Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Reid makes me proud to live in Nevada, this clown makes me ashamed

America’s worst governor.

“Life these days for Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada might kindly be described as suboptimal,” the New York Times reports.

In the last few months, Mr. Gibbons, a Republican, announced a plan to turn coal into jet fuel to raise money (problematic, as Nevada has no coal to speak of) and proposed paying for a $3.8 billion shortfall in highway construction money by selling water rights under state highways (it turns out the state did not actually own the rights).

He told a local editorial board he could not pronounce the name of his energy adviser because she was “Indian” — she is Turkish — and vetoed a bill that would stop budget-busting tax breaks for builders of “green” buildings before issuing an executive order to end them anyway (with the exception of four companies).

Mr. Gibbons is the subject of a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into whether he failed to report gifts from a military contractor while serving in Congress. The governor, who would not be interviewed, has denied wrongdoing, and once suggested that Democratic operatives might have paid off newspaper reporters who have written about his troubles with the F.B.I.

No one accuses Gibbons of being uncreative. During his gubernatorial campaign, he said that “liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals” ought to be used as human shields in Iraq.

(Think Progress)