Columnist Jon Ralston: Giving thanks, far and wide

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 | 12:43 p.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the Ralston Report. He can be reached at (702) 870-7997 or at ralston@vegas.com.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 27 - 28, 2004

A few days ago, you surely gave thanks for a multitude of blessings. Like you, many prominent folks and organizations were thanking the political gods for their good fortune, real and imagined:

Sen. Harry Reid: For John Thune. The former South Dakota congressman, by defeating Tom Daschle, made the senior senator the only Nevadan ever to lead a major party on Capitol Hill. Not that Reid wanted the Republican, Thune, to win, of course.

Gov. Kenny Guinn: For the state economy. For no special sessions on taxes. For the property tax issue, so people will forget the largest tax increase in history. (Until that sentence, I suppose.)

Sen. John Ensign: For his friendship with Harry Reid, which surely will allow the junior senator to go virtually unopposed as his campaign for re-election begins. Surely.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval: For Harry Reid, the selfless senator. How can he ever repay the senator's sacrifice of partisanship to nominate Sandoval to the federal bench and advance the judicial career of a promising young Hispanic?

Controller Kathy Augustine: For Dominic Gentile, her lawyer and spinmeister extraordinaire. For senatorial glass houses. That almost nobody in the public has read the transcripts of what her employees said about how she treated them.

The gamers: For third-party expenditure loopholes. For third party expenditure loopholes that allowed them to end the career of Sen. Ann O'Connell. For third party loopholes that ensured they will again be seen as The Third Party in this state. Or is it The First Party?

President George W. Bush: For Yucca Mountain Fatigue Syndrome.

Rep. Shelley Berkley: For reapportionment and, once again, the Republicans who made her safer so Jon Porter could be, too.

Rep. Jim Gibbons: For education being first in the minds of residents and first in the issues he will exploit to run (and probably win) for governor. For rural Nevada. For a shallow GOP bench so he not only is the best gubernatorial hope, he's also about the only one -- that is, now that Regent Mark Alden has signaled his intention not to seek the state's highest office.

State Senate Majority Leader and Finance Chairman Bill Raggio: For a castrated Southern Nevada delegation. For having the same two power spots he's always had, despite all the bluster from his caucus that he would not. For his new best friend, Bob Beers, his vice chairman of Finance and guaranteed supporter (or your majority leader's post back) for the entire session.

Assemblyman Rod Sherer: For the requirement that all lower house members be seated in the Assembly chambers. If that didn't exist, Speaker Richard Perkins, who is not thrilled the Pahrump assemblyman came here to walk precincts against him, might have put Sherer's desk in Minden.

State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus: For the Three Horsemen of the Democratic Apocalypse -- Jim Gibson, Oscar Goodman and Richard Perkins. If they all run for governor, maybe the lady will win.

Chancellor Jim Rogers: For the regents. So long as they are better than anything Barnum and Bailey could have imagined, he'll be the subject of sympathy and awe.

Rep. Jon Porter: For Mike Slanker, who drew him a safe district in 2001 and destroyed his opponents in 2002 and 2004.

Mayor Oscar Goodman: For a compliant media, a compliant council and a (almost) compliant Ethics Commission. For the benighted masses who place charisma and style over ethics and substance. For the family that plays together and works together, from D.C. cocktail parties to investing in downtown redevelopment.

Councilman Michael Mack: For Mayor Oscar Goodman, his lord and protector. For Ross Goodman, his business partner. And for re-election next year, which he can't win (in the unlikely event he seeks another term) but which could bring him more business while he's running. (Not to worry: He has been promised the job of helming the Department of Business and Industry in a Goodman gubernatorial administration because of his business development skills.)

Councilwoman Janet Moncrief: For the nursing shortage in Southern Nevada -- plenty of jobs are available.

County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald: For youthful indiscretions. By the youthful David Goldwater, that is. For Strip and developer money that allows you to highlight youthful indiscretions.

County Commissioner-elect Tom Collins: For Operation G-Sting. For 10,000 more Democrats than Republicans. For running for the right office at the right time against the right person.

New Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure: For Dad.

The Democratic Party: For Harry Reid. For a few legislative scraps. And that's about it.

The Republican Party: For rural Nevada. For Washoe County. For not much down here besides Jon Porter.

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce: For Chad Christensen, their standard-bearer in the Assembly -- their heroes, Bob Beers and Ron Knecht, have gone to better and worse places, respectively. (I think.)

The doctors: For the trial lawyers' political skills.

The trial lawyers: For the courts.

Public employees in the Legislature: For initiative expert George Harris.

Tax increase proponents: For George Harris.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal: For George Harris, so it has a reliable and informed source for prominently played stories, and for the e-mail publication, RalstonFlash, which nearly every day provides the newspaper an opportunity to act as a reliable follow-up news service.