Fool's gold standard

It would be impossible to tell if Liberty Watch: The Magazine put out an April Fools' Day issue, since almost every issue of the glossy rag is a joke. From avowed racist Ken Ward to the obviously cleaned-up prose of semi-literate Publisher George Harris, Liberty Watch is just a couple steps above a comic book on its best day.

But with the June issue, Liberty Watch has devolved even from that, into a clumsy and obvious propaganda sheet.

In a cover story written by Liberty Watch Editor Mike Zigler, state Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, is lionized as the "gold standard," whose "service and style has become a model for Republicans to follow." (Full disclosure: Zigler formerly worked at CityLife as a staff writer and news editor.)

Astonishingly, the Washington piece contains not a single negative word about the senator, whose troubles are legion and well-publicized. In fact, CityLife was able to discover a number of things that should be included in any honest Washington profile in about 30 minutes of Internet research and a mere $9.95 to purchase some back articles from the Reno Gazette-Journal.

It's enough to make readers wonder if perhaps the staff or owners at Liberty Watch are being paid to put out soft-focus features on friends, and vicious attacks on enemies. To be sure, in the March issue of Liberty Watch, Zigler penned an article that slammed pundit Jon Ralston. In just three months, however, his bulldog instincts have apparently atrophied.

Consider some of the passages from the Washington profile.

"In a Legislature full of wannabes and misguided hopefuls, state Sen. Maurice Washington's ideas and voice are breaths of fresh air," the piece begins.

And, toward the end: "A humble man, Washington sometimes thinks about the day when he doesn't return to Carson City. He is content with life's offerings, knowing he has been successful in many areas."

In the middle, it's the rosiest view of Washington's legislative efforts, including a "major bill" Washington helped pass concerning charter schools. Tellingly, Zigler doesn't see fit to mention the Nevada Leadership Academy, a charter school run out of the church Washington founded, the Center of Hope Christian Fellowship. Dig into the matter more deeply, and you learn why:

* Washington served briefly on the Nevada Leadership Academy board, which school officials in Washoe County cited as a conflict, since the school paid the church lease money.

* Washington was also accused of misusing public funds, when he withdrew $150,000 from school accounts and wrote a cashier's check to his church, using that to convince Wells Fargo Bank officials that the church had enough money to buy the land on which it sits. The money was returned after a week, according to the Gazette-Journal's story about a state audit into the matter.

"Because of necessity, the school came forward to help. The school provided a short-term loan," Washington said in the Aug. 20, 2002 Gazette-Journal story. But the following month, in a Sept. 16, 2002 story by another reporter in the same newspaper, Washington had a different view: "The school didn't loan money to the church. As far as I know, it was a legitimate business transaction to secure facilities for the church."

Wells Fargo declined to press fraud charges, and the matter was dropped.

* Washington is perhaps most famous for trying to collect workman's compensation for a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered while playing in a Republicans-vs.-Democrats charity basketball game in 2001. He claimed he was acting in his capacity as a state senator, and thus was entitled to state coverage. (Washington's own insurance policy was for catastrophic coverage only.)

He was denied coverage, appealed, and was again rebuffed, after a hearing officer found he participated in the game voluntarily.

* Ironically, around the same time, Washington was facing state charges for failing to provide worker's compensation insurance at both his church and the charter school. In fact, an affidavit contained in court papers alleges Washington personally ordered school officials not to pay for the coverage.

(A woman who worked at a day care center operated by the church was injured, and incurred $11,246 in expenses. The fees were initially paid from the state Uninsured Employers Claim Account, but the state later sued for reimbursement. It was the third worker's comp case filed against Washington, his church or the school in an eight-week period in 2002, according to the Gazette-Journal.)

* In November 2002, after winning a third term in the state Senate, Washington pled no-contest to a charge of failing to maintain worker's compensation insurance for employees at the school. (The charge of personally ordering the suspension of payments was dismissed.)

* In a wide-ranging Ethics Commission complaint filed against him in 2002, just before the November election, it was revealed that Washington used official state Senate letterhead to solicit campaign contributions from business leaders. (The commission ruled in 2001 that the use of such stationery for fund-raising was improper.)

Washington told the Gazette-Journal that he wouldn't do it again.

"I was trying to inform the business community it was going to be a tough campaign. With the revenue shortfall issue, experienced leadership was going to be vital in the next session so I asked for their support. I wouldn't want to create the controversy or stigma of impropriety."

The complaint -- including the letterhead issue -- was dismissed by a two-member panel of the commission and did not go to a full hearing. It turns out Washington had paid for the state Senate letterhead with personal funds.

* Although Liberty Watch may think of Washington as "the gold standard," legislative colleagues, lobbyists and the press disagree. In polls conducted by the Review-Journal in 2001 and 2003, Washington was ranked as the worst senator in Nevada. In 2005, he fell to third, behind state Sens. Sandra Tiffany and Barbara Cegavske.

* Even on a matter that could evoke sympathy, Liberty Watch was demure: The magazine alludes briefly to Washington's "health troubles." In fact, Washington was rushed for emergency surgery to treat colon cancer following the December 2004 impeachment hearings for state Controller Kathy Augustine. He endured chemotherapy during the 2005 Legislature, in addition to serving as chairman of the Human Services and Education Committee.

* And there's always the political record. Washington has cast votes against banning the death penalty for juveniles in Nevada, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the practice constituted cruel and unusual punishment. (In support of the death penalty, he once cited the Bible on the Senate floor, saying "I believe in the whole book," including Old Testament passages that call for the death penalty in cases of murder. His support for stoning adulterers and gays, also endorsed by the Old Testament, has been lacking, however.)

Washington voted not to require health insurance companies to cover contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. And he once famously declared on the Senate floor that "the only color that matters is the color green." He attributed his 2002 victory, in a quote that appeared in the Gazette-Journal, to "a lot of prayer, the good Lord on our side and a lot of good people, especially Sen. [and state Senate Majority Leader Bill] Raggio." At least he put God before Raggio.

* Speaking of Raggio, Washington says the senator, along with state Sen. Randolph Townsend, talked him into running for office back in 1995. So who are the only two colleagues interviewed in Zigler's piece? You guessed it: Raggio and Townsend.

All of these things were known, or could easily have been discovered, to Zigler and Liberty Watch, had they bothered to look. Apparently, they didn't. Why not remains an interesting question. The fact that this piece is downright dishonest is not in question at all.