Jon Ralston on the latest problem for a Republican vying to be state treasurer

Friday, June 2, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

A residency issue that won't go away. A bankruptcy that keeps coming up. And a primary opponent, impeached Controller Kathy Augustine, with a reputation for scorching the earth and who has nothing to lose.

Mark DeStefano, the Republican candidate for state treasurer, already has enough problems for a guy with a lot of money and who otherwise would seem like a huge favorite in a race no one pays much attention to during a busy campaign season. And now there is more fodder that I have discovered - a lawsuit he filed more than a decade ago against the federal government after he was retired as an air traffic controller.

DeStefano was medically disqualified by the government after being told he had a "psychotic disorder," which DeStefano said was a misunderstanding of his struggle with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. DeStefano then sued - he later dropped the legal action - claiming he was discriminated against because of a handicap - i.e., the mental disorder.

This is explosive and sensitive stuff. DeStefano says he went through a difficult time in the early 1990s, which also resulted in his financial problems, before pulling his life together and moving to Las Vegas in 1995, where his financial and mental health were restored.

This could be told as an uplifting story. Guy goes through rough patch, guy comes to city of second chances, guy is successful and wants to give back.

But with the phrase "psychotic disorder" in a public document and with the other stuff already out there, something tells me his opponents won't tell DeStefano's life story that way.

If DeStefano is worried about insensitivity and misunderstanding when it comes to mental illness, here's evidence he should be: yet more rhetorical offal from the most high-profile elected official in Southern Nevada, on the eve of his colleagues from around the country arriving for the Conference of Mayors.

Exactly one week after Mayor Oscar Goodman unequivocally said that certain homeless people should be institutionalized against their will, this adding to his catalogue of calumny against the less fortunate, he did what he does like no other: Backtrack, deny he said what he said, lash out and blame others.

But don't believe me. Here's the mayor, doing his best Tricky Dick, in front of reporters Thursday:

"(This) turned into a civil rights issue, and the ACLU began to shake and some misanthropic media members got all upset. The truth of the matter is, I'm saying if you have some poor soul, and there are plenty of them out there, who are blubbering to themselves but they are not hurting anybody, I want to be able help those people ... If you ask the blubberer whether or not he wants to go with you and get treatment, he's going to say no, he's happy blubbering ...

"I want to be able to take the blubberer by the hand nicely ... and move him into a facility where they are going to take care of them, not where he is going to be tortured."

And then we learned who really is responsible for the plight of blubberers in Las Vegas:

"I blame the media as much as anybody for all of the problems we have as far as the homeless is concerned because of their wise-guy attitude towards it and not reporting it the way I'm telling it, and twisting it, such as to the suggestion (on) the Jean facility, saying the mayor wants to send them to prison ... and they know better. It should be on their conscience a little bit, too, because of their wise-guy attitude."

Then, just so you know how serious and sensitive he is as opposed to us misanthropes, he was asked about the lack of beds for these people and where they should be sent.

"Maybe I drop them off at the state building. Maybe I dump them off there because it's the state's responsibility to provide housing for these folks and treatment for these folks."

Welcome to Las Vegas, mayors all, where our mayor will show you the way to deal with the homeless and, more importantly, how to change your story and blame the media.