ABSTRACT: Bush’s flack quits, the Ethics Commission appeals the Goodman ethics ruling, Lorraine Hunt gets medieval and we go to a party at the new Red Rock Casino.

A lot of you readers like to suggest what we at Various Things and Stuff should write about. And while we listen to all voices, ours is the final decision. We have strong confidence in our own news judgment, and we’d just like to say to all of you out there: We hear your voices, we read the front page, and we know the speculation. But we’re the decider, and we decide what is best to write. And what’s best for us to write is, well, this…

• Scott McClellan, who served as fibbing weasel in chief at the White House, is out, according to the Washington Post. President George W. Bush looks forward to the days when they’re in rocking chairs on a Texas porch, recalling “the good old days.” While we sure can’t wait for that day, either, we have to dwell in the present long enough to say that McClellan, even by press secretary standards, was awful. There’s a bright line between spin and lies, and McClellan lurched across it long ago. Let’s hope his successor knows better.

• Mayor Oscar Goodman is plenty hacked off at the state Ethics Commission’s decision to appeal a ruling that cleared hizzoner of ethics charges. You’ll recall that District Court Judge Mark Denton ruled Goodman didn’t break ethics laws when he invited fellow mayors to a cocktail party sponsored by a business co-owned by his son, Ross, because Goodman had no power to reward or punish his colleagues if they bought or didn’t buy his son’s product.

But the commission insisted that’s nonsense — Chairman Rick Hsu said it would be OK under that ruling for the governor of Nevada to use his position in government to get the governor of California to hire his son, since Nevada’s governor has no authority over California’s governor. And thus, the appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

“To me, it just smacks of vindictiveness and a waste of taxpayer money. Everybody has learned the lessons that they’re going to learn,” Goodman told the Review-Journal.

What? This from the mayor whose own ethics trial smacked of vindictiveness, who wasted thousands of dollars of taxpayer money building a videotape collection of his own TV appearances? Goodman himself has demonstrated time and again that he hasn’t learned anything from the case, as he continues to make it a stump speech joke.

No, the Ethics Commission got this one right: Denton’s ruling must be appealed, and overturned. Otherwise, ethics laws in Nevada — already weak — would be virtually meaningless.

“There’s no quit in me and I’ll be right there with them,” Goodman said. We wouldn’t want it any other way.

• Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt is showing there’s no quit in her, attacking the meaningless Education First initiative pushed by her gubernatorial opponent, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, as “a feel-good” answer to a complex problem. Nice one, Lt. Gov. Hunt! Up until now, her campaign has been rather positive, which unfortunately these days means boring.

But then, Hunt told the R-J, she realized “I’m up against two big, powerful old-boy political machines, one on the Republican side, one on the Democratic side.”

And by the Democratic side, she means Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, not state Sen. Dina Titus.

Gibbons denied he’s a political machine, which of course he is. “I chuckle at that, simply because I have all my life been the underdog, the outside candidate,” he says.

And that’s true, except for all the times he’s run for Assembly and Congress, which pretty much comprises his entire political career. (He once took on former Gov. Bob Miller, who took Gibbons to school and drove him home afterwards, in the only race where Gibbons really was an underdog.)

As for today, well every single poll shows Gibbons ahead, and we get the idea that that’s just the way he likes it. Uh huh. Uh huh.

• And finally today, we’re here to report we had a fabulous time at the opening of the valley’s newest resort, the Red Rock Casino. The Fertitta brothers, owners of Station Casinos, have definitely built a quality product out on West Charleston Boulevard.

We’re especially impressed with how the casino is integrated with the outdoor beauty of nearby Red Rock Canyon. The choice, and blending, of materials like wood, stone and marble, and the plentiful patios for restaurants, make the transition from inside to outside seamless. (The new Rande Gerber nightclub, Cherry, even has a retractable wall that opens to a private pool area overlooking the big pool beyond in what the Fertittas are calling “the backyard.”)

But once you’re inside, there’s no mistaking you’re in a casino, especially with the chandeliers scattered throughout. (We’re sure glad we’re not the ones who have to clean those bad boys.)

Although we took a quick swing through the buffet, the real dining treat for us was the Salt Lick BBQ. The food there was spectacular, from the brisket to the smoked sausage and turkey. (Do not, we repeat, do not miss a chance to take your vegetarian friends here!)

Now, we know that some neighbors (and some non-neighbors) complained about the hotel blocking views of Red Rock and causing traffic, but we couldn’t help but notice at least a few of those neighbors in line to get inside on opening night. And while the canyon is obscured from some vantage points, the design blends into the area extremely well. There were plenty of ways to screw this project up, but Stations appears to have missed virtually all of them.

Anyway, enough happy talk from us. We’ll see you tomorrow as we return to full-time cynic mode.