Jon Ralston looks beyond the current court case to the long- standing culture of corruption

Sunday, March 19, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

We've been through this before - and that's the problem.

How do you define corruption when you are talking about politics, especially in Home Sweet Nevada?

As I have pointed out before - and nowhere is it more applicable than here - the first definition of corrupt, according to Webster's, is "immoral and perverse." The second meaning - "dishonest and venal" - is what ex-Commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey are on trial for during the next three months.

But my problem with this case all along is that even assuming the worst - that erstwhile strip club boss Mike Galardi provided currency, be it money or sex or other favors, to Herrera and Kincaid - where does that kind of corruption fit in the immoral and perverse world of Nevada politics?

And even if Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey are adjudged not guilty, they are hardly innocent at playing this depraved game. Las Vegans have become inured, and too many believe that an ethical politician is anything but an oxymoron.

Consider the blizzard of media accounts - the Billy Walters land deal, the County Recorder Fran Deane tragicomedy, Mayor Oscar Goodman's family values, state Sen. Sandra Tiffany's marketing scheme, Assemblyman Scott Sibley's expedited process serving and now the G-Sting trial, which could lay bare (one pun limit used) the sickening business (politics, not strip clubs) and confirm the public's worst suspicions.

Local Democrats, bereft of a sense of irony or proportion, have sent out news releases lamenting a local GOP "culture of corruption" and demanding Republicans return campaign contributions from Monty Miller, enmeshed in but not charged with a crime in the Deane debacle. This as two former Democratic county commissioners stand trial for literal corruption and one former Democratic commissioner (Erin Kenny), a central figure in the case, already has made a deal with the feds.

Corruption, literal or otherwise, is not a partisan problem in this state or most others. It's a human nature problem and a systemic problem - people are inherently weak and the system is inherently corrupting. To wit:

This pattern of legalized incest has been my hobbyhorse for two decades and I have ridden it only to find myself dizzy. Little has changed, even, for the most part, the names.

Some of this is easy to fix. Within 24 to 48 hours, all campaign contributions above a certain amount ($200?) should have to be disclosed on a Web site. Unlike toothless laws such as the frequently flouted one at the city of Las Vegas, lobbyists should have to detail every contact (any communication) with an elected official, complete with the issue involved and the client paying.

And when elected officials disclose their finances, they not only should have to make their IRS filings public, they should have to detail every piece of land and business they own and all their partners, as well as any gifts they have received and from whom.

Penalties should be severe, but that's only a start. That's because the only way for real reform is people reform.

Even though there should not be equivalency drawn between the bad judgment of accepting a Rolling Stones ticket and the crime of taking thousands of dollars for a vote, the problem is the same.

Unless the people in office are willing to wake up every morning and draw a line they are unwilling to cross - and then vowing not to ever move it - this story will never end.