Anybody who’s been through a divorce knows it’s not pretty. And we at Various Things & Stuff have a lot of sympathy for those couples who, for whatever reason, decide to call it quits, as it now appears Gov. Jim Gibbons and his wife, Dawn, might.

But what could possibly have possessed Gibbons’ “Chief Operating Officer” Diane Cornwall to comment about the possibility of a divorce to the Reno Gazette-Journal today? According to Cornwall’s statement, a decision hasn’t been made, but will be discussed at a “family meeting” this weekend?

Could it have been the fact that the matter was being discussed on blogs? (Here, with funny pirate picture, here, with another funny pirate picture, and once again here?) We know Gibbons reads the blogs, after all.

But seriously: This is essentially a private matter between the governor and his wife. Why in the hell would Gibbons No. 2 staffer go blabbing about it to people?

Oh, that’s right: Because this is the Gibbons administration, which never misses an opportunity to screw the political pooch. And it’s impossible to conceive that Cornwall acted without the governor’s blessing.

We’ll admit rumors of this pending divorce have been out there for awhile, and we at Various Things & Stuff heard them. We didn’t write about them, for good or ill, because they didn’t meet our standards. Whether the governor and his wife are divorcing, as we’ve said, is a private matter that has nothing to do with how Gibbons is running the state.

But thanks to what we can only assume is a ham-handed attempt to get in front of the story, or to counter the blogs, or whatever the hell they were thinking, it’s now something else: News. Expect to see this story everywhere, including the pro-Gibbons Review-Journal.

Nice work, Gibbons people. Just another sign you’re not ready for prime time.

UPDATE: Gubernatorial advisor Jim Denton spoke to the Associated Press about the Reno Gazette-Journal’s report, lamenting thusly: “Unfortunately, their role in public life has brought this into the public arena, which doesn’t happen with most people.”

Alas, the AP account confirmed Denton spoke publicly after the Gazette-Journal story was published. That’s after Cornwall spoke to the Gazette-Journal. Which means that it’s still the Gibbons camp that put the matter into the public arena, not the governor’s “role in public life.”
Nice try, Denton. But no cigar.

UPDATE 2: Once again, it’s scary how much conservative activist Chuck Muth and we at Various Things & Stuff agree.

CLARIFICATION: When we initially heard this sorry tale, we understood that Diane Cornwall contacted the Reno Gazette-Journal to offer her comments. That is incorrect, according to a blog post by our colleague Anjeanette Damon.  Damon says she was working on the story and called Cornwall for comment, and Cornwall obliged.

The fact that the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Review-Journal were working on the story, however, doesn’t change our opinions about the newsworthiness of it expressed herein. We still believe Cornwall was wrong to discuss it, at least until the first couple had made a final decision to divorce. Readers can judge for themselves whether our view, or the views of our media and blogosphere colleagues, are correct.