Jon Ralston on the governor’s conspiracy theories and why they just aren’t funny

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

The tragicomedy unfolding in Nevada, as an elected official slowly disintegrates into fits of paranoid delusions and bouts of unfathomable denial, is almost unbearable to watch.

If there weren't comic interludes, it might truly be excruciating. But even the laughter has become uncomfortable as many people surely are asking themselves: Is there something seriously wrong with Gov. Jim Gibbons?

How else to explain his incremental descent into madness, which began with maniacal rants against the media and the Democratic opposition and now has metamorphosed into mouthing patently insane rumors about partisans paying a national newspaper to print stories about him. If that's not enough, the governor, apparently clutching marbles in his hand and simultaneously sweating from a five o'clock shadow, has embroidered this fairy tale with flat-out falsehoods about The Wall Street Journal reporter and how he came to Nevada.

Sure, politicians often wail about the media being out to get them and whine about political enemies feeding stories to the press. That's par for the course, and sometimes it's even true. It's the stuff you expect to waft out of the bunker.

But as Team Gibbons - and it may be an ever-dwindling lineup, folks - huddles and fulminates in the Carson City foxhole, even stand-up GOP soldiers have to be wondering where their Kurtz-like leader is taking them. The heart of darkness awaits, but who will follow Gibbons to apocalypse now?

Even Republicans who insist that Gibbons is being pilloried by the liberal media, that he is not being given a chance to succeed, have to wonder at his latest speaking in tongues. When asked (and the question itself was bizarre, folks) whether he has heard that the Democrats have organized a conspiracy to push issues forward, including Wall Street Journal stories about the governor, Gibbons told the Reno Gazette-Journal: "I have heard that absolutely the Democrats have paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written."

No guffaws followed. No immediate ridiculing of such outlandishness. Notice the governor's insertion of the emphatic "absolutely" - a word clearly heard on the audio of the interview but mysteriously deleted from the Gazette-Journal story. I heard a rumor that Gibbons paid the Gazette-Journal reporter to delete it, but I can't prove it and yet will say it anyhow.

Then, the governor went on to say to the Gazette-Journal reporter that he had first met The Wall Street Journal reporter, John R. Wilke, when "he was brought to Elko by the Dina Titus campaign" when a gubernatorial debate occurred there last year. Titus subsequently denied such nonsense.

This is painful to endure, especially just one week after Gibbons fulminated to a sympathetic radio host, "I really, really don't care about the media anymore." He then told the interviewer that the media wanted "to drive me out of office" and that he won't let the media "dictate how I run the state of Nevada."

But is he running the state? And if so, where is he going?

Gibbons appears to have insulated himself in a cocoon where only enablers and fellow conspiracy theorists are allowed to live and where the favorite pastime is playing, "Who's out to get us now?" (Here's a hint: Go ask Pogo.)

So where does this go from here?

I suppose there is a chance that Gibbons will do some reflecting and realize neither the media nor the Democrats induced him to flout state and federal laws on his legal defense fund, nor did anyone prod him to get cozy with federal contractors and thus provoke an FBI inquiry.

I suppose it's possible that he will elevate the conversation about his budget beyond his tough-guy talk about taxes and collaborate with lawmakers on solutions to complicated infrastructure problems.

And I suppose he could surround himself with people who will tell him not to repeat nonsensical conspiracy theories - even if he believes them - and experts in government and public relations so he can actually do what he was elected to do, i.e., govern. On Tuesday, and only after he was pushed by the Associated Press, did he grudgingly back off his conspiracy claim.

The window for him to right his listing ship of state is closing fast, though. So far, the Republicans, especially the most important one - Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio - have defended the indefensible. But that can't last forever and Raggio and others will not go down with the SS Gibbons.

All of this would really be quite funny, quite a source of entertainment, if not for one, tiny thing: We have to live here.