Governor, let us make fun of you

Joe Schoenmann, Las Vegas Sun

Saturday, April 28, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

You can hear the lines now:

"Jim Gibbons heard a rumor that the FBI has stopped investigating him, so he's paid the Wall Street Journal to report it."

Ouch. Who would invite zingers like that?

University Chancellor Jim Rogers, for one. He's asked the right honorable governor to be skewered at a roast for charity later this year.

Rogers has written a letter asking the governor with the Air Force fighter pilot pedigree to extend his courage to a roast that would raise money for the University of Nevada Health Science System. Rogers described it as "the most important single project in the last 50 years in Nevada."

In the letter, Rogers noted that he put himself at the mercy of roasters last year, raising $1.6 million from the 400 people who attended. "I told the audience that if we had changed the ROAST to a HANGING, I'm sure we could have raised a lot more money ... " he wrote.

How much money would people give to see the roasting of a governor whose first four months in office have been tough by any political standards - under investigation by the FBI, ridiculed for giving credence to a "rumor" that Democrats paid The Wall Street Journal to write hard stories about him.

With his popularity ratings hovering in the 30 percent range, a verbal hanging is likely to draw lots of rubberneckers.

So what's the governor going to do?

A call to his office was not returned Friday.