Adelson denies having influence

Contrary to what the Washington Post reported and what Clark County GOP Chairman Dave Gibbs told The Associated Press, the man runs Las Vegas Sands says he had little or nothing to do with the rescheduling of Saturday’s Nevada Republican caucus out of deference to Orthodox Jews. (Turns out that Seventh Day Adventists will also benefit from the newly extended caucus schedule.) In a well-sourced Howard Stutz story for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Through his spokesman, Ron Reese, Adelson denies having “involvement” or even “input,” and didn’t “personally offer” (as Stutz puts it) to host the caucus at the Adelson Educational Campus. Adelson was at a meeting where Philip Kantor, an Orthodox member of the school’s board, raised the issue and that the mogul also called state GOP Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian regarding the matter.

That leaves a lot of wiggle room as to what constitutes “involvement” or “input.” However, Adelson is the picture of forthrightness compared to Gibbs. If the latter isn’t an out-and-out liar, he certainly emerges from this imbroglio looking both craven and untrustworthy. Running full-tilt from what he told the AP, Gibbs (left) contradicts his previous story as to  how the Adelson school became the caucus site, then adds this howler: “I’ve never even met Mr. Adelson and didn’t even know what he looked like until I saw his picture in the paper.” (Gibbs to AP: “When Sheldon Adelson says something in Nevada, a lot of people listen because he is very important.”) According to Gibbs 2.0, the whole thing was his idea. He sounds like that guy who got hit with a faceful of buckshot from Dick Cheney, then apologized for being in the line of fire.

Good work, R-J.

Afterthought: With the primary campaign in Florida having sunk to unimaginably vile depths — too vile to be repeated here — a question begins to nag at my brain: What sort of hangover, if any, will Adelson’s Sunshine State casino aspirations suffer from having bankrolled much of the recent GOP-on-GOP violence? While Genting is busy scoring brownie points and making friends with both union bosses and Tea Party poohbahs, what has Sheldon been doing? Taking his eye off the ball, that’s what, just as in Massachusetts, where the issue is even more pressing.  And it was Adelson who got that ball rolling in Florida in the first place. Sheldon’s shareholders need him to focus — and not on politics.