking time!

Hey, Smith: Mayor Goodman must have come to a sudden stop, because now you look like this:

Oh, yeah, that just happened. We went there.

Anyway, people, we don’t even know what all the big fuss is about, because Goodman will still be mayor on March 16, 2011, the date the city of Las Vegas was actually incorporated. And the mayor has personally told us that he is going to have another party on the real date, just because of our penchant for historical accuracy! Well, swell. We’re planning on it, mayor. Maybe then we’ll even buy a set of those “Las Vegas Centennial” license plates issued six years too early.

And just to show there’s no hard feelings, you can even invite Smith. You know, because we’re the bigger person, and that’s not just measured in waistline.

More than twenty years ago, we began our journalism career working for a newspaper called the Huntington Beach Independent. After we graduated from college, we worked as the only reporter for a brand-new publication, known as the Newport Beach-Corona del Mar Independent, which was headquartered at a collection of old desks shoved to the side of the newsroom of the Orange Coast Daily Pilot, which was then located on Bay Street in Costa Mesa. We covered everything from schools and police to education and City Hall. The Daily Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent were later purchased by the Los Angeles Times, and still publish as Tribune Co. newspapers to this day, although we’re sad to say the Newport Beach-Corona del Mar paper didn’t survive.

We were reminded of those salad days today when we got a news release forwarded by the group pushing the maglev train that supporters hope will someday run between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif. The news release is from the great city of Newport Beach, Calif., and bears news that the city has formally endorsed the California-Nevada Interstate Maglev Project, “citing the project’s ability to reduce congestion, avoid the expansion of airports and freeways and improve the environment.”

“Considering the amount of growth estimated in Southern California over the next 20 years, the maglev system will play an important role in upgrading the infrastructure capacity of the region,” said Newport Beach Mayor Edward Selich.

Now, the rival to the maglev project — the DesertXpress, a conventional electric train that would run from Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif., in the high desert — may have a leg up on the maglev train, inasmuch as the DesertXpress is pretty much done with its environmental studies. It may have backers with big bucks and political juice, such as Sig Rogich. But does it have the backing of Newport Beach? We don’t think so!

“The people of Southern California deserve a transportation system for the 21st century,” said Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, developers of the maglev train. ‘We welcome the city of Newport Beach’s support and partnership in helping to make this a reality.”

Actually, we think the people of Southern California deserve a transportation system for the 22nd century, i.e. transporters. They have a range of about 40,000 kilometers, easily enough to accommodate the distance between San Diego, Newport Beach, Anaheim, Los Angeles or even San Francisco and Las Vegas. And while the maglev is fast — Anaheim to Las Vegas is estimated to take about an hour and a half — the transporter is faster: Just about 2.5 seconds. So, what do you say we just jump right to that?

Anyway, good to hear from the city of Newport Beach, after all these years.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid didn’t waste any time congratulating Al Franken on his election to the Senate today. Perhaps the good senator read our last blog post? (Doubtful — this statement was released only a few seconds after we posted.)

“I congratulate Senator-elect Al Franken, the next Senator from the state of Minnesota.

“The people of Minnesota will now finally get the brilliant and hardworking new senator they elected in November and the full representation they deserve. After all the votes have been counted and recounted, the Minnesota Supreme Court has made the final determination that Minnesotans have chosen Al Franken to help their state and our country get back on track.

“The Senate looks forward to welcoming Senator-elect Franken as soon as possible. He will play a crucial role as we work to strengthen our economy, ensure all Americans can access and afford quality health care, make our country more energy independent, confirm the President’s outstanding nominee to the Supreme Court, and tackle the many other challenges we face.

“I once again encourage Governor [Tim] Pawlenty to respect the votes of his constituents and the decisions of his state’s highest court. He should put politics aside, follow his state’s laws and finally sign the certificate that will bring this episode to an end.”

Yeah, Tim Pawlenty! Sign the election certificate and let Mr. Franken go to Washington!

UPDATE: Reid issued a gracious statement after Coleman’s concession:

“I know a thing or two about close elections, and I appreciate both that Norm Coleman fought hard throughout his race and recount, and that he is now stepping aside and letting the people of Minnesota have the full representation they deserve.

“I enjoyed my time working with Norm Coleman in the United States Senate, and wish him the best.”

Well, that’s nice. But if you cleverly rearrange the letters of Reid’s statement above, you find this chilling message:

Norm Coleman is a total loser! Clean out your office, loserboy, and make way for a real senator! Hey, Republicans! I’ve got your cloture right here!”

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken is the winner of the November 2008 U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. This means that Republicans lost a total of eight Senate seats in November balloting nationwide, and that Democrats will shortly have a 60-vote majority in the upper house.

That’s significant inasmuch as it takes 60 votes to invoke “cloture,” or end debate, on any given issue. Republicans have been using the 60-vote threshold to stage virtual filibusters on legislation, the same way Democrats used the tactic when they were in the minority.

Our very own U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has been fond of saying it takes 60 votes to accomplish anything in the Senate, and using the lack of 60 votes as one excuse for not moving forward with items on the Democratic agenda. Well, with Franken shortly to join the upper house, Reid has his 60 votes. Will we see progress, or more excuses? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times just reported (1:21 p.m. PDT) that Coleman conceded to Franken, thus ending the eight-month battle over the seat!

In case you didn’t know, today is the final day of Jim Rogers’s tenure as chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education. He’s submitted a final memo to cap off a series of 70 — count ‘em! — memos outlining the funding challenges facing colleges and universities in this state. (You can read it by clicking here.)

We were skeptical of Rogers when he first submitted himself for the job, but we’re glad to say that we were wrong in our initial assessment. He’s been a controversial chancellor, to be sure, but a good one. We’ll be a little sad to see him go.

