Jon Ralston on how the state GOP has managed to shoot itself in the foot convention

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

The first rule of political conventions is the same one doctors are supposed to follow: Do no harm.

Here is how the self-euthanizing state Republicans did no harm at their recent Mesquite conclave ...

And the piece penned by Anjeanette Damon went on: "Chairez said Americans who built the Panama Canal were told by those living in Third World countries, 'Yankees go home.' 'The roles have reversed,' he said. 'Now we get to say we want you to go home.' "

And the crowd frothed wildly and started asking anyone slightly tan or brown to produce documents.

Not to be outdone, the micro-throng of 135 (they even had to cancel the golf tournament for lack of interest) later voted to pass a platform plank that would deny citizenship to the progeny of illegal immigrants, as my colleague J. Patrick Coolican reported Tuesday. "We do not support citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens, illegal residents or foreign visitors," the plank reads.

They especially like calling them "aliens," these Nevada Republicans do, to dehumanize them as much as they can. That plank is out of the mainstream of current GOP thought, albeit not quite as far to the right as the Chairez wing of the GOP with its mass deportation plan. Not to worry, though, as candidates run screaming from that plank and from the Chairez Plan. No harm done.

This is a prescription for disaster for the Republicans in this race, as Augustine's attacks on DeStefano surely will be echoed in TV ads against him in the general election. And should Augustine pull off a miracle and win the primary, the party's rebuke will be front and center in the post-Aug. 15 world.

The likely result can be summed up in three words: Treasurer Kate Marshall. She's the Democratic contender who is watching all of this with no small amount of glee, I would guess. Not to worry, though. DeStefano has all the money in the world and surely can fend off any of Augustine's attacks and Marshall's later on. No harm done.

But no one really cares about the complaint Hunt and Beers have about Gibbons - that he will not debate them. The public is blase about such trivialities.

No harm done.

It is nothing short of an upside-down effect that after both state conventions, the Democrats, who would usually rather engage in a knife fight than a lovefest, made no headlines and the Republicans could not help themselves. (I am sure the liberal media bias has something to do with this - or I am sure we will be told that soon enough.)

The biggest news out of the Democratic convention last month was Sen. Harry Reid dismissing Jack Carter from a news conference in the same way many have dismissed the presidential son's Senate candidacy. That truly was no harm done because there was no more harm to do.

But with GOP candidate recruiting efforts down the ticket a rippling embarrassment and national polls showing that Democrats have all the advantages, never has doing no harm seemed more important for a state convention.

And never has it seemed more evident that the Republicans have adopted the Democrats' motto in recent years:

Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.