Las Vegas Weekly

February 26, 2009 · 1:03 AM

Rogers says issues with Gibbons ‘over,’ riffs on Obama

By John Katsilometes

Jim Rogers plays to the news crews.

Photo: John Katsilometes

The ever-entertaining Jim Rogers-Jim Gibbons feud is “over,” says the Rogers half of that running skirmish. Funny how public letters of reprimand and a few million dollars of federal surplus money can mellow even the most irascible chancellor.

Issued today by Board of Regents Chairman Michael B. Wixom and Vice Chairman Jason Geddes was a letter wrist-slapping Chancellor Rogers for the Sunday op-ed piece he wrote – probably with his fists – for the Nevada Appeal of Carson City. (Link to the letter here, as it was sent earlier by Sun political columnist Jon Ralston). In his original column, Rogers said of Gibbons, “The man has absolutely no regard for the welfare of any other human being.” So how do you really feel, Jim? There was more, too. If you haven’t already, read the manifesto here.

To use a term Rogers is familiar with from his work with classic cars, the column reads like a bottle-rattling ride in a 1925 Tin Lizzie. Some fallout had to be expected, and it arrived today as Wixom and Geddes essentially reminded Rogers that he is not authorized to speak for the Board of Regents when writing these types of opinion columns, and that his often-acidic rhetoric can reflect badly on the entire board.

“The regents were concerned that I was representing their opinion, which is not an unreasonable position to take,” Rogers said this afternoon during a phone interview from his Las Vegas home. When I asked if the reprimand would at all cause him to curtail his comments about the governor, whom he’s repeatedly labeled “irrelevant,” Rogers said, “No. I mean, the issues with the governor are pretty much over as far as I’m concerned. They were limited to the budget issue, and that will be resolved in the Legislature.”

Wixom and Geddes also appointed Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich as liaison to Gibbons, taking that role from Rogers. That had to happen; on Monday, Gibbons told the Nevada Appeal he simply would not talk to Rogers after Rogers vented in the op-ed piece.

Gibbons’ budget proposal, which would have sliced deeply into the state’s higher education budget by as much as 36 percent, was the reason for Rogers’ ire toward the governor. Rogers has a passion for education that can be measured in the many millions of dollars he has donated to such universities as UNLV, the University of Arizona, Idaho State University in Pocatello, and Carroll College in Helena, Mont. He also donates his $23,666 annual salary as chancellor back to the higher-ed system. Rogers has a big heart, a big bank account and, at times, a temper to match both. But the stimulus funding has, indeed, made the Gibbons’ budget something other than relevant.

During our chat, I also asked Rogers if he’d seen President Obama’s speech to Congress last night. “I didn’t see it, at least not all of it,” he said. “I’ve caught parts of it here and there. Everybody I’ve talked to said it was amazing. (Obama) is brilliant beyond belief, practical, well-read. I mean, I voted for him, no question about that.” Rogers once introduced Bill Clinton at a fundraising event as “one of the smartest men in the world.” Does Obama measure up? “He really does, and I’ve talked to people who have worked for Clinton and know Obama, and Obama is pretty much intellectually equal, but not with the ego. I don’t see him having one. He’s 47, he’s mature, and this job kind of sobers up a lot of people.”

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