The good news? Rogers has promised to take to the airwaves of his television stations to continue his quest to improve higher education, a part of which seems to be ridding the state of the political services of Gov. Jim Gibbons and state Sen. Barbara Cegavske. Talk about your Must See TV. (And yes, Rogers’s stations are NBC affiliates.)

So, it’s goodbye to Chancellor Rogers, but hello to Rogers the TV star. Can’t wait to tune in.

Gov. Jim Gibbons decided to get all clever and whatnot on Monday, issuing a news release that pretended to praise U.S. Sen. Harry Reid but that was really insulting him. Check the opening paragraph:

Governor Jim Gibbons today applauded Senator Harry Reid’s new efforts to encourage renewable energy production in several Western states. Reid announced he is helping bring solar energy projects to Arizona, Utah, California, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. Governor Gibbons, focusing his renewable energy efforts solely on Nevada, has spent more than two years working on infrastructure projects and plans for solar, wind and geothermal energy production in the state.

Did you see that? Gibbons applauds Reid’s new efforts to encourage renewable energy. And while Reid is doing stuff all over the Southwest, Gibbons is focusing only on Nevada. For two whole years!

That’s funny because Reid has been working on renewable energy issues since long before Gibbons oozed into the governor’s mansion. In fact, Reid was working to get renewable energy when Gibbons was still a back-bencher Republican congressman shouting speeches over an empty House chamber into the C-SPAN cameras.

And it’s really only right that Reid work on a national level, since he is a United States senator, working on behalf of, well, the United States. It’s good that he’s not parochial the way Gibbons is, no?

Anyway, let’s see what else is in this release, shall we?

“Hopefully, Senator Reid can fulfill his promises to reduce the federal bureaucracy and red-tape for renewable energy projects,” Gibbons said, “At the state level, Nevada is far ahead of the other Western states Reid is supporting.” Shortly after taking office in 2007, Governor Gibbons put together a special committee that was comprised of Nevada experts which mapped areas where solar, wind and geothermal energy projects should be located and also mapped where new power transmission lines need to be built. Governor Gibbons also spearheaded efforts to create a special non-profit corporation to enable public-private partnerships for renewable energy projects in Nevada. Governor Gibbons believes renewable energy projects will permanently diversify Nevada’s economy and create thousands of high-paying permanent jobs.

Yes, that’s it. Poor Gibbons is struggling against the mighty federal bureaucracy to save the state from going dark and to save the planet from global warming, while Reid is just all up there on Capitol Hill with his thumb up his ass! That’s how it is, right?

Well, no, actually. It seems like mapping areas where renewable energy can be found in Nevada and encouraging energy development is the least that Gibbons can do. And we can’t help but notice that the governor left out the efforts of the Legislature, whose members worked tirelessly during the last couple of sessions to advance renewable energy in the state.

Meanwhile, the Gibbons administration was hiring in its energy office a multiple-offense drunken driver who taught high school history but had little experience in energy. Of course, he quickly resigned, which set him apart from the rest of Gibbons’s unqualified appointments.

Oh, we bet you’re wondering if, perhaps, the Gibbons news release contains a quote from a person in Gibbons’s employ praising Gibbons for his vision and foresight, a quote that’s totally undercut by the fact that the person saying it is an employee who serves at the pleasure of the governor, so what the hell else is she going to say? You betcha!

Nevada Energy Advisor Dr. Hatice Gecol said, “Governor Gibbons has worked tirelessly to build the foundation for a renewable energy future in Nevada that is realistic, environmentally sensible and economically viable.”

Hey, you know who else has been doing that, since long before Gibbons was even chasing drunken cocktail waitresses across rain-soaked parking lots? Harry Reid.

If you do, you’re liable to get pushed around a bit. Check it:

So, we’re back from a trip to Tucscon, Ariz., where we attended a journalism conference, which was great. (Props to our friend and colleague, Jimmy Boegle, editor of the Tucson Weekly, the host paper, and his publisher, Tom Lee.)

Anyway, let’s catch up on a few comment-worthy things that happened while we were away, shall we?

• Our nation lost a great entertainer, one who for years warmed the hearts of millions and, despite controversy, stayed true to his art until the end. Billy Mays was 50.
• John Ensign refused to answer questions lobbed his way by Las Vegas Sun Washington, D.C., reporter Lisa Mascaro. First, he said, “I said what I was going to say last week,” but then he said, “I think we’ve answered all of the questions.” Actually, senator, you haven’t answered any. And they’re not going away.
• In fact, they’re growing. The Review-Journal’s Molly Ball quotes anonymous sources saying Ensign has a “proclivity” for infidelity, and that 2008 was not his first affair. Plus, it turns out that not many people active in the Republican Party like Ensign, a growing consensus.
• In related news, Ensign’s office has still not returned our calls or e-mails regarding his mysterious disappearance in 2002. Thanks to Ball, we now have a few more questions for one Salvatore “Tory” Mazzola III, Ensign’s press secretary.
• The DesertXpress train may intrude into desert tortoise territory, according to a preliminary route. The good news? Tortoises can get to Victorville in under two hours!
• Republicans are still hoping for U.S. Rep. Dean Heller to challenge U.S. Sen. Harry Reid for the Senate.
• The right-wing Keystone Corp. will feature Dick Morris as it’s annual dinner speaker Oct. 27 at The Venetian. The right-wing Nevada Policy Research Institute will feature Karl Rove as it’s annual dinner speaker Sept. 23 at The Venetian. You know, with truth-tellers like Morris, Rove and Ensign on the party’s rosters, we just can’t figure out why Nevada has nearly 110,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.