Jon Ralston on Goodman lacking courage and Gibbons’ woeful vetting machine

Friday, Sept. 7, 2007 | 7:30 a.m.

Some week-in-review thoughts as the mayor and the governor raise questions (again) about their behavior:

Many professional women, besides ex-Mayor Jan Jones, have expressed disbelief and outrage over the column and Goodman's comments. They rightly point out that the city was painted by Herbert with a broad brush, which shows both their unwillingness to accept the seamier and titillating side of life here and their legitimate aggravation that, thanks to Goodman's shtick, stereotypes are reinforced.

Much of this is obvious, folks: There is plenty of prostitution in Herbert's Manhattan back yard and in any major metropolitan city. And it's hard to argue that it's not safer for prostitutes in a legalized brothel, here or anywhere else, although it's also ludicrous to claim that a large percentage of prostitutes are ruthless, happy business practitioners doing what they most want to do.

Fine. With that out of the way, though, the question of whether prostitution is degrading to women or whether women are more seen as pleasure objects here than anywhere else in the universe is hardly arguable. Goodman's crassness offends most thinking and working women and most people with sophistication because he reinforces caricatures of Las Vegas that are only as true as those who want to perpetuate them. And he does.

Goodman said at his weekly news conference Thursday that legalizing prostitution is a "legitimate topic to be discussed" and that people "shouldn't be ostriches" about it, and yet he somehow stopped short of saying he favors it. Where are all his sycophants who praise his putative courage?

If Goodman wants it legalized, then just say it and fight for it - on principle. His dodge - that his constituents aren't "ready for it" - is the mark of a coward, not a leader.

"I'll take a baseball bat and break his head if he ever comes here," Mayor Thug said to the newspaper that exists to follow up on Sun stories. On Thursday he called Herbert "a clown."

And I bet his peeps loved it. Isn't Oscar funny? Isn't he tough? Isn't he just like us?

For all of Las Vegas' sake, I say: I hope not.

Maybe Joseph Waltuch will turn out to be the most impressive mortgage-lending regulator in the history of the United States. But how could the governor and his advisers, including Business and Industry chief Mendy Elliott, not foresee the firestorm when they appointed him?

Waltuch worked at the highest levels of a company, New Century, that has become a symbol of the subprime lending implosion - it is in bankruptcy and facing a federal probe. Maybe, as Elliott argues, he had no knowledge of the company's fiscal situation and was a victim, not a perpetrator.

Why then was Waltuch's job at New Century, his most recent employment, not included in the press release? Did they accidentally omit it? Did they think no one would check?

It seems, as this appointment is added to others, that the more operative and simple question is this one: Do they think?

These are the same political geniuses who orchestrated a midnight swearing-in supposedly to appoint a homeland security expert - now resigned. These are the same clever manipulators who appointed a known dump supporter to an anti-dump panel - and then withdrew it after they became aware of what everyone else knew. And these are the same calculating Mensa types who knocked airport deputy chief Rosemary Vassiliadis off the Homeland Security panel for no other apparent reason than animus toward her husband, who supported Gibbons ' opponent - and they still have not replaced her to at least make it seem as if they deposed her for legitimate reasons.

So: Do they even think?