U.S. Sen. John Ensign launched his re-election bid Wednesday at a social club for U.S. Marines. Ensign is not a Marine himself, but the Marines are a very welcoming sort, even to non-Devil Dogs. Plus, we suspect he may have brought them some booze.

Anyway, Ensign’s curious strategy was to marry himself to President George W. Bush, especially on the war in Iraq. “I want to commend President George W. Bush — he has taken on that [radical Islam] evil. He says we have to stay the course, and that means we cannot lose our courage,” Ensign said.

Perhaps Ensign thought that was the thing to tell the Leatherneck Club, given that they are among America’s best warriors. But the Basic School doesn’t turn out dummies: They know, as writer Susan Sontag once wrote, that courage can be a morally neutral virtue. When the jarheads say “semper fi” (short for their motto, semper fidelis, meaning “always faithful”) they know their fidelity is only as good as the object of their loyalty, in this case, Corps and country. A person can be always faithful to a flawed idea — like, the president is always right in wartime — and end up being very wrong.

Ensign mentioned Yucca Mountain, too, perhaps thinking that Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children would forget he once promised to bring Republicans to the anti-Yucca side of the debate, and failed utterly in doing so. That was even after Ensign went door-to-door on the Republican side of the Senate with a three-ring binder showing how Yucca is bad for everybody, not just Nevada.

Despite all that, however, Ensign is still the favorite to win re-election. Frankly, we’re surprised that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid didn’t show up at Ensign’s side on Wednesday. (Reid was actually down in San Diego, inspecting the border and declaring the Bush — with whom Ensign nearly always votes — was dangerously incompetent. Still, friends can disagree, right? Even best friends, like Ensign and Reid, who most certainly won’t do much to help a Democratic challenger to the Republican.

Sad.

• Can it be? An idea for downtown’s deserted Neonopolis mall that might actually draw people to the area?

The Review-Journal’s David McGrath Schwartz reports that three of the movie theaters at the mall are going to be reconfigured into a poker stadium, where non-alcohol-sipping audiences can watch poker tournaments from behind one-way, soundproof glass. It’s being described as the “NASCAR” for poker.

This is probably the best idea that’s been mustered for Neonopolis since some super-genius decided to redesign the mall from a open-air, three-level plaza embracing Fremont Street into a giant, forbidding wall concealing … well, not much beyond a few movie theaters, an anemic food court and a couple scrunchie kiosks.

Meanwhile, other places in downtown are showing signs of life, including Third Street, with the Hogs & Heifers Saloon and Triple George. Even Fremont Street, where Schwartz reports two new restaurants are opening, is seeing some interest.

There’s hope. But does anybody else see the irony that most everything cool downtown seems to happen in spite of the city’s redevelopment efforts and not because of them? Just asking.

• Are former Clark County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny terrorists? Even if you stretch the definition, it really doesn’t apply to them, or their former colleagues Lance Malone and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, either.

But the FBI certainly used the USA Patriot Act to investigate them. For those keeping score at home, the Patriot Act is the law that President Bush says is key in the fight against terrorism.

It seems that if the FBI sends somebody’s name to the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., Treasury will run that name against a database and come up with every bank or financial institution with which that person does business. Nifty, huh? It saves a lot of work apparently.

We’re sure glad that somebody in Las Vegas finally took political corruption seriously, but we think using the Patriot Act is another example of how that law can be abused in cases that have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. Ditto for the warantless spying conducted by the National Security Agency.

• Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison had a good column today on the longstanding and public feud between Gov. Kenny Guinn and his former close advisor, Republican political consultant Sig Rogich.

The Reader’s Digest version: Guinn is upset with Rogich for supporting and advising U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons in Gibbons’ quest to be governor, because Gibbons angered Guinn by criticizing his tax plan in 2003. Guinn, in turn, angered Rogich when the governor said he didn’t take much of Rogich’s advice anyway. (That’s just mean, and untrue. According to my colleague Jon Ralston’s book on Guinn’s 1998 race, The Anointed One, Guinn eagerly accepted Rogich’s advice.) Rogich believes, correctly, that Gibbons is the GOP’s only chance to hold on to the governor’s mansion, and told Guinn so in person.

Anyway, take a look for yourself, and enjoy. Republican disarray and infighting is just so damn entertaining!