For Nevada GOP, One Spectacle Too Many

[struggle4progress]

In a State Full of Distractions, Governor's Divorce Is One With Political Implications

By Steve Friess
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; Page A02

LAS VEGAS, May 5 -- In this state known for quickie divorces, the slow, increasingly acrimonious dissolution of the governor's marriage is becoming a public spectacle nearly as absorbing a show on the Strip but far more politically significant ...

On Monday, the governor won a court ruling to have the proceedings sealed under a state law that allows either party in a divorce to do so.

Were that all, it might be a blip. But the governor is also seeking a legal ruling -- which would certainly become public -- to force his wife to move out of the governor's mansion, where she, and not he, has been living since they officially separated last month ...

Sealing the case may keep journalists out of the courtroom, but there is no gag order on the first lady, whose attorney, Cal Dunlap, told the Associated Press she wants the case open to the public. Just days before the governor filed for divorce, in fact, Dawn Gibbons complained bitterly to a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist that her husband won't speak to her and that she doesn't know why he's divorcing her. She added: "I can hardly make it through the day." ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/05/AR2008050502205.html