It’s the last day before Election Day, which means a flurry of last-minute campaigning, the kicking off of get-out-the-vote efforts, and those inevitable automated phone calls. In the midst of it all, some pre-election Quick Hits!

• Taxes: The Most Important Issue in the World. No, the Review-Journal didn’t actually use that headline over its endorsement on Oct. 29 of U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons for governor. But after reading the insider’s account in today’s paper, the curtain has been lifted.

It turns out the R-J waited to see what evidence might be mustered against Gibbons before giving him the nod. (How bad do they hate Titus and taxes? So bad that even if Gibbons had been denied, the paper would simply have had no recommendation at all, says Overlord-in-Chief Sherm Frederick, whose Sunday column was so naughty it should have been printed in … well, CityLife.)

But when no evidence was forthcoming, and with the possibility that a candidate for governor may have assaulted a woman after a night of drinking still lingering over the race … the R-J decided, what the hell? Endorse the guy! After all, he’s good on taxes!

We at Various Things & Stuff – who worked at the R-J for five years – knew the libertarian-leaning editorial board hated taxes, but we never knew they hated taxes that much. (FULL DISCLOSURE: CityLife and the R-J are owned by the same corporate parent.)

• What’s the difference between Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Gibbons? That’s what attorney Richard Wright asks in the R-J today.

Consider: Kincaid-Chauncey took money from somebody with interests before the Clark County Commission, and then voted on those matters without disclosing the cash (which she spent sending her grandson to ski school). And Gibbons, according to the Wall Street Journal, took an expensive Caribbean cruise from a Reno businessman seeking defense contracts, and then wrote letters and had meetings with officials in order to help obtain those contracts, without disclosing the cruise.

“ ‘Oh, I’d like to go back and amend my disclosure statement now and tell the public about it,’” Wright told the R-J, mocking Gibbons 11^th-hour claim that it was a “clerical error” at the root of the mistake. “Well, my client, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, would like to go back and amend hers and say, ‘I did get a contribution to my grandson’s ski school.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

So what is the difference?

The FBI, that’s what. Special agents from the bureau extensively documented phone conversations between Kincaid-Chauncey, topless club magnate Mike Galardi and bagman Lance Malone, and thus were able to establish the necessary quid pro quo that proved Galardi intended to bribe Kincaid-Chauncey (and others) to do his bidding. In Gibbons’ case, there has been no such investigation, and thus the question remains, was Gibbons doing his job as a congressman, was he helping a friend with important software to sell to the government, or was he turning tricks in office in order to get money and favors?

We’d sure like to listen in on some of the calls between Gibbons and his friend. But because they don’t exist, the two cases can’t truly be compared. Although they sure do look alike.

• What’s the difference between U.S. Sen. John Kerry and an actual leader? Kerry only knows what leadership looks like, not what it is. You could tell last week, after he tried to make a joke at the expense of the Bush administration and it went over like a gay male prostitute in church. (Oh, wait…)

After the joke – and yes, Republicans, it was a joke – Kerry stood resolute for about a day, rejecting Republican calls for him to apologize. But after 24 hours of heat, he got out of the kitchen, apologized and slinked back to Massachusetts.

Here’s a tip: A real leader stands by what he says, speaks clearly so as not to be misunderstood in the first place, doesn’t hand his enemies a loaded gun pointed at his own head. Once he’s done talking, a leader takes any amount of heat that comes his way.

Is it any wonder that Kerry lost in 2004? And he was running against a guy so bad, that he came within a single state of winning the election anyway!

Now, we’re sad to say, the joke is that Kerry still thinks he might be able to become president.

• Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker is whining until the end, now claiming that “special interests” are funding the campaign against her. Geez, first it was the “far-right,” and now “special interests”? Who’s next, the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

At least we know it’s not the state teacher’s union that’s against her. That particular “special interest” was 100 percent in favor of Becker’s affirmative vote in Guinn v. Legislature, which ignored a voter-approved provision of the state constitution. It must be other special interests, maybe those angry that she blessed the theft of property used to build the Fremont Street Experience parking garage.

Hey, isn’t that ironic? If Becker loses, it will be the second time this year a parking garage has figured prominently into a statewide Nevada political campaign.

Anyway, the special interest Becker really betrayed was the people. It’s not because she’s disliked by the right that Becker should go, nor because of special interests. It’s because that – whatever good she’s done while on the bench – her vote in Guinn shows she won’t be bound by the legitimate rule of law, and that is a trait too dangerous to tolerate in any person, let alone a judge.

Then again, we at Various Things & Stuff represent the socialists, who are most definitely a special interest. So take what we say with a grain of salt.

• Quotable: “What Chrissy Mazzeo’s motivation is is very unclear. Is it to destroy a man’s reputation? Is it because she wants money? Is it because she wants attention? We’ve all asked ourselves numerous times and we just don’t know.” – Robert Uithoven, Gibbons’ campaign manager

Yeah, we’re fairly confident the rigorous, excoriating self probing over at Gibbons HQ probably did not include the possibility that Mazzeo’s telling the truth. At least, if it was, Uithoven forgot to mention it.

• Quotable: “However they put it, the Democratic approach to Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win, and America loses.” – President George W. Bush.

Ah, the running dogs see their fate, and they know fear today. Otherwise, what would possess the president of the United States to act like a bush-league, student-body president ass clown? Change comes tomorrow!