That’s the sound of a Class-A catfight you hear brewing in Carson City, as Nevada’s first lady, Dema Guinn, takes aim at fellow Republican (and congressional hopeful) Dawn Gibbons, wife of would-be governor Jim Gibbons.

Dema Guinn says if Dawn Gibbons gets elected to Congress, she won’t be able to fulfill the duties of first lady, whatever those are. “Nevadans deserve to have a full-time congressperson represent them back in Washington, D.C., not a jet-lagged congressperson,” Dema Guinn was quoted as saying in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Ouch, baby. Do you think the first lady knows that every Nevada member of Congress is jet-lagged, since most fly home on the weekends only to turn around and fly back out on Monday? Just ask U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley how fun that schedule is.

“And the people of Nevada also need a full-time first lady,” Dema Guinn continued. If she gets elected to Congress, Dema Guinn added, Dawn Gibbons “could not run the [governor's] mansion from Washington, D.C.”

We’d suggest that the people of Nevada really don’t care who’s “running the mansion,” but we don’t want to be rude.

The backstory here, as always, is the real story: Jim Gibbons went before the Legislature in 2003 and slammed Gov. Kenny Guinn’s gross-receipts tax plan, a sin for which he hasn’t been forgiven by Nevada’s first family. Kenny Guinn has talked to several individuals about challenging Gibbons in the Republican primary for governor, and is mad as hell at his longtime counselor, Sig Rogich, who’s advising Gibbons on his bid. Now, Dema Guinn is getting into the act, and it looks like she’s got an even sharper knife collection than her husband.

But let’s be real, folks: Assuming Jim Gibbons becomes governor — and we’re not ready to say that’s going to happen yet — and Dawn Gibbons becomes a member of Congress, things in Nevada ought to work just fine. Sure, Dawn Gibbons won’t be around to do the things that first ladies traditionally do, but is that going to shut down the state? Or even be noticed by anybody? It seems to us that suggesting Dawn Gibbons would do a disservice to Nevada by not being first lady — and only first lady — is downright anti-feminist.

But, what the hell do we know? And, it’s a long way until both Jim and Dawn Gibbons face voters in their respective primary races. Until then, it seems, Nevada’s most prominent power couple is going to make life hard for the family Gibbons.