At Least Nevada is Not Number One

in this survey, but it will do for now:

Leadership Problems: 10

The extramarital affair recently acknowledged by Republican Sen. John Ensign hardly compares to the tabloid richness of GOP Gov. Jim Gibbons' one term. Even state Republicans acknowledge that Gibbons has been an unmitigated disaster -- and it actually began before he won office in 2006, with allegations that he had touched a woman inappropriately outside a restaurant. He was also dogged by questions about his dealings with a defense contractor when he was a U.S. House member.

Gibbons later underwent a nasty divorce, which prompted the news that the governor had used a state phone to send more than 800 texts in six weeks to a married woman who was not his wife.

"Gibbons is perhaps the worst governor in Nevada history and a national joke," Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston wrote in a recent Las Vegas Sun column that half-jokingly compares Sanford favorably to Gibbons. The Nevada governor, Ralston added, "also has made all manner of ludicrous appointments, some of which were rescinded, and has not forged any relationships with legislators, creating a vacuum in the executive branch that has impeded policy on various levels."

Coming from Ralston, that's high praise indeed.

Nevada has pretty tough competition. It's more crooked and dysfunctional than Illinois, but not quite on the level with New York.

Give it time...

And speaking of dysfunctional, some asshole or assholes vandalized the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign.