Nevadans can exhale now. We only had to wait four days for wet-behind-the-ears Gov. Jim Gibbons to embarrass the Silver State. In a power trip that reminds one of Gibbons’ overweening sense of self-importance (he once demanded a color guard and a vocalist be part of a routine address he made to the Nevada Legislature, back in his congressional days), Gibbons has nixed one of Kenny Guinn’s appointments to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Former Guinn Chief of Staff Keith Munro now finds himself jobless, Gibbons having given the Control Board post to chief NGCB investigator Randy Sayre. It’s a logical choice and suggests that Gibbons (or rather, the myriad people who tell him what to do) hasn’t gone batshit crazy. Ditto Gibbons’ decision to spare Chairman Dennis Neilander from the gubernatorial "off with his head" edict. (Guinn had reappointed Neilander to a new term, along with naming Munro to replace outgoing Bobby Siller.)

Gibbons clearly hasn’t gotten over his ensuing fit of pique. Today’s dagger-thrust at the departing Guinn makes crystal-clear why Gibbons insisted on a bizzare midnight swearing-in. At the time, fears of imminent terrorism were the reason given, a laughable premise now given the lie by today’s mini-purge. (Then again, Gibbons’ public pronouncements rarely lack a tinge of hysteria.) Besides, Gibbons has to divert attention from a brewing brouhaha involving the Department of Public Safety. Meanwhile, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto will be looking over Gibbons’ fatwa, to see if meets the legal smell test.

Now that Mrs. Gibbons has barred the demon rum and other spirituous liquors from the governor’s mansion, getting drunk on power is about the only drinking to which Jim Gibbons can look forward. At least until Sig Rogich invites him out to McCormick & Schmick’s again.