THE WEEK IN REVIEW: CARSON CITY

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Comma Coffee, the funky place that would be perfect to hear Allen Ginsberg read "Howl" if he were still alive, was on the cover of the local paper here on consecutive days, having hosted Sen. Joe Biden and then Sen. Hillary Clinton. These are the benefits for Democrats of their early presidential caucus: free and easy media, with the Republican response buried.

Seems like only yesterday Republicans controlled all the state's constitutional offices and delivered Nevada to President Bush. The talk of permanent majority status was everywhere.

And yet, last week Sen. Harry Reid stood before the Legislature as the U.S. Senate's majority leader, the night before Democratic presidential hopefuls arrived for the first presidential forum.

With these developments, some Republicans are feeling a sense of crisis, a perilous drift into irrelevancy.

The smash-mouth conservative activist and commentator Chuck Muth put it this way in his newsletter to the fighting faithful:

"First, (the party's) broke and no one can or will raise any money for it because of the leadership vacuum. Secondly, there's no opposition voice coming from the GOP ... either blasting away at the D's or defending the R's."

Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, meanwhile, is surely distracted by an FBI investigation and reporters - here and at The Wall Street Journal - who are learning more about his relationship with his friend Warren Trepp. He's accused in explosive civil cases of taking improper gifts from Trepp.

Then there are what the locals call, with politesse, his "missteps." Last week his office sent out a press release to announce he would be attending a breakfast in honor of Bobby Sillers. They meant Siller.

A weekly list of bill-draft requests had his budget office asking for money to give the governor a raise (that one was all a big mix-up. They were merely asking for money for the raise the Legislature enacted last session and went into effect Jan. 1. Regardless, it had some legislators rolling their eyes.)

To be fair, the governor did begin to put some meat on the agenda's bones, proposing an expansion of the Homestead Act to prevent people from losing their homes to creditors (he dropped his idea to extend it to second homes, without explanation, although none was needed - it had been roundly panned.)

Gibbons also proposed an affordable housing measure for teachers.

Republicans in the Legislature seem content to go their own way, though without a real unifying voice or message.

And the Republicans' top political talent is otherwise engaged. Robert Uithoven is working with Sig Rogich, building up a client list and focused on helping Sen. John McCain, while Mike Slanker is busy helping Sen. John Ensign in his new role as the chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Ensign seemed to concede that the Democrats' early presidential caucus has already become powerful as a public relations, organizing and fundraising tool. In a speech before the Legislature, he suggested that he would like to persuade Republicans to bring an early presidential contest to Nevada.

(That would surely cut down on everyone's Saturday golf games.)

Legislatively, it was another slow week, with action and hearings - and an occasional publicity stunt - on video voyeurism, limited liability corporation disclosure, parole and probation, aid for the homeless and internet predators.

The real action, though, was across the street at Comma Coffee.