{"id":10989,"date":"2007-06-02T10:05:54","date_gmt":"2007-06-02T14:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10989.html"},"modified":"2007-06-02T10:05:54","modified_gmt":"2007-06-02T14:05:54","slug":"memo-to-nevada-next-time-dont-elect-a-dimwit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/memo-to-nevada-next-time-dont-elect-a-dimwit\/","title":{"rendered":"Memo to Nevada: Next time, don’t elect a dimwit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo<\/a><\/p>\n

Las Vegas and its environs are considered the fastest-growing metropolitan area of the United States. A 2003 article on the area by the United States Geological Survey noted that the region’s population may double by 2015<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That’s a lot of roads, schools, libraries, community centers and other forms of infrastructure. How does a state deal with that phenomenal rate of growth? Naturally it elects an incompetent Republican who has no clue what he’s doing.<\/p>\n

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons’ approval rating currently stands at 28 percent. Gibbons, a former member of Congress, was elected with less than 50 percent of the vote in November, and it has become painfully obvious that he’s in over his head.<\/p>\n

As The New York Times recently reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to note that Gibbons “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)…. And faced with a collapsing public education system and extensive state infrastructure needs, Mr. Gibbons at one point threatened to veto the $7 billion two-year state budget and shut down government largely over his desire for a security center in Carson City — an idea that law enforcement officials dislike — and his plan to save small businesses two hundredths of a percent on their taxes.”<\/p>\n

Have I mentioned that Gibbons is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly failing to report gifts from a military contractor he accepted while a member of Congress? Or that during the campaign he got into an altercation with a drunken cocktail waitress in a parking lot?<\/p>\n

How did a boob like this get elected?
\n
\nLet’s say he played to the base. Gibbons derided his opponent, state Sen. Dina Titus, as a tax-loving liberal and, according to The Times, suggested that “liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals” should be used as human shields in Iraq. <\/p>\n

As The Times notes, “It all played well with Mr. Gibbons’s base of voters in rural and Northern Nevada.”<\/p>\n

But there’s a drawback to electing people to govern who don’t like government and in fact do not know what they are doing: quality of life goes down the toilet. Even Gibbons’ spokesman admits the state faces serious challenges, pointing out that every seven minutes someone moves to southern Nevada, and 100 more cars are added to the region’s roads every day.<\/p>\n

Conservative activists are standing by Gibbons. One told The Times that the governor will survive as long as he doesn’t raise taxes. Here’s hoping that at least some of those 205 people pouring into the Las Vegas region every day are sensible enough to realize that good public services guarantee quality of life — and that they can’t be bought on the cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo Las Vegas and its environs are considered the fastest-growing metropolitan area of the United States. A 2003 article on the area by the United States Geological Survey noted that the region’s population may double by 2015. That’s a lot of roads, schools, libraries, community centers and other forms of infrastructure. How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}