Is it a scandal, or simply a misunderstanding? The answer to that question depends on whether you’re a Republican (much ado about nothing) or a Democrat (scandalmania). But one thing is clear: The publicity surrounding the McCormick & Schmick’s incident involving would-be governor U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons on Friday isn’t helping his bid. And it’s not going away.

By now, you’ve surely read all the coverage of the story. (The Review-Journal broke the news, but the Las Vegas Sun’s comprehensive coverage has shown that paper can more than compete with its joint-operating-agreement rival.) You’ve read the excerpts of the police reports, and seen the aerial photos supplied by the Sun. If the Media Volume Scandal Index applies (principle: the amount of coverage determines the importance of a given event), there’s surely a scandal here.

A quick recap, for those who need to be brought up to speed: After a dinner at political hangout McCormick & Schmick’s with campaign donors and guru Sig Rogich, Gibbons and Rogich retired to the bar. At some point, a group that included Chrissy Mazzeo, 32, a hotel cocktail waitress, sat down at the table.

Eventually, other bar patrons noticed Gibbons and company and began snapping cell phone pictures (really, people, is our bar for celebrity that low?). At that point, Rogich said it was time to go. Gibbons and Mazzeo left — not together — but ran into each other again outside the seafood restaurant. Gibbons said he offered to drive or walk her to her truck, parked in a nearby parking structure. Once in the structure, Mazzeo told police Gibbons grabbed her arms and made unwanted advances while in the structure. She left and called police. But according to Gibbons, Mazzeo tripped and started to fall, and he grabbed reached out to help her. After she recovered, Gibbons maintains, they parted ways.

OK, that’s the basic story. Now, let’s discern a few things:

• Gibbons should have been with yet another woman that night … state Sen. Dina Titus. While Gibbons was dining with Rogich and campaign donors on Friday, Titus was filming what was to have been a debate panel at cable station Las Vegas ONE. Instead, Titus was interviewed by herself by host Jeff Gillen Gillan and a panel of journalists comprised of Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican and Las Vegas ONE producer Dana Gentry.

We’re not saying none of this would have happened had Gibbons chosen to be at the debate, too. But we will say that Gibbons didn’t really have a good excuse for avoiding the Las Vegas ONE face off. Sure, doing congressional business is a legitimate out for not debating. Having a schedule conflict with another campaign event, perhaps in another part of the state is justifiable. But a dinner with donors? Not so much.

This could lead to a new political rule: Show up at all forums, debates, panels and media interviews. It keeps you out of trouble.

• Even under the best-case scenario, Gibbons looks bad. Consider this: Everyone involved, from witnesses to police dispatchers to officers on the scene, could tell that Mazzeo had been drinking. By some accounts, she’d been drinking for several hours. And by the time of the incident, approximately 10:10 p.m., she was no doubt intoxicated. Even Gibbons said she stumbled on the way to the garage.

And Gibbons was helping her to find her truck?

So she could drive home?

Under the influence?

That’s completely irresponsible for anyone, let alone a sitting congressman who’s running for the highest office in the state. Especially when there were ready alternatives at hand: Gibbons could have asked her if she had a friend he could call to take her home. Or he could have offered to call her a cab, which are not very difficult to get in the Howard Hughes Center. Anything but let an intoxicated person get behind the wheel.

Moreover, what kind of political judgment leads a man who is just a couple weeks away from standing for election from entering a parking garage with an intoxicated woman, not his wife anyway? You don’t have to be the Rev. Jerry Falwell (who famously doesn’t allow himself to be alone with female employees of his church) to know that this has trouble written all over it.

When Gibbons lamented to police that “Gosh, I learned an important lesson, never to offer a helping hand to anybody ever again,” it’s hard to feel sympathy. The lesson here is don’t put yourself in a position where you can at least be accused of doing something untoward.

• We’ll probably never know the truth. Although witnesses saw Gibbons, Rogich and Mazzeo — and the rest of their group — in the bar, all the disputed interaction took place in private. Security cameras in the parking garage apparently didn’t have videotape running, which is too bad, because they might have been able to prove which side of the story is true. Other witnesses at the restaurant and nearby hotels cannot say positively what happened in that parking garage or its environs.

But remember that Mazzeo’s story has not been disproved, nor has she recanted. According to the Sun and the R-J, she simply said she didn’t want to pursue the matter because of Gibbons’ position.

And that’s bad, because it leaves lingering doubts just a few days before early voting begins. Which brings us to…

• This incident has the potential to depress Republican turnout, or suppress votes for Gibbons. Let’s be honest, people. Many Republicans will probably dismiss the incident as a misunderstanding, or perhaps even a Democratic dirty trick setup. (You can forget the setup angle, however: If it was a setup, would not Mazzeo be on every TV station, speaking to every newspaper and perhaps even cutting a TV ad?)

But for the Republicans who do believe it, or who have doubts, the course is less clear. They probably won’t be able to bring themselves to vote for Titus. That’s too much to expect. But they may find themselves staying home, or leaving that race blank. And that’s not good for Gibbons, who needs to keep Titus’ margin of victory in vote-rich Clark County down to manageable levels, even as he’s assured of big turnout up north.