We know we’re late in posting today, so let’s do some quick hits from the weekend papers.

• The “Big Six” gambling companies may report a nearly 100 percent increase in profits in 2005, for a grand total of $1.7 billion, thanks to mergers, big convention business and the opening of Wynn Las Vegas.

What’s that thing our friend and colleague Hugh Jackson, who now publishes the Las Vegas Gleaner blog used to say? Now, clearly, is no time to raise the gambling tax?

• Karl Rove, the evil mastermind that brought us such hits as the George W. Bush presidency and George W. Bush II: The Reckoning, is telling Republicans to run on the war on terror, and remind everybody that Democrats are pussies.

“Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world. And Democrats have a pre-9/11 view of the world,” Rove told the Republican National Committee. “That doesn’t make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make them wrong: deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong.”

Yes, in the post-9/11 view of the world, it’s OK to rely on intelligence that you know, or have reason to know, is bad. It’s OK to secretly spy on Americans without getting the constitutionally required warrant. It’s OK to suggest — until recently — that anybody who speaks in dissent is helping the terrorists. It’s OK to give myriad and false reasons for invading another country. It’s OK to leak the names of CIA officers in order to embarrass your political enemies. It’s OK to hand out tax breaks to huge corporations and tax cuts to the richest of the rich. It’s OK to corporatize the government to the greatest extent possible. And it’s OK to spend like drunken sailors while doing it.

Rove is right: The Republicans sure do have a post-9/11 view of the world.

But his view is consistent. Back in 2002, Rove recommended that Republicans use the war on terror to hold on to their seats, because Republicans are traditionally seen as better on defense than Democrats. We’d sure like to see that stereotype confirmed on a Fox News broadcast if it actually was the Democrats who invaded Iraq, sending too few troops with too little armor and too little planning. That would be some fine post-9/11 programming, baby.

• Well, our choice for Miss America, Dustin-Leigh Konzelman, didn’t win, although she did make it to the finals on the strength of her fiddle playing. Miss Oklahoma Jennifer Berry won the title. Dustin-Leigh was robbed, we say! Yucca Mountain-loving Miss Nevada, Crystal Wosik, didn’t win, either. That’s probably because saying “take one for the team” when you’re asked about deaths from nuclear waste-related accidents is the wrong-ass answer in a beauty pageant. Stick with “world peace,” we say.

• According to the Las Vegas Sun, the shadow government, er, make that, members of the Council for a Better Nevada will follow Clark County School Board trustees this week while they visit New York to check the credentials of superintendent candidate Eric Nadelstern. The group of private business leaders wasn’t exactly invited by the district, but hey, they have a vested interest since they’re the ones who found Nadelstern and encouraged him to apply.

We have to say we’re skeptical of business types when they get too involved with schools. And that’s especially true when the district, as the Review-Journal notes, is a $4.5 billion business with plenty of contracts to put out to bid. Are we ready for a public-private experiment with public schools?

• If you haven’t read it, check out my friend and colleague Jon Ralston’s Sunday column in the Las Vegas Sun. Ralston details how corporate types — the very ones that are trying to pick the next superintendent — circumvent campaign contribution limits in order to buy a lawmaker or two. The most surprising thing? It was a Democrat who made it all nice and legal.

• U.S. Sen. Harry Reid offending Italians? It’s true: Reid said something nasty about U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, whose ancestry apparently is Italian. “Having Sen. Santorum talk about reform is like having John Gotti talk about doing something about organized crime,” Reid said.

Something called the Columbus Citizens Foundation of New York responded angrily, via President Louis Tallarini. “Sen. Reid’s callous comments is shocking, unjust and inappropriate since it invokes the specter of organized crime in a criticism of an Italian-American. On behalf of the Columbus Citizens Foundation and the estimated 26 million Italian-American citizens of this country, we demand an apology from Sen. Reid,” Tallarini said, according to the Review-Journal.

Now, we at Various Things & Stuff are part Italian, and we don’t think Reid’s comment was that bad. Implying that Santorum has mob connections is the nicest thing you could say about the self-righteous, pompous, theocrat from Pennsylvania.

But what is the world coming to? Will we not be able to make jokes about Irish people drinking? About German people trying to take over the world? About white people eating white bread, cheese and mayo? About Swedes … doing Swedish things? (Before you ask, we’re all of the above, and thus we’re allowed to make jokes about those ethnic and racial groups.)

Reid’s analogy wasn’t offensive. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t apologized. And why he shouldn’t.

It looks like U.S. Rep. Jon Porter may have a viable Democratic foe after all. Tessa Hafen, longtime press secretary to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, quit her job late Friday evening and is planning to move back to Nevada. Although Hafen told us at Various Things & Stuff this morning that she hasn’t made up her mind about challenging Porter, it looks to us like it’s a go.

It’s a big move for Hafen, who grew up in Nevada and still has relatives everywhere, including her father, Henderson City Councilman (and potential future mayor) Andy Hafen. And she’s got her ex-boss, Reid, in her corner, and Reid hasn’t been a fan of Porter for at least a few years. If Reid actually shows up for this race, it could certainly be a contest.

But make no mistake: It won’t be easy. Porter’s 3rd Congressional District is almost evenly split in voter registration — 145,267 Democrats to 145,296 Republicans with 54,214 “non-partisans,” according to the latest figures from the secretary of state’s office. But those Republicans tend to turn out and vote more, which gives Porter a slight advantage.

Also there’s Porter’s campaign consultants, November Inc., headed by the formidable Mike Slanker, who vivisected ex-Assemblyman David Goldwater and ex-casino executive Tom Gallagher with equal skill in 2004. Slanker knows how to run campaigns, and we predict his lines of attack will be thus, with mitigating factors in parenthesis:

• She’s too young. (Then again, Porter was a wee lad when he first got elected to the Boulder City Council long ago.)

• She’s too connected to Reid. (Then again, Porter is too connected to ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Who do you think will have more negative impact with voters?)

• She’s a Washington insider carpetbagging her way to Nevada to run against Porter, probably at Reid’s behest. (Then again, Hafen did grow up in Nevada and didn’t Porter once move to challenge U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley?)

On issues of ethics and morality, which entombed long-ago Porter foe (and current federal indictee) Dario Herrera, Hafen is clean. And since she isn’t wealthy with vacation homes spread around the country, it’s unlikely the Gallagher attack will work on her, either.

Insiders are also counting on the ethical scandals plaguing the Republican Congress to help Hafen. Porter himself has not been found to have done anything even remotely unethical, thus far, so a direct attack is unlikely. But he has sucked up like few others to the Republican leaders who are now under suspicion. It’s not a bad strategy for a new guy looking to advance to a committee where he can send some pork back to his home state. It is a bad strategy when it turns out some of the guys you’re sucking up to sold their offices, or at least sublet them cheaply, in order to raise money and stay in power.

As a result, look for Porter to continue pounding the reform drum that saw him attack Reid and Berkley recently, calling on them to return money from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Thus far, he’s misstepped — the guy he’s backing to be the new majority leader, U.S. Rep. John Boehner, has thus far also refused to return Abramoff money and differs with Porter on key issues like stem cell research. But he’ll be talking like a first-time challenger soon, you just watch.

As far as we at Various Things & Stuff are concerned, we love it. Much like a blowout football game, a one-sided political contest is a sad affair. Things are much better when there’s some competition, and, regardless of anything else, Hafen will surely bring that to a bid against Porter.