Gibbons and his Golden Shovel

The latest news from the Governor is that he still wants those three doctors on the medical board to resign, even though there is no evidence that they did anything wrong. And now it’s really really really important to him to make sure that everyone knows that they had no wrongdoing in the case. But he still wants them to resign.

Why the sudden and bizarre change of heart? Because he reads this column, of course. Or at least one of his attorneys does, and when I mentioned last week that he’s damaging doctors and their private practices when they have done nothing wrong, Bafoonery Jim figured out that he could be in even more legal trouble.

But you can’t back off Governor. You might appear weak or inept (too late). You might appear that you were wrong (ditto). You might have to actually make a phone call yourself to these guys instead of having your staffers do it, and upon hearing the other side of the story, common sense might prevail (no chance of that happening).

Let’s try this again, Governor.

1. To save ego, which you have made painfully obvious is the prime motivating factor in your governance, appoint someone else to be in charge of this mess so that it can be their decision not to boot anyone off the board. Hand this off to anyone. My grandmother. Your barber. Obama’s pastor. Anyone. Odds are they will make better calls on this than you have, and then either way your hands are clean.
2. Call these doctors individually. So that you don’t have to give into fears of more legal trouble and also because it happens to be the right thing to do, offer to back off of the calls for resignation from the board, and mention to them that you are stepping out of this mess to make that easier.
3. If you are in a hole, as you currently are, put down the golden shovel and stop digging. Just go away and start working on budget cuts. Stop talking. Stop letting your staff talk. Just shhhhhhhhhhh.

The most humorous feedback to date came from a former supporter of the Governor who was near the top of the group of people griping that our last Governor wasn’t conservative enough, who said “I never thought I’d say this, but I really miss Kenny Guinn.”

Poor Sue Lowden. As state GOP chairperson, she has to realize that there is no greater gift that Nevada could give the Democrats this year than Jim Gibbons.