Gibbons’ immoral attacks on Sandoval

Those of us at “RN&R” who are conservative wish to thank Jim Gibbons for proving us correct.

In this case “RN&R” stands for Republican, Nazi & Right rather than Reno News & Review. I write for the latter (this publication). I dreamed up the former (a bogus organization) in Gov. Gibbons honor.

Gibbons and honor may or may not compute, but his female friend recently assured us he was honorable with her, and they didn’t break the Seventh Commandment. It’s a moot point, however, because he now has shattered the 11th Commandment.

For those unfamiliar with said commandments, in the seventh Yahweh prohibits adultery, and in the 11th, Republicans frown on suicide by fratricide.

In the days when Republicans were cohesive, the 11th kept the GOP from primary election feuds devolving into ugly name-calling mud fights. Remember the Ronald Reagan-Gerald Ford battle? It was a tough 1976 primary race and convention, but there were no Nazis in evidence.

Now comes the Gibbons campaign, which likens Brian Sandoval to the Nazis. I say let the best mudslinger lose.

Judge Brian Sandoval got my support as soon as he stepped down from the federal bench to challenge Gibbons in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Perhaps that puts me, along with others who support Sandoval, in the Nazi camp, as well. Ya think?

As founder and charter member of my fictitious “RN&R” organization, I qualify as a registered Republican, a purported latter-day “Nazi” and, obviously, I am right.

I’m right both as a constitutional, libertarian-leaning conservative and as someone correct about Gibbons. I’m not always right, as in correct, but in this case Gibbons proved my case. He isn’t good for the future of the GOP or the state.

Recently, however, folks on both my political flanks criticized me.

They questioned my research, credentials and bona fides because I prefer Sandoval to Gibbons, former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon or Democrat Rory Reid. Several did so in print, one even to my face. So let me pony up my past, not from pride but from the conviction we all should know our sources.

My BS (quite appropriate) from a Midwestern university was earned with a major in journalism, a minor in political science. Since 1969 I’ve worked for the wire services, four newspapers, in broadcasting and for online news outfits. Most of my news coverage was of politics/government or business, including eight years as a business editor.

At times, I left journalism to work in or around state government in Nebraska, my last port of call before Nevada. Republican Gov. Charles Thone, a Reagan man of early and strong conviction, appointed me to the state Parole Board. Later I was the flack (PR guy) at the Nebraska Energy Office.

Toward the end of my Nebraska period, I was an aide to a state senator at the nonpartisan unicameral legislature. I next headed the Nebraska Tax Research Council, an organization advocating sound government and tax policies.

Reno News & Review editor D. Brian Burghart introduced me as the paper’s new conservative columnist almost a year ago, calling me an old-school Republican. That is accurate, but I’m also a contrarian-oriented Tory.

Always an edgy conservative, I’ve mostly—though not always—been a Republican. I’m no Nazi. Neither is Sandoval. Bank on it.

Thanks for readership feedback. The free marketplace of ideas encourages opinions, whether they are heartfelt views from readers and citizens or the outlandish charges of a desperate mudslinger.

My own opinion: Gibbons should run for the state line, not for governor.