Nation's worst governor heaps more insults on rural voting base while destroying its way of life

It turns out that Jim Gibbons wasn't kissing on  the dizzy forgetful doctor's wife in the rodeo parking lot. He was performing CPR on her.

Frankly, the nation's worst and most mentally unbalanced governor shouldn't be playing doctor. He should be seeing one.

Then again maybe he did -- in a series of excruciatingly painful-to-watch TV interviews (KTNV, KVBC, KLAS, Fox5), the one question that seemed to linger in the air but that was never asked was, So what explains your creepily enthusiastic demeanor today, governor, amphetamines or steroids?

Anyway, Gibbons told interviewer after interviewer that it is far more important for him to adhere to his No New Taxes pledge than to his oath of office, and as such he will not rest until he has done everything in his power to inflict irreversible harm on the state of Nevada and its citizens.  So nothing new there.

But over the course of the full, extended interview with KTNV, the serial liar and sociopath did provide some fresh insight when asked about the Elko County tax break that he didn't deserve but that he got anyway through a scam that relied on illegally using the influence of his office for personal gain.

Gibbons was asked if he had muscled around Elko County Assessor Joe Aguirre (who has said that Gibbons, with the help of state Tax Commissioner John Marvel "backed me into a corner") to get his tax bill lowered from as much as $5,000 to about $40.

As is his custom, Gibbons initially responded by lying. Then, when caught, he just pretended that he never told the lie.

Gibbons:  "I never talked to this individual. First of all, I bought a parcel..."

KTNV's Casey Smith: "He said you did. He said you came to see him personally."

Gibbons: "I did. I came in and I asked him what the process was. I stood across the counter from him."

Having thus established yet again that he's a pathological liar for whom a lie is the default answer to every query, Gibbons lied some more, contending that his retirement property should be taxed at the very, very low rate assigned to agricultural property "because I bought the core of a ranch ... the guy who leases it pays me $5,700 a year to keep his ranch operation going because I bought the core of his ranch."

First, disgraced former Judge Jerry Carr Whitehead didn't pay $5,700 to lease the land for a whole year, because Gibbons didn't buy the land until August of 2007 and only owned it for four months of the tax year in question, five at the outside. In Gibbons' defense, the land has to earn more than $5,000 from ag use in a single year to qualify for the agricultural tax break, so it's easy to see why he would have described it as $5,700 "a year" since that was the applicable time frame upon which hinged the success of his tawdry little scam.

Second, and more importantly, Gibbons says he "bought the core of (Whitehead's) ranch."

Gibbons bought 40 acres of scrub -- very pretty scrub, by all accounts, but scrub nonetheless. As was abundantly established in the original AP story on the tax scam and elaborated on at length in this little corner of the cyberwasteland, when it comes to grazing livestock in the West generally and where the Gibbons property is located specifically, 40 acres isn't jack -- typically not even enough to provide forage for a single cow.

Unless it contains, oh, the sole point of access to a crucial water source (and Gibbons' land doesn't; by his own admission it needs to be irrigated), forty acres is not the "core" of any working ranch in the Western U.S. -- ranches that often spread over thousands of acres and that are supplemented by additional thousands of acres of public grazing lands.

Forty acres, however, is a very common size for parcels when grazing land is overtaken by real estate developers and subdivided into ranchettes for sale to dudes from the city who want to buy a hat and play cowboy on their summer vacation.

Some folks in the rural West are a little less than thrilled at the influx of outsiders building McMansions on land that once grazed cattle as part of working ranches. Demise of the custom & culture, end of a way o' life, etc.

There's not a lot that they can do about it -- development is much more profitable than grazing cattle, and too profitable to stop. But it doesn't help when some relatively rich guy from the city says something asinine like his 40 acres are the "core" of a ranch. That's just an insult to the original injury whereby the aforementioned city boy gets a lucrative tax break that he obviously didn't deserve -- a tax break, as it happens, that was designed to preserve the very industry and lifestyle that he himself is helping to destroy by purchasing his cute little scenic ranchette.

Comments

[Sure why not]

CPR?

What's he gonna say next time when they are caught in the back seat of a Buick: "It's not what you think. She thought there was something caught in her throat and I was just trying to help her dislodge it."

[Michael Green]

Sure Why Not, that is not an image that anyone ever wants to picture.

Interesting that The Gibber loves rural Nevada but seems uninterested in living in it. When he couldn't get into the Governor's Mansion, he was in Reno. Why not over in Gardnerville or Minden? Not too far away, beautiful country ... but probably the women there have all figured him out.

[Kickboxermomma]

Could Hollywood have created a better buffoon? This is big payback for the party's failure to get out the vote in Clark County in 2006. Only 28% folks. With less than 10 more persons per precinct voting for Dina the Governor would not be this reject from comedy central.

The same scenario could repeat with Obama, Beers, Beers. Clark County holds the key for dominance for party politics. Obama can carry the State through Clark County alone. Dina can win big in CD3. Beers&Beers can be kicked to the curb. Alot of organizing is taking place here in the county. If you haven't signed up for precinct chair or a volunteer shame on you.

Vote in the primary even if your candidate isn't in it. There are still judges and other "non partisan" candidates running. Some good Democrats running for office include: Johnathan MacArthur North Las Vegas Court, Gayle Nathan Family Court, Vincent Ochoa Family Court Dept K, Frank Sullivan Family Court Dept O, Guilliani Family Court Dept K,Lee North Las Vegas Court, Matthews School Board, Caroline Sanchez-Rangen School Board District E, Bill Henderson Family Court Dept R, Nancy Allf Supreme Court. This is just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more or I have forgotten someone. But these people need your help in the primary. So come out & vote show you're not part of the 72%.

Sorry about the harangue but I'm damn tired of being represented by asinine no new taxes idiots who are driving Nevada down.

[Dee Holzel]

MG:

Don't encourage him! We have our own slimy politicians in the rurals without hosting Carson City's extras.

I don't know about other rural women, but that guy has always creeped me out. From the beginning he made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was a sex offender who failed to register (and it turns out I was right about that).

[Michael Green]

Dee, you're right. Granting that I think Clark County should assert itself as a unit and take the money--remember, demand that your legislators vote by county, not by party--I like rural Nevada and rural Nevadans too much to subject them to Gibbons any more. But, you know, they were crucial to subjecting the rest of us to him ....

[Lisa]

Please vote for Frank Sullivan - he's a great judge (currently a magistrate) but more than that, he knows the law, cares about kids and families, and doesn't take crap.

I can't vouch for anyone else on KBM's list, but if Sullivan doesn't win, it's a horrible shame.