Backstory: Augustine, With a Scarlet A

By Michael Green

Understanding Kathy Augustine's impeachment and trial requires you to know about Pat McCarran, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bill Clinton and Edmund Ross.

• McCarran was the defense attorney in the trial of George Cole and Ed Malley. Cole and Augustine share the distinction of being state controllers who disgraced their office. While Augustine was convicted on one count of impeachment, Cole went to jail--along with state treasurer Malley--for embezzling state money during the 1920s.

McCarran's defense of Cole and Malley was that they were part of the political machine run by George Wingfield during the first third of the 20th century. Wingfield dominated Nevada like no one before or since--owner of several mines, Reno's leading hotels and the state's major banks. McCarran fought Wingfield the whole time and relished the chance to embarrass him--to get even with the boss who kept him out of high office.

The jury didn't buy the defense and sent Cole and Malley to prison--rightly so. But McCarran made the point that their ties to--indeed, their dependence on--Wingfield made them consider themselves beyond the reach of the law.

A few years later, McCarran won a U.S. Senate seat, defeating the Wingfield-backed incumbent Tasker Oddie, thanks mainly to the economic crunch caused by the Great Depression. And McCarran used every possible means to destroy his opponents--including threats, blackmail and intimidation--that make Augustine look like a fairy godmother. But as a defense attorney, he made the point that Augustine's defenders made, and that he could have made as a senator: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Augustine isn't the first elected official to use her staff for campaign work.

All of which helped put state Sen. Bill Raggio's call for censure in perspective. One of the lasting memories many have of Augustine is her dishonest, possibly even anti-Semitic mailer attacking state Sen. Lori Lipman Brown for not participating in the daily prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. Augustine won the race but Brown took her to court and Augustine wound up apologizing for her sleaziness. Does anyone know which current state senator endorsed that mailer? Bill Raggio.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. Remember sleeping through it in English class? It's about Hester Prynne wearing the "A" for Adultery in Puritan times. How unfair the Puritans were! How prudish! You'd think they all lived in a red state.

Virtually everyone involved in impeaching Augustine, then convicting her on one count, talks about the permanent blot on her escutcheon as the only state official ever impeached, convicted on one count, censured by the Legislature, fined by the ethics commission, blah, blah, blah.

You might recall from Cliff's Notes that Hester was a far more heroic figure than her accusers. Not that Augustine ever has been heroic. But all of this talk about her disgrace is far-fetched--and ironic.

• Which brings us to Bill Clinton. In 1998, Republicans foamed at the mouth to get him--current House Majority Leader Tom "For Sale or Rent" DeLay all but put colleagues in a headlock to force them to vote for impeachment. The Senate tried Clinton and predictably acquitted him. Then Democrats gained seats in the midterm elections.

Impeachment seems to have had no great effect on Clinton's life or reputation. Democrats still lionize him and Republicans hate him, regardless of whether persecutor--uh, prosecutor--Kenneth Starr spent $70 million of your money to prove Clinton and Newt Gingrich shared the characteristic of being unfaithful to their wives.

Could that have weighed on some legislators' minds, that if they went too far against Augustine, they would look vindictive and possibly pay for it later, or even help her? Probably not. But after ignoring a request from almost every top Nevada Republican to resign, Augustine suffered great ignominy--and said she hasn't ruled out running for higher office. Boy, they really taught her a lesson.

• Who is Edmund Ross? In 1957, John Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage, a book about senators who voted their conscience and paid dearly for it. One of those he profiled was Ross. Two years later, my late mentor at UNLV, Ralph Roske, published a scholarly article debunking Kennedy's account.

In 1868, the House impeached President Andrew Johnson on 11 counts, having mostly to do with obstructing congressional policy on Reconstruction. Republicans wanted civil rights for newly freed slaves and former Confederates to suffer for their treason against the United States. Johnson hoped to return blacks to the equivalent of slavery and pretty much let the rebels return to power.

When the Senate tried him, the vote was 35-19 to convict--one short of the two-thirds needed. Seven Republicans joined the Democratic minority. One of the "seven martyrs," Ross, claimed to have acted on principle and suffered the consequences.

Actually, neither happened. He was about to lose his office. He acted for political reasons and tried to cash in on his vote to acquit. And the evidence suggests that other Republicans were ready to vote for acquittal if Ross didn't. The idea was to teach Johnson a lesson and declaw him by impeaching him.

By the way, six years later, Tennessee elected Johnson to the Senate. Yeah, impeachment was a real career-ender. Will that be true of Augustine? Perhaps more untrue mailers and temper tantrums are in her future.