If you’re like us, you know watching the State of the State speech is going to be like eating a grand meal at Morton’s, or Ruth’s Chris, or Del Frisco’s, or Fleming’s … damn, we’re making ourselves hungry here! Anyway, while you count down the remaining hours until Gibbons takes the stage, enjoy a few of these delicious morsels:

» Ousted UMC boss Lacy Thomas made a protestation of his innocence late last week. Of course, it came in the form of a written statement released by his defense lawyer. We’re just saying.

» So, does it look bad for Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly to be filing for re-election and going "full-speed ahead" on fundraising when he’s pushing to be appointed by Gov. Jim Gibbons to the seat being vacated by Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates?

Wrong question, people! The real question is, how long can anybody with any self-respect continue to serve in a job where they know they will be asked to sit dutifully behind Mayor Oscar Goodman during his annual State of the City speech like some kind of trained poodle? And when you look at it that way, we wouldn’t be surprised if Weekly wasn’t sending case upon case of the governor’s favorite beverage — we’re guessing caffeine-free Diet Coke — up to the mansion to get Gates’ old job.

» We’re just curious, but do you think that the "source" for this Review-Journal front-page sports section story was, in fact, CityLife’s own George "The Knappster" Knapp? We only wonder because Knapp had it weeks ago. Oh, and because the R-J has stolen Knapp’s stuff before.

Nah. Couldn’t be.

» On reflection, we’re amazed at the restraint of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, whom DNA tests show to share almost 92.2 percent of the genes of the common weasel.

Krolicki waited what must have been an excruciating 19 days before holding a news conference designed to get himself before cameras. For a man who loves publicity — especially the free kind — the way the rest of us love breathing, it was a Herculean effort.

We wondered how Krolicki was going to garner free press now that he’s no longer treasurer and can no longer paste his face on ads for state-sponsored programs like prepaid tuition. After all, the lieutenant governor’s office isn’t exactly what you’d call a high-profile post.

But there was Krolicki, touting the work of the Nevada Film Office in 2006, including a whopping $106 million pumped into the local economy as a result of TV shows and feature films shot in the Silver State. That revenue has doubled since 1998, according to the R-J.

So, that leads us to wonder if perhaps we’ve been too hard on Krolicki, calling him a weasel all the time and implying that he’s smarmy. After all, without Krolicki…

…we wouldn’t know to thank former Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt for all the hard work she put in on the Nevada Film Office! That’s right, folks: In 2006, when all of the good stuff that Krolicki was touting at his news conference took place, Hunt was in charge! And guess who took over as lieutenant governor in 1998, when film revenue started its upward climb? That’s right, baby: Hunt!

So, everybody extend their congratulations to Hunt, perhaps by visiting her fine restaurant, the Bootlegger Bistro on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

As for Krolicki, well, don’t weep for him. It won’t be long before we see him featured in a tourism ad, paddling his way down the Truckee, or riding a Jet Ski in Tahoe, or camping out at Burning Man, or off-roading in some of the expansive desert between Las Vegas and Tonopah. Don’t worry: Where there’s a free ad, there’s Krolicki!

» Quotable: "The movement for smoke-free air has gone from being a California oddity to the nationwide norm. We think 100 percent of Americans will live in smoke free jurisdictions within a few years." — Bronson Frick, associate director of American’s for Nonsmokers Rights.

We told you the smoke-banners had a plan. But nooooo…..

» Quotable: "I can’t understand people who think public employees shouldn’t get a decent retirement. I got to work every day and risk my life. Somehow, public service has become a bad thing in people’s minds." — Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera

Not everybody’s mind, Mr. Majority Leader. Maybe just the editor of the R-J…

Tonight, Gov. Jim Gibbons takes to the floor of the Assembly to give his first State of the State speech. We won’t go into details, since so much of the mainstream media have done that already. (The stories in the Sun and the Review-Journal are helpfully linked here, and if you want to see the speech live, you can tune in to KVBC Channel 3, KVVU Channel 5, KLAS Channel 8.)

Instead, we’d like to discuss the background for the speech, as cast by our colleague Jon Ralston in his column in the Sun on Sunday. Ralston argues for Gibbons to get the benefit of the doubt in what is arguably the most important speech of his life.

"It is time to forget — if only for now — all of it: MazzeoTreppNannyMunroTremorsPlagiarismGaffes-Dawn’sBoozeBanSmallFingerprints
BigFingerprints. And so on.

 

"On Monday night, Jim Gibbons will have that rarest of opportunities: A second chance to make a first impression.

He needs it. He deserves it. So he should get it."

Pardon us, but why?

If anything, we think the public should be more cynical, more suspicious, and less willing to give out second chances. Because at this point, when it comes to chances, Gibbons is somewhere in the teens.

Regular readers know all about Gibbons’ midnight swearing in, under cover of his first lie — security. They know about the mini-flap over his conflicting comments on the budget — first he said he’d leave "small fingerprints," then he said he was making big changes.

And on Friday, we learned he’s giving conflicting accounts of when he first learned of his inherited neurological condition known as familial tremors. Did he know when he was young, when he was a pilot (for the Air Force, Nevada Air National Guard and commercial carriers) or only after retiring from flying? It depends on when he was asked, or who on his staff was answering questions.

Granted, all these stories could be the results of simple miscommunication. But that still shouldn’t reassure anyone. Gibbons is no longer a back-bencher in Congress, hurling speeches to an empty chamber filled only with hungry C-SPAN cameras. He’s the governor of Nevada. Suddenly, what he says, what he thinks, actually matters.

And so do his actions, past and present. Those things tell us something of the man who will speak to Nevada tonight, to outline a state budget that may, or may not, be a big departure from Gov. Kenny Guinn’s.

We’re asked to overlook the Chrissy Mazzeo incident, in which Metro Police found no credible evidence to sustain a charge of battery and which was declined for prosecution by District Attorney David Roger. But there were gaps in the story that Gibbons gave to police about his actions that night.

We’re asked to overlook the allegations surrounding Warren Trepp, a close Gibbons friend who provided the then-congressman and his family deeply discounted cruise travel, which was initially not reported as required by House rules. But that incident gives us some insight by which Gibbons can, and should, be judged.

The illegal immigrant nanny, hiding the the basement of the home of a man who would later beat up his opponent for her stance on illegal immigration? Totally telling. A speech cut-and-pasted from the Internet slamming liberals and suggesting they be go to Iraq to serve as human shields? A window to the soul.

No, our view is that Gibbons shouldn’t be allowed to slip the chains he’s forged in his political career up until now, including and especially his disturbing tendency to tell different stories, sometimes for no good reason whatsoever.

Instead, Gibbons speech should be evaluated like every other governor’s: Will it move the state forward in terms of the obligations of the social compact, or will it not? Will Gibbons ignore the problems facing Nevada’s schools, Southern Nevada’s roads, health care, budget deficits and the like, or will he tackle them? If so, how? And perhaps most important: Have the obligations of his high office settled in since the election, and has he come to realize that the burdens of the people of the state now rest on his shoulders?

Those are the questions we hope to see answered tonight. But we need not forget the past to get our answers. In fact, the past may provide us a handy road map to finding them.