Even Gov. Jim Gibbons has realized the futility of his ill-conceived attempt to play The Great Mediator in the MGM Mirage vs. Perini Building war. As a courtesy, CityCenter CEO Bobby Baldwin met with Midnight Jim, to basically tell him that MGM would do what it’s already said it would do, both via the media and in court filings. The company didn’t even think it sufficiently momentous to announce that the gubernatorial tete-a-tete was taking place (although if I were a Perini representative, I would spin that as Baldwin creeping in secret to grovel before Gibbons, shamed by all the high-profile media coverage Perini itself had drawn).
MGM CEO Jim Murren clearly didn’t think spending quality time with Midnight Jim warranted rearranging his schedule. He was getting face time with someone who has actual power, the vice premier of China. I guess that silly old Murren didn’t get the memo when Gibbons made his typically perspicacious declaration that marketing to China was a waste of money and Nevadans ought to focus on California instead (because the economy there is doing so well, y’know, and who ever heard of Chinese gamblers anyway?). You’ve got to be an early riser if you hope to surpass the keen socioeconomic insights of Midnight Jim.
