Jon Ralston on the resolution of the Gibbons appointment fiasco, the ironic twist to the scapegoating of an appraiser and the mayor’s continuing dream of a pro sports team

By Jon Ralston (contact)

Friday, Jan. 12, 2007 | 6:59 a.m.

Catching up on Week Two of 2007, less eventful for the Good Ship Gibbons, less happy for the county folks and even happier on a mayoral Groundhog Day:

Isn't it wonderful that an even more qualified man with gaming experience - Randy Sayre - can now have the job? And isn't it peachy that Munro can get another state job that he could have had two months ago if he had only taken the safe route? And isn't it convenient that Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto never has to tell board boss Dennis Neilander who is the rightful owner of that Control Board seat?

Indeed, Cortez Masto now never has to consider an opinion that several sources say one of her assistants has prepared and one that indicates Munro's appointment by Kenny Guinn was valid. Maybe she would have decided that the opinion was not correct and would have changed it. Maybe. But we now will never know and thus peace will reign in Carson City.

So the Gibbonsites got away with smearing Munro, using public safety as a cover to undo his appointment and then trying to cut a deal with him for another state job.

I love a happy ending.

So what does this same fellow do when an investigation clears him and raises questions about the methods used to slime him? He calls a press conference and then thinks about a lawsuit.

You saw Part One from appraiser Tim Morse on Wednesday when his attorney, Don Campbell (he's mine, too), summoned reporters to declare his client innocent of the transgressions the county folks had implied he committed on those airport land deals. So what of Part Two?

The county folks have to be petrified of a lawsuit by Morse, who surely is itching to reclaim his good name with either an apology and a reinstatement to the county's appraiser list or with a lot of money. Taxpayer money, that is.

The county should be scared. After all, you had a Grand Central Parkway crew doing their now all-too-frequent Louis Renault impressions and trying to lay all this off on the airport administrators and Morse. And now McCarran International Airport boss Randy Walker, just given a lucrative new deal, and who once said he was left twisting in the wind by those folks who gave him that raise, may be a witness for the plaintiff in a suit against the county by Morse.

I love an ironic ending.

If you guessed the mayor's State of the City speech - you name the year - you would be correct.

But the 2007 version of Mayor Oscar Goodman's State of Me speech had a different twist with this bold declaration:

"I am going to bank my reputation on this one. I believe based on the discussions that I've had that this is going to be the year that we are going to be involved with serious discussions about having a professional sports team in Las Vegas. I wouldn't say this lightly. I say it after a lot of thought ... I'm betting on myself on this one."

So many sarcastic jibes are called for here - how much is his reputation worth, or how did Oscar Goodman say he wouldn't say something lightly and maintain a straight face? But I shall refrain (mostly) and simply say:

No one hopes Goodman is right about a professional sports team more than I do, and no one believes the George Washington of mayors more than I do.

I love being able to say a happy, ironic word about the mayor as an ending.