Too stupid to hold office?

One would have thought that the scandal involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would have served notice on other politicians that there should be no expectation of secrecy when they communicate on publically owned or leased pagers or telephones. Kilpatrick is the subject of an ouster effort after text messages obtained by the Detroit Free Press found that Kilpatrick and his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty, exchanged text messages revealing an extramarital sexual relationship, contradicting his previous sworn testimony. And some of those messages were not for the faint of heart. But it seems Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, at left, didn't get the message about text messages. An Associated Press report says Gibbons, who has split with his wife, used his state cell phone to send more than 800 text messages in one month to a women he describes as a longtime friend. Gibbons' wife blamed that woman for causing her husband to file for divorce. The Reno Gazette-Journal says that on a single day last year, Gibbons and the woman exchanged 160 text messages. Another day, between midnight and 2 a.m., they sent 91 messages. Just two old friends having a chat, I guess. The content of the messages hasn't been revealed, so at this point there's no proof that Gibbons is, or isn't, telling the truth. But he's really, really stupid to use a state cell phone for his private communications with a person who he surely knew might be at the center of his divorce proceedings.