Columnist Jeff German: McDonald saga is far from over

Saturday, Nov. 18, 2000 | 2:56 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

HAD ENOUGH of Michael McDonald Mania yet?

Probably not.

The embattled city councilman took Las Vegas politics to a new low when he secretly recorded a private conversation with Mayor Oscar Goodman, and then distributed copies to the media.

In one dumb move, McDonald showed the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board that it made the right decision Nov. 8 in finding him guilty of unethical conduct.

Reporters from the local network affiliates eagerly grabbed copies of the tape, each proclaiming they had a big scoop. But how hard, really, was the tape to obtain? McDonald was handing out copies faster than a stripper at the Crazy Horse Too will give you a lap dance.

The tape showed the mayor in an unmayoral-like fashion, using foul language and talking tough like his former wise-guy clients. It gave McDonald a chance to deflect attention away from his own troubles.

Naturally, Goodman felt betrayed when the tape was made public. He thought he had done the right thing by talking to McDonald man-to-man about a resolution to strip him of his mayor pro tem title. In that context, the mayor said things he never would have said publicly, like telling McDonald he has the "balls the size of an elephant."

Goodman, however, reacted poorly after he learned about the secret taping, and that played into McDonald's strategy to muddy up the waters.

The mayor slipped into his mob attorney mode, calling McDonald a low-life, like a "government rat." For a moment, it sounded as if Goodman was talking about Frank Cullotta, the one-time mob associate who turned government witness against Goodman's most notorious client, the much-feared Chicago Mafia kingpin, Anthony Spilotro.

In his anger, Goodman forgot that he now is a member of the government he had just criticized.

Later, after he settled down, and after his political strategists told him to take the high ground, Goodman returned to his mayoral mode, saying he no longer planned to seek McDonald's ouster from office over the taping.

Goodman handed off the ball to former City Councilman Steve Miller, the e-mail maniac spearheading the recall campaign against McDonald.

Whoops! Another mistake.

All that did was put the mayor in the wacky Miller's camp. The movers and shakers see Miller as an opportunist using the recall to earn one last chance at running against McDonald, who has defeated him twice before.

At Thursday's special meeting to take away McDonald's pro tem title, only Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald spoke out. She said the move against McDonald was necessary to restore "honor" to the City Council. Her words may have been coming from the heart, but they were seen by City Hall observers as an attempt to kick McDonald while he was down.

McDonald doesn't need anyone kicking him right now. He's doing a pretty good job of that himself.

To many, McDonald doesn't appear to comprehend the seriousness of his predicament. He continues to insist that he has done nothing wrong, despite having been found guilty of violating the public's trust, the worst thing that can happen to an elected official.

Though he prides himself as a fighter, at some point McDonald is going to have to take responsibility for his actions.

It would be the smart thing to do for him and the right thing for the city.

Being smart, however, isn't one of McDonald's political traits. He appears bent on taking down the mayor with him, a strategy destined to result in his own political demise.

When it comes to fighters, Goodman is in a class way above McDonald, and he has a history of epic courtroom bouts to prove it. Pitting the mayor against McDonald in an ongoing brawl at City Hall is like putting Lennox Lewis in the same ring with Richard Simmons.

Goodman packs a mean knockout punch, one that can rid us of Michael McDonald Mania once and for all.