Jon Ralston on the many faces of Erin Kenny

Sunday, April 2, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

"It's unfortunate that we even have to be having these discussions ... There are certain things in the world you accept are blatantly right and blatantly wrong."

- County Commissioner Erin Kenny, discussing an ethics task force report, Jan. 27, 1999

Last week, in a federal courtroom, we once again witnessed the amazing duality of the woman who could make such public pronouncements even though she would soon accept blatantly wrong secret payments to pervert her public service.

There was the sweet, friendly, professional Kenny, turning toward the jury and calmly explicating a commission policy. She was measured, knowledgeable and, at times, effective, a mirror of her public persona as an elected official.

And then, the jarring dissonance of her disembodied voice on FBI wiretaps, featuring expletive-laced diatribes and craftily contrived schemes, the side of her the public never knew. She was nasty, ruthless and, at times, amoral, providing a window into how she did business as a politician.

This was the moment G-Sting watchers have been anticipating since Kenny made a deal with the government three years ago, and she did not disappoint. She was almost a Norma Desmond-like figure, a faded star/criminal ready for her close-up, at once sad and repellent, twisted and tragic.

Duality actually may be charitable for Kenny. Many may forget - or the 100,000 or so new residents since she left office may never have known - the many faces of the commissioner who had more energy and was more mischievous than the average 6-year-old.

She was a vicious, relentless campaigner who once called a news conference to insist she had nothing to do with an anonymous mail piece that intimated her opponent was gay - thus not-so-subtly achieving what the flier was meant to achieve.

Kenny was a marvelous advocate for whomever she was advocating for, brazenly shilling for labor unions trying to banish Wal-Mart from the community or rounding up votes for Triple Five trying to get approval for a casino.

And she was never afraid of a fight, picked many of them herself and was not someone anyone in politics wanted to challenge because she made the most vindictive pol you can think of seem timid.

Kenny's credibility could be central to the government's case. Although she displayed equanimity during much of her testimony, she became testy with defense attorney Jerry Bernstein, and Rick Wright will have at her Monday.

Some of what transpired last week indicates the government may regret using her.

Kenny was considered a vertiginous figure when she was in office, but her claim that a dizzying condition has caused memory loss, albeit seemingly selective, could not have enhanced her credibility.

Cynics will insist she concocted the affliction, but since Kenny's effectiveness could mitigate her eventual sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, it would not be in her best interest to make such a claim. And yet, remarkably, she said she could not remember what crimes she had pleaded guilty to and what the maximum sentence was that she faced.

Surely some of the jurors were wondering whether her words on one wiretap to Lance Malone - when she assured him she would "try to find something that's a reasonable thing to say" at a commission meeting on behalf of Malone boss/Kenny sugar daddy Mike Galardi - weren't applicable to last week's courtroom appearance, too.

Would she say anything that sounds reasonable to help the government, even though she could not tie any quid pro quo payments to Dario Herrera or Mary Kincaid-Chauncey?

Even the kinder, gentler Kenny the jurors saw for most of her testimony last week may not be enough to make them forget her voice on those wiretaps, which former federal prosecutor Stan Hunterton called "windows into the soul."

Even if the government cannot prove quid pro quos - and so far it isn't looking good - the sleaziness of how business was/is conducted in Southern Nevada local government seeps from the intercepts.

Kenny cannot be entirely anomalous. All politicians, like most people, have two sides: the public and the private. It's hard to believe Kenny has been the only one in Southern Nevada so expertly using a populist public persona to mask a darker avaricious side. She can't be the only one with the chutzpah to talk publicly about being ethically pristine, yet privately be anything but.

But who are they? Who else among the elected elite is so remarkably effective at getting what he wants, so ready with the quote to charm an eager public, and yet privately cares only about the greedy pursuit of self-aggrandizement?

I wonder.