Dems get to media … now Gibbons?

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.

The two men on the scratchy audio are sharing a dark secret:

"People have told me that there is an organized Democratic kind of conspiracy that is driving a lot of issues, such as The Wall Street Journal thing, pushing "

"I've heard the same thing, Ray, I have heard that actually the Democratic Party paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written, I've heard that. Well, in fact when I met this guy, he was brought to Elko with Dina Titus' campaign, so that's where I met him, so I'm not sure what his agenda is ... "

That's Ray Hagar speaking and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons replying. The recording is posted on the Web site of the Reno Gazette-Journal, where Hagar is a reporter. He is interviewing Gibbons about his brief, eventful reign as governor, during which The Wall Street Journal has reported, and the Sun has confirmed, an FBI investigation of Gibbons' relationship with a defense contractor.

On the tape, Gibbons and Hagar are swapping tales about the ugly pit of the state's politics: The Democratic Party paying the Journal to write damaging stories about Gibbons.

That's all denied by the figures involved - the East Coast newspaper reporter, the state Democratic Party and Gibbons' former opponent, native Georgian Dina Titus. But their denials are by no means blanket, nor do they fully answer the troubling questions:

Who was at the now-infamous Elko meeting?

Were there multiple bagmen between the Democrats and the Journal, or a single bagman?

Was the money delivered in a Crown Royal bag at the book depository, or in a simple envelope on the grassy knoll?

Consider this: The Wall Street Journal leans to the right editorially, it sends its editorial writers off to become speechwriters for famous Republicans, and it once mused for months on the "suicide" of President Bill Clinton's lawyer, Vincent Foster.

In fact, Gibbons admired the Journal enough while serving in Congress to refer to it in speeches on the House floor.

So why would the Journal then betray such a rock-ribbed conservative as Gibbons with stories about him trading favors with a defense contractor?

Why else but to line its pockets with the overflowing coffers of the state Democratic Party, whose barbecue-chicken-dinner fund raisers often raise hundreds, even thousands of dollars?

Troubling questions.

Tellingly, the Journal reporter, John Wilke, referred all questions to a corporate spokes man for Dow Jones, the company that owns The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement, spokesman Bob Christie said : "The Wall Street Journal's articles about Gov. Gibbons are supported by extensive reporting. The governor's suggestion that the Journal's coverage is a product of the Nevada Democrats is baseless."

He wouldn't answer follow-up questions.

The state Democratic Party released its own denial: "This absurd allegation is coming from the man who was actually caught trying to pay off a reporter," spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said. Indeed, Gibbons once had a freelance radio reporter, Ande Engleman, on his payroll to do research in the run-up to his run for governor.

Who better then, to sniff out a scandal like this than Gibbons?

Searer continued: "Clearly he's been blinded by the sequins on Dawn Gibbons' $10,000 Armani dress."

The dress to which Searer is referring, which the first lady wore to the inaugural balls, had no sequins, which seemed to undercut Searer's credibility. Also, the dress was on sale for $6,000, with the rest of the cost going to alterations.

Finally, Searer launched an ad hominen attack on Gibbons: "It's not the Nevada Democratic Party that's under FBI investigation. We will leave the all-expenses - paid cruises, the poker chips and the bags of cash to him."

Then there's Titus: "If he was in Elko," she said of the Journal reporter Wilke, "he didn't introduce himself to me."

Does that mean if he wasn't in Elko, he did introduce himself to her?

By the end of Tuesday, there was a new twist. Gibbons told the Associated Press he gives no credence to the Journal-Democrats-bribery story.

So, a final question: Who got to Gibbons?

Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this story.