Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., didn't return to Washington for the last session of the lame-duck Congress. But he has accepted his full House salary for the year. Photo by the Review-Journal.

Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons has been working hard for the last seven weeks preparing to move into the Governor's Mansion. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, meanwhile, has been taking a paid vacation.

Gibbons decided not to go back to Washington for the last session of the lame-duck Congress, saying he was too busy in Nevada and didn't think anything going on in the House was important enough to require his vote. His staff said last week that he nonetheless accepted his full House salary for the year.

"Congressman Jim Gibbons continues to serve in his capacity as a member of Congress and therefore will accept his full salary for the 109th Congress," spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said.

"Despite the fact that he missed some legislative days" since being elected governor on Nov. 7, "he has continued to participate in official events and meet with constituents. Additionally, his offices have remained open to serve the people of Nevada and will remain open throughout the end of the year," Subbotin said.

Gibbons missed a total of eight days and 27 roll-call votes in November and December, out of a total of 543 votes in 101 days the House was in session in 2006. That means the sessions he missed made up 8 percent of the year's days in session and 5 percent of the year's votes, not counting other days and votes he skipped earlier in the year.

But Gibbons will accept 100 percent of his $165,200 annual salary. He was one of two House members to skip the entire last session, along with an Illinois Democrat who is incapacitated by Parkinson's disease.

Gibbons is one of three House members who were elected governor in November: Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter won the Idaho gubernatorial race, and Rep. Ted Strickland will take the reins in Ohio.

If Strickland and Otter could find the time to show their faces in Washington one last time, Gibbons should have been able to, too, said David Williams, vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste.

"He couldn't come back for a few token days?" Williams said. "That's pathetic."

Barring that, "it would have been a great gesture for him to give back part of his salary," Williams said.

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., may have suddenly found himself in the minority, but he still has friends in high places. An idea Ensign's been flogging for months recently got public support from Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and is being floated as a possibility by President Bush.

Ensign and Clinton co-authored an opinion article in the Dec. 18 Wall Street Journal arguing for a proposal to give Iraqi citizens a personal stake in the country's oil wealth. The senators from opposing parties serve together on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"We have urged for three years that the Bush administration pursue an Iraq Oil Trust, modeled on the Alaskan Permanent Fund, guaranteeing that every individual Iraqi would share in the country's oil wealth," the senators wrote. "Oil revenues would accrue to the national government and a significant percentage of oil revenues would be divided equally among ordinary Iraqis, giving every citizen a stake in the nation's recovery and political reconciliation and instilling a sense of hope for the promise of democratic values."

If every Iraqi had a financial interest in oil production, citizens would have an incentive to stop insurgent attacks and work toward stability. It also would convince Iraq and the world that the United States "is not in Iraq for oil," the senators wrote.

The idea was one Ensign mentioned frequently during his recent re-election campaign and one the president recently mentioned as a possibility.

"This is an idea that Senator Ensign and Senator Clinton have been talking about and working on for some time," Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said. "Senator Ensign has talked to senior administration officials, such as Karl Rove and Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice, and they like the idea but they don't believe we can force it on the Iraqis. Senator Ensign believes it's so important that we should force the Iraqis to do it."

IS IT 2008 YET?

With just over a year until the Democrats hold an early presidential nominating caucus in Nevada, it's time to start handicapping the contestants.

An unscientific online survey on the liberal blog Las Vegas Gleaner asked readers which of 10 possible Democratic candidates they favored. With the survey still open Friday afternoon, 173 people had voted, and their favorite potential candidate, by a large margin, was former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore had 50 votes, or 28 percent. Coming in second with 20 percent was Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., followed closely by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson with 19 percent. Former Sen. John Edwards also made a strong showing with 15 percent.

None of the other candidates -- in descending order, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Sen. John Kerry -- managed to crack 10 percent.

Vilsack came to Nevada to announce his candidacy earlier this month, but that doesn't appear to have endeared him to Gleaner readers. He had just four votes. Only Kerry, with three, had fewer.

Gleaner proprietor Hugh Jackson said Gore's surge was striking. "He keeps saying he's not running, but I think he genuinely has impressed people in the last year with his film and his public appearances," Jackson said.

Richardson also seems to have strong support among Nevada liberals. In a survey last month at the online publication Nevada Today, to which Jackson is a contributor, Richardson came in second to Edwards when readers were asked who they thought would win the Nevada caucus.

"These readers are political junkies, so they know who he is while a man on the street might not," Jackson said. With name recognition out of the way, Richardson is a likable candidate: "He has the best resume for president since Bush's dad, and he's a governor," Jackson said.

'WAR ROOM' CHIEF

Penny Lee, former executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, has been named to head "war room" operations for incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Lee, a native of Alaska, was hired as senior adviser for communications and outreach, part of a senior management team that Reid announced last week.

Three other senior aides are already working for Reid, but will be given added responsibilities now that Reid will be majority leader when Congress reconvenes on Jan. 4.

Lee will manage how Senate Democrats form and get out their messages to the media and the public. She will oversee the Reid communications "war room" of spinmeisters and rapid-response technicians.

Among the others:

• Senior Adviser Darrel Thompson will represent Reid before organized labor, blacks and the religious community. He has worked for Reid for two years, and before that was campaign chief of staff for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

• Policy Director Randy Devalk will continue to advise Reid on legislation and strategy. He joined the Nevadan after his old boss Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was defeated in 2004.

• Chief Counsel Ron Weich joined Reid in January 2005 from private practice to handle judicial nominations and issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His job expands to cover a broader range of legal and constitutional matters.

Contact political reporter Molly Ball at 387-2919 or MBall@reviewjournal.com.