Start looking for the Four Horsemen, readers, because it looks like Gov. Jim Gibbons is softening his position on taxes.

Up until now, Gibbons has repeatedly — repeatedly, we tell you — said “no new taxes” every single time anybody has said anything about budgets, like the governor was some kind of retarded parrot on crack. The only exception, he once allowed, are taxes that are approved by a vote of the people, such as the recent room tax advisory question that recently passed in Clark County.

But now? Well, things look different when you’re staring down the business end of a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, one that without new revenue will surely require layoffs and deep program cuts. A couple paragraphs from the Review-Journal’s account of the situation:

“We are going to have to look at some of our revenue (sources) and see if that is an option,” said Gibbons when questioned by reporters whether he would support tax increases. “I don’t want to raise taxes, as everybody knows. It would be a terrible thing in a time of recession.”

But Gibbons, who was elected on a no-tax-increase platform, said he would sign tax increase bills that have the support of the general public or the affected industry.

Do you realize what this could mean, readers? It could mean that the thing we all recognize as “reality” has finally forced its way into that dark, twisted bubble in which Gibbons has lived, at least since being elected to Congress. And that’s got to be a difficult thing for any human being to experience, much less somebody like Gibbons. We dare say we’re happy for the big lug. He may have taken his first steps toward becoming human.

Then again, he’s not giving up much: A tax OK’d by the people or the affected industry is only a short hop from his previous “no new taxes” position, and virtually ensures that those who need to be taxed the most — businesses that currently pay nothing on gross or net income — will escape once again, absent a legislative supermajority willing to override a gubernatorial veto.

And while we have long campaigned for Gibbons to remove the gubernatorial cranium from the gubernatorial sphincter and look at what his hands-off benign neglect was doing to Nevada, we’d be remiss in our pundit duties if we didn’t note that if Gibbons actually signs a tax increase in violation of his oft-repeated pledge, he’s also signing his political death warrant. Then again, we asked him to resign long ago, so, whatever, governor, go ahead and do it! Maybe something good can come out of the end of a bad political career.

Finally, our condolences to Ben Kieckhefer, whom Gibbons dismissed as director of communications on Friday. He was a good person who, for reasons only he knows, took a job with Gibbons that could only have led him to bad ends. Kieckhefer was almost always professional (except for the time he inexplicably refused to tell Gibbons we were working on a story about the governor). He never spoke ill of his boss in our presence. And the reasons for his departure remain a mystery.

The pattern, however, is clear: Loyal employees tossed aside without regard for their service, or loyal employees quitting after being shocked at the dysfunction of the office. We can’t wait to see who takes the job of running interference between Gibbons and the press now.