Hal Rothman is aghast at just how common scandals like the G-Sting trial are in Nevada, but is encouraged by the verdict turned in

Sunday, May 14, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

It is certainly piling on to talk about the sleaze that is part of the lifeblood of Nevada politics, but I cannot get over the fundamental lack of shame or remorse displayed by Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and her husband, Bob Chauncey.

I can understand his indignant outburst better than I can her self-righteous posturing. His family is coming apart, as far as we know, through no fault of his own. But after being convicted, I cannot imagine a less useful stance than the insouciant combination of claims of innocence and demure grandmotherly sweetness.

Isn't this the same woman who took money to buy her grandson lap dances? Didn't I hear her say that, yes, she took money, but she didn't think it was a bribe?

At least Dario Herrera had the good sense to skulk away through the back door. This might be the only time in his short-lived public career that he showed good judgment.

I don't mean to pick on the guilty, as much as they deserve it. The problem is so much bigger. The stunning arrogance of Kathy Augustine and Fran Deane boggles my mind. The ethics problems that dog people like Sandra Tiffany and so many others are galling. Is public office simply a way to enrich yourself and your friends? Do they think the public is so apathetic or stupid that we will not notice their cupidity?

Corruption has long been the lifeblood of Nevada politics. And we have had some remarkable examples. The Cole-Malley scandal of 1927, when Nevada's state treasurer embezzled $600,000 - real money in those days - and toppled the most powerful man in Nevada, George Wingfield, is the most dramatic. They don't make crooks like that anymore.

What scares me most is that G-Sting is hardly distinctive in the annals of American politics. It is garden variety scandal, exactly what you see when industries on the edge of respectability want favors from government. This goes on everywhere, but the casual ease with which it took place here is reminiscent of Chicago in the 1920s or New Orleans any time.

The sleaze is part and parcel of our politics, an accepted and even tolerated feature of Nevada that impoverishes us all. And besides talk, what are we doing?

If we allow business as usual to continue, we deserve our fate. Our politics are embarrassing, on par or worse than states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. To put it bluntly, we stink.

So what are we to do? This fall, we will see all kinds of candidates claiming that they will do better by us. They will be virtuous, they will insist, honest to a fault. How can we know? How can we trust them?

This is the dilemma. Corrupt politicians enhance our already widespread sense that government has failed us, that democracy belongs only to those who pay. It makes us cynical, willing to believe the worst about our institutions and about those who seek the levers of power. It drowns out the many positive voices on both sides of the aisle, the people who truly have the best interests of their constituents at heart. We look at the honest through the same jaundiced eyes. In this day and age, they are proven guilty simply by association.

It will not be easy to fix the problem, for corruption is corrosive. It is like a cancer that has spread through our politics and, from there, through us. I am extremely proud of the G-Sting jury; the jurors did their duty for us, the people of Nevada.

But one trial does not change a pattern. If all of us make our usual excuses - apathy, transience and whatever else - nothing will change. We will continue to be mired in our cesspool, and those who want a better state will have to swim in it alongside the ones who belong there.

This can be a pivotal moment in local and state politics. We can right the good ship Nevada, but it will take much more than a jury verdict. For starters, the public must care. Then, it must demand better, not once, but all the time. Only then will we begin to have government that we can be proud of, that is worthy of the trust we bestow upon it.