Now we’ll see whether GOP can take punch

Michael McDonald is a boxing aficionado, so it's only fitting a column on him begin with an appropriate fight game analogy.

It comes from one of my favorite moments in the movie "Raging Bull." It's the scene at the end of a fight between Jake LaMotta and Ray Robinson. Robinson, the dancing master, has just finished pulverizing but not quite finishing off the relentless brawler from the Bronx. Although jabbed to a bloody pulp, LaMotta somehow manages to remain on his feet.

"You didn't get me down, Ray," The Bronx Bull calls out as Robinson leaves the ring.

That's McDonald's political career reduced to a pugilistic haiku. He's taken a beating, but he hasn't gone down.

You will run out of fingers counting the times McDonald has been bloodied in the public ring, often by self-inflicted blows. As a Las Vegas city councilman, the former cop faced ethics issues that hit him like withering body shots. His personal associations and questionable consulting deals tattered his reputation as a local boy who made good. He was heavily scrutinized by Metro, the FBI and the IRS during the investigations of former topless cabaret moguls Rick Rizzolo and Michael Galardi.

Politicians and wiseguys dropped to the canvas one after another. But when the haze cleared, there was McDonald, grinning through blackened eyes and reminding skeptics no one had knocked him down.

There's a price to be paid for all that political punishment, of course. McDonald was bounced from the council in 2003 by political neophyte Janet Moncrief, and political ringsiders bet a bundle he would never be heard from again. He was the quintessence of damaged goods, but it was Moncrief who would be indicted in August 2004 for campaign finance misconduct.

McDonald was beaten, but they didn't get him down, didn't knock him out.

Now he's back as the chairman of the Nevada Republican Party and the recent recipient of $11 million in public subsidies for a proposed senior housing development in his old Decatur Boulevard neighborhood. The City Council gave its imprimatur on the housing deal with a 5-1 vote over staff objections.

The catcalls of critics and readers echoed across the valley. They roar that McDonald's controversial past cripples his credibility in the present. They make good points.

And it doesn't help that the guy from the party of small government just landed a big-government subsidy. Late-night TV joke writers would be challenged to top that kind of material.

In short, they say this McDonald palooka is too embarrassing to lead the state Republican Party. He could become a scandalous sidebar when the national media converge on Nevada in pursuit of stories from inside the swing state. The hand-wringing party hierarchy here might be positively mortified.

Excuse me. We are talking about the Nevada Republican Party, right?

The party of Ensign, Gibbons, the great McCain tank job of 2008, and the billionaire who bought his own presidential candidate? That Republican Party?

It's only a hunch, but McDonald might not be the Republicans' biggest problem in the coming election.

"In the scheme of things, I'm insignificant," McDonald says in his own defense. "There are great campaign managers that are running these campaigns. Their reputations precede them. My job is to unite the party, raise funds for the candidates, and put Nevada first. There's a convention next Saturday, and I just got elected last Sunday. There's still a lot of catching up to do."

In that respect, he's like his favorite political party. It also has a lot of catching up to do.

In the end, damaged goods or not, I don't think the new state GOP chairman will quit. I don't think he knows how.

Although no one asked, I sure don't want McDonald to quit.

If for no other reason, he gives me someone to punch at on a slow news day.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.