From Citizen Outreach:

By: Chuck Muth

MASON VS. JAMES

“SAGE Chairman Bruce James calls incendiary allegations being made by former state Chairman John Mason ‘a complete fabrication on his part.’ Says he has no intention of stepping down from cost-cutting commission unless governor asks him to. Gov. Jim Gibbons is standing by James, his spokesman said.

“What I have verified—no speculation here, folks—is that Mason made sure at the time that the White House knew about his charges of improper personal conduct and that then-Counsel Alberto Gonzales called James. James says he told Gonzales that the allegation was spurious and says he never heard from anyone else again. So what evidence does Mason have, or is this just part of a longtime personal grudge? We’re waiting.”

- Jon Ralston’s Flash, 5/12/08

GOVERNOR VS. MASON VS. JAMES

“This is a dispute between Mr. (Bruce) James and Mr. (John) Mason in which the Governor has no role. About five years ago when he was a member of Congress, the Governor heard a rumor that Mr. James had been involved in some type of inappropriate incident. He does not recall whether he initially heard this through the Washington D.C. rumor mill or directly from Mr. Mason. The Governor vaguely recalls a brief conversation with Mr. Mason about it following a meeting on a different subject. The Governor assumed that if there was any truth to the allegation it would have been handled by the appropriate authorities.

“This rumor disappeared five years ago just as quickly as it surfaced, and it did not surface again when considering the appointment of Mr. James as Chairman of the SAGE Commission. As a member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Gibbons didn’t feel as though he had any role in whether Mr. James remained Public Printer since he was a Presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate.”

- Official statement by Gov. Jim Gibbons, Jon Ralston’s “Flash,” 5/12/08

OF TREE MONKEYS AND REPUBLICANS

Republicans unhappy with both their presidential nominee this year and Republican elected officials in general will likely have their thoughts mirrored in THIS excellent musing by Nevada conservative blogger Elizabeth Marie Crum. In fact, I’m starting to think she and I may have been separated at birth.

THE YUCCAFICATION PROCESS

What do Guantanamo Bay and Yucca Mountain have in common? The conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg explains, noting that Yucca’s “biggest shortcoming is that its designers can’t promise that in 10,000 years a passerby who digs up waste won’t be exposed to much more than a few chest X-rays’ worth of radiation.” An important read for Nevadans wanting to understand how out-of-staters view the notion of putting the nation’s nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. Read the full column HERE on the Center for Yucca Facts blog.

AN EMBARRASSING REVOLT

“(Q)uietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in Minnesota at the beginning of September. . . . In the last three months, Paul’s forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upward of a million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates.”

- Andrew Malcolm, Los Angeles Time, 5/12/08

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Haley Barbour has quickly gained a reputation as one of America’s most effective governors. . . . (H)e has held budget growth to below the inflation rate, so Mississippi is not in dire fiscal shape like many states today.”

- Stephen Moore, Political Diary, 5/14/08