Profiles in Cowardice: Our fearless governor, even though the Republican presidential race is all but over, doesn't want to take any chances. Quoth the Gibber:

"There are still people out there who are very passionate about Mike Huckabee, and I don't want to tell them that their vote, their ideas and their enthusiasm for the electoral process is [sic] not important."

Yeah, 'cause there's always a chance of a giant Huckabee upsurge in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, leading to a deadlocked GOP convention in which a lonely nation turns its eyes to Jim Gibbons to cut the Gordian knot.

Actually, it turns out that sometime-Mormon Gibbons is still pouting over the way the big, bad MSM treated Mitt Romney and the LDS Church. Still, this is perfectly in keeping with Gibbons' pass-the-buck style of leadership, in which hard decisions (like where to cut the state budget) are ducked in favor of across-the-board solutions or by palming the hard work off on school districts, county commissions and the like.

"Did so!" "Did not!" The Transport Workers Union and MGM Mirage continue to tussle over who should get credit for the latter putting all of its dealers on a level wage base. The company says the move is a response to its absorption of Mirage Resorts and Mandalay Resort Group, but those deals closed years ago. So I acclaim MGM's decision but am more inclined to credit the TWU's version of events.

Whichever side you believe, MGM showed positive leadership here, as opposed to the Harrah's approach of calling dealers into meetings and threatening to confiscate tips [link unavailable]. That's a surefire way to get the TWU into your casinos and you'd think guys as smart as the Harrah's braintrust could figure that out. Of course, the ultimate body block was thrown by, of all places, the Hooters hotel-casino. By allowing dealers to keep 100% of their own tips, Hooters management has forestalled unionization indefinitely.

In related news, instead of appealing an NLRB ruling, Wynn Las Vegas has meekly complied with a judge's order. Thank heaven. It'll help close an acrimonious chapter in Strip history. It also means that ex-dealer Mark Baldino's name is cleared, after management besmirched his employment record. Godspeed, Mr. Baldino, wherever you are.

R.I.P., William F. Buckley: The Bach-loving, elegant debater, novelist, interviewer and seminal conservative thinker is gone. His Firing Line program introduced me to J.S. Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto and he will be fondly remembered by some for his quixotic 1965 run for the mayoralty of New York City. A giant has left us and we must be content, for the most part, with intellectual pygmies (Andrew Sullivan and a few others excepted) and ill-mannered ones, at that.

Wynn Encore's floor plans have leaked, by way of the Rate Vegas blog. Good work, guys.