Jim Gibbons Is America's Worst Governor

Have you heard of Governor Jim Gibbons? Unless you live in Nevada, chances are you don't know about this insane doofus and his pathetic, philandering "personal" life -- which is nothing but a very public, very shameful series of alcoholic altercations and battles with his soon-to-be ex-wife Dawn.

The hilarious thing about Gibbons is that he has absolutely no "saving grace." He was never a talented politician like Bill Clinton, he has no legislative achievements, his silly speeches are plagiarized, and his smug stupidity is legendary in the Silver State.

The longtime do-nothing congressman won the Nevada governorship after one of the most dismal campaigns in American History, notable only for the story of his drunken rampage against a cocktail waitress in a Las Vegas parking garage weeks before the election. Dingbat Jim is in the news again, just when the political world needs a laugh.


Since his swearing in -- a corrupt and paranoid midnight affair held in his Reno living room -- Governor Gibbons has shown utter ignorance of Nevada governance. Whether it's education or energy, he doesn't understand his own administration's policies. He doesn't even know the people who run his administration, having infamously been unable to name his Turkish-born energy adviser, Hatice Gecol, because she was "Indian."

As a half-dozen major corruption scandals continue to haunt him and the FBI continues to investigate the kickbacks he received from Nevada businessmen, Gibbons has provided non-stop burlesque in the form of his second marriage, to former state legislator Dawn Gibbons.

Dawn now lives in the Governor's Mansion, in Carson City, and won't budge. Gibbons is back at his house in Reno. Their divorce proceedings became public last month, via lurid legal complaints by Dawn, while even more evidence of Drunken Jim's running around was found in hundreds of lewd text messages he sent to the mobile phone of one of his many special lady friends.

What can the governor with 20% approval ratings -- lower than George W. Bush! -- do for an encore? Be photographed in the parking lot of the Reno Rodeo canoodling with a woman who, twenty years ago, was naked in Playboy magazine, that's what!

The Nevada Appeal sent someone to the rodeo to take pictures of cowboys and their beloved cows. But in the parking lot, the photographer found a more interesting subject: Jim Gibbons humping on some gal who wasn't his wife, again.

Already despised by both parties in Nevada's legislature thanks to his awful handling of the state's budget nightmare, Gibbons' latest public idiocy could only be made worse by Gibbons' own mouth. This was his bizarre explanation for groping this latest lady in public:

Gibbons explained to reporters that he was just hugging his special lady friend and it certainly wasn't romantic, because if there's anything that "takes the romance out of a friendship, it's being there when her child is born. I held her hand when her child was born."

WTF?

Ken Layne is the managing editor of Wonkette.