The "anonymous" mailer criticizing Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone was so badly botched, I could almost understand why Tom Skancke would lie about his role in producing it.
Still, I have to say I was disappointed. Not that Skancke would lie, but that he would do such a poor job of it.
Given the opportunity to fess up during a recent phone call, Skancke folded the truth 15 ways and denied any link to what has been the worst-kept secret in Las Vegas. When Skancke's first response sounded like misdirection, I reframed the question. Then I asked another, and another just to make sure. He turned every lifeline into a noose.
He repeatedly said he had nothing to do with the mailer. He didn't write it, design it, fund it, target it, mail it. And he had no idea who did.
Was that his final answer?
It was. I hung up the phone wondering where Skancke learned that it was a sound political policy to lie to a newspaper columnist. It was a far more egregious sin to do so without a lick of style. At least Station Casinos Executive Vice President Mark Brown had had the good sense not to comment on the issue.
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate a good whopper as well as the next guy. As a newspaper writer, I get lied to more than the place on the driver's license marked "weight." But there are unwritten rules to this game.
I expect spin doctors and public officials to present their version of events to the exclusion of all others, and occasionally to deli-slice the truth until it is as thin as rice paper.
All that, but never flat-out fabricate. Offer no comment. Talk about the weather. Do your best rendition of "God Bless America." Be unavailable, even.
Anything is better than a lie. It's not only bad for your soul, it makes you look like an amateur.
On Friday, Skancke tried to take full responsibility for something he did not act on alone. More misdirection from this sleight-of-head magician. As if corporations act independently of the people who run them, Skancke implicated Station Casinos, the Fiesta, and The Howard Hughes Corp. as the financial backers of the mailer.
Like bad boys called to the front of the classroom, Skancke and Brown have been forced to mope forward and take their medicine.
There is sure to be another hand-wringing confession soon. Perhaps the third schoolboy is hiding in the coat closet for fear of wearing the dunce cap. Looks like one size fits all in this caper.
Personally, I think it's good that Skancke and Brown accepted some of the responsibility for producing the less-than-mysterious hit piece, which was sent to 39,000 households in Malone's northwest district under the heading: "You Just Can't Trust Lance Malone." In the mailer, Malone was depicted as a corrupt money-grubber with his pockets stuffed with cash following his flip-flop vote to endorse a neighborhood casino project for the Triple 5 Development Corp.
Acting forthright eventually will help refocus the public's attention on the commission race. Despite a big fund-raising lead, Malone's seat on the commission is extremely vulnerable. The guy appears to get his political advice from the ghost of Jim Varney. Malone's four-year tenure has been riddled with enough self-inflicted wounds to qualify him for Red Cross relief. After his Triple 5 reversal, he said, "All an elected official has sometimes is his word - and this time I'll have to back off my word."
Who writes this guy's material, Tom Skancke?
Although the FBI has shown an interest in the mystery mailer - it may violate a marginally constitutional state law and could have set the stage for a little political intimidation - those involved have more to fear from other local casino executives whose companies were listed in the mailer without their knowledge or permission.
In one immensely boneheaded display, Skancke, Brown and their associates might have provided Malone with enough fodder to keep him in office despite himself.
If I didn't know better, I'd think they were conspiring to get Lance Malone re-elected.
John L. Smith's column appears Wednesday. Reach him at (702) 383-0295 or Smith@lasvegas.com.
