WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada managed to offend not only Republican senators last week but also an Italian-American group with a comment he made in a televised interview.

Appearing Wednesday on the "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer," Reid scoffed at the notion that Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., had called for lobbying reform.

"Having Senator Santorum talk about reform is like having John Gotti talk about doing something about organized crime," Reid said.

That drew a rebuke from the Columbus Citizens Foundation of New York City, which noted Santorum is the son of an Italian immigrant. The foundation supports scholarships for Italian-American students and organizes the annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City.

"Senator Reid's callous comment is shocking, unjust and inappropriate since it invokes the specter of organized crime in a criticism of an Italian-American," foundation president Louis Tallarini said.

"On behalf of the Columbus Citizens Foundation and the estimated 26 million Italian-American citizens of this country, we demand an apology from Senator Reid."

Reid spokesman Jim Manley called the criticism ridiculous and said Reid did not even know Santorum was Italian.

"The fact is, Senator Santorum is the last person who should be put in charge of cleaning up Washington," Manley said. Manley also said the Pennsylvania senator was a founder of the K Street Project, a GOP initiative to place Republicans in key lobbying jobs in Washington.

On Thursday, Reid apologized for singling out 33 Republican senators, including Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, in a controversial news release disseminated by Reid's "war room."

Meanwhile, Republican leaders are considering whether to go to the Senate ethics committee, or demand Reid shut down his war room and fire Manley, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call which cited unnamed sources.

The Roll Call article quoted an unnamed Democratic aide vowing, "The war room will never close. Manley will never be fired."

Unmentioned elephant

The Nevada Commission on Ethics hearings on Lynette Boggs McDonald was exhibit A for those who want to see public employees barred from sitting in the state Legislature. Too bad for them, then, that the larger issue also turned out to be the unmentioned elephant in the room during the 16 hours of testimony and deliberation.

Wendell Williams claimed that when he was an assemblyman back in 2003, then-Councilwoman Boggs McDonald pressured him to kill a piece of legislation that she thought would hurt her husband's job.

Williams said he felt he had to hop-to because he was a city employee, and the councilwoman was essentially his boss.

After two days of hearings over Jan. 12 and Jan. 13, the commission found a lack of evidence that Boggs McDonald pressured Williams, though many commissioners agreed that Boggs McDonald could certainly be thought of as above Williams on the management food chain.

"This is a great reason why you shouldn't have city employees in the Legislature," said Steve Miller, head of Nevada Policy Research Institute.

"None of this would have happened if you didn't have a government employee sitting up there (in the Legislature)," said Knight Allen, a consistent advocate for reform.

But before the hearing, both Miller and Allen successfully predicted that the larger issue wouldn't be touched by the commission.

"They're going to duck it, avoid it," Miller said.

Allen's hope that any meaningful change would come from within continues to be low.

"The Ethics Commission, Legislature, courts. Nobody want to deal with it," he said, pointing to impressive clout held by public employee unions.

Before the hearing, which was held on Jan. 12 and 13, Ethics Commission Executive Director Stacy Jennings explained that the board could only make a ruling on the complaint in front of them.

After being exonerated, Boggs McDonald said that if nothing else, the hearing reinforced her belief that city employees should not serve in the Legislature.

She recalls she came to that realization back when she was on the council and Williams was going through an imbroglio over double-dipping (drawing city pay while serving in Carson City), falsifying his time card and using his city-issued cell phone for private use.

"It took me a while to come to that conclusion," she said. "It wasn't an 'ah-ha' moment."

Hardcastle vs. Hardcastle

Two well-known judges who were married since 1991 confirmed last week that they've divorced.

Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle and Chief District Court Judge Kathy Hardcastle finalized their divorce earlier this month.

"We continue to have the utmost respect and admiration for one another," Kathy Hardcastle said Thursday.

Both Hardcastles declined further comment.

Their family life made headlines in 2004 when they went public about the difficulties they'd had with their daughter, Whitney, who was a rebellious teen struggling with a variety of issues, including substance abuse.

The family's difficulties were featured in an article by The New York Times, and both of the Hardcastles said they talked publicly about the private issue because they wanted other parents to know they were not alone in battling the problem.

Review-Journal writer Glenn Puit contributed to this report.