Jon Ralston lists his top 10 stories that should have been

Friday, Jan. 4, 2008 | midnight

As everyone pores over the Iowa caucus results and divines meaning, each according to his needs and regardless of ability, now is not the time for forward thinking.

Not quite yet. Now is the time for one more retrospective. (You can handle it.)

But this isn't one of those “gee, really” catalogues of last year's major events. This is the traditional Top 10 List of Stories We Wish Had Been the Top 10 Stories of the Year:

10. A few days before filing closes, Heather Murren shocks the political world by announcing her campaign for mayor, declaring that Oscar Goodman is “a cancer on the body politic, and I will cure cancer.” The downtown casinos pony up for Goodman's reelection bid but the Strip resorts, led by MGM Mirage's Terry Lanni, bundle more than enough cash to make the Nevada Cancer Institute boss viable. She wins in a stunning upset.

9. During the Legislature's session, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce adopts a single position on transportation funding and sticks to it: The group will settle for nothing less than a full, $5 billion solution. Thanks to the chamber, a package makes it out of the GOP state Senate. Gov. Jim Gibbons vetoes it. He is easily overridden.

8. MSNBC agrees to televise a Republican presidential debate in Nevada. All of the major candidates agree to appear at the event. Local GOP officials crow about the development. But after Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity start a campaign to scuttle the debate because MSNBC is too liberal, the candidates back off and the debate is canceled.

7. After Gov. Jim Gibbons refuses to agree to full funding for all-day kindergarten, Speaker Barbara Buckley rises on the Assembly floor and gives an impassioned speech and declares the Democrats will not allow the budget to pass. She is so persuasive that all the Republicans save one -- Ty Cobb -- agree. The Assembly passes a budget with all-day kindergarten and Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio relents and it passes the upper house, too. Gov. No Tax vetoes the package. He is quickly overridden.

6. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid causes a stir when he attributes his “Bush is a loser” line to none other than Sen. John Ensign. Reid claims that Ensign gave him the line during a restroom chat about the GOP's electoral prospects for Campaign '08. Ensign is flabbergasted when Reid's version is backed up by an eyewitness -- Larry Craig.

5. During a Democratic presidential debate at Cox Pavilion, the audience is shocked when the candidates display unusual candor. Hillary Clinton tells the crowd, “I never heard of Yucca Mountain until this year.” Barack Obama answers a labor question by saying, “It makes me ill to have to suck up to the Culinary.” John Edwards declares simply, “I was for Yucca Mountain before I was against it.” And Bill Richardson adds, “I was never against it.” Mike Gravel, sitting in a room at Bally's, is declared the debate winner.

4. Gov. Jim Gibbons calls a special session to deal with the mortgage lending crisis. The Assembly and the Senate pass a bipartisan measure that provides many innovative safeguards. After holding what he calls a “summit” with mortgage companies, Gov. No Regulation vetoes the measure. He is overridden in an hour.

3. In a struggle to maintain their status as the first states to declare a presidential preference, Iowa and New Hampshire agree in early 2007 to go on Jan. 14 and Jan. 19. The DNC ratifies the changes and bars the states from changing them. In a startling display of legislative legerdemain, though, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid moves Nevada's date to Jan. 12 by tucking a provision in a Yucca Mountain funding bill, along with a measure to permanently ban coal-fired plants, and Nevada becomes the first state to decide.

2. The gaming industry and the business community propose the Corporate Responsibility Initiative, which calls for regular but small increases in the casino tax and a new net profits tax to fund Nevada's infrastructure. Co-chairmen of the committee to pass the initiative are Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. Polls show it has 80 percent support.

1. Gov. Jim Gibbons makes high-quality appointments to a variety of state posts, including campaign manager Robert Uithoven as his chief of staff, ex-banker Don Snyder as head of business and industry and former FBI agent George Togliatti as homeland security boss. Gov. Not Really is immediately overridden -- by his wife.

As I too often say, what might have been.

On Sunday I will dust off my crystal ball and tell you what will be.

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program “Face to Face With Jon Ralston” on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the daily e-mail newsletter “RalstonFlash.com.” His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at ralston@vegas.com.