They should all apologize.

Instead, they are attacking the integrity and competence of others – their specialty – as this coterie’s attempt to undermine the electoral process in one of the more mendacious and destructive schemes in Nevada history fizzles amid….a lack of integrity and competence.

I speak of the Gang That Couldn’t Recall Straight, led by less-than-straight-shooter Michael Roberson, which last week suffered yet another setback, this one a presumably fatal one, as election officials declared their efforts an abject failure. Just as state Senate GOP Leader Roberson and his accomplices and enablers have done since the boasts of 2017 have given way to the realities of their ineptitude in 2018, they reacted by hiding and then whispering calumnies about respected officials (Registrar Joe Gloria) to stenographic media allies.

This is an effort born of duplicity that will die in ignominy.

Even if Roberson & The Recallers were to successfully protest the latest finding and appeal to the state Supreme Court, where they will almost certainly lose, they are likely to be defeated if any recalls were ever held (doubtful) and they cannot obscure the truth: Roberson conceived this not because he believes the three targeted lawmakers deserved to be recalled but because he and others knew the GOP could not recapture the state Senate this year unless they put other seats in play.

This is not opinion; it’s fact. And they revealed it themselves with trumped-up reasons and falsehoods presented by their door-knockers and mail pieces and exposed by media members who wanted to do more than parrot the Republican leader.

All they will have accomplished in the end is to inject more poison into the already toxic body politic, using a rhetorical syringe filled with bile. They are quacks who have done damage by their adherence to The Hypocratic Oath, attacking state Sens. Patty Farley (that recall already is dead), Joyce Woodhouse and Nicole Cannizzaro for raising taxes a session after Roberson pushed through the largest one in history.

This is the politics of character assassination that has become Roberson’s hallmark since the 2017 session, when he grasped for attention with nasty news releases and then fronted for Attorney General Adam Laxalt, caught on tape trying to influence state gaming regulators to help Sheldon Adelson, by attacking A.G. Burnett, the Control Board chairman who had not a speck on his record.

If there is any silver lining to this cloud these people brought to Nevada, it is that they exposed themselves for who they are in starkly clear terms. The list of those who should be forever tarnished is, alas, not short:

----Roberson: He has practiced the politics of subtraction after he threw political caution aside in 2015 and pushed through a $1.5 billion increase and advocated for more ELL money before most Democrats did. Since then, he has failed at every turn – losing to serial candidate Danny Tarkanian in a congressional race and then overseeing the loss of the state Senate, promising not to have his caucus vote for a budget last year unless Education Savings Accounts were passed (they weren't) and then guaranteeing three successful recall elections would be held before Christmas last year. (He pretended to be an interested bystander, but it’s clear he thought of the idea and the smoking gun was his ally, Billy Rogers, the only person who could have qualified this, led the field effort.) The only thing Roberson is good at, it seems, is raising taxes. I suppose he can take solace that if he loses the lieutenant governor’s race, he can return to his native Kansas where the Kochs can find him a sinecure just as Kolesar & Leatham gave him one here.

----Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison: Hutchison’s good-guy mask has been removed to reveal a shameless partisan after by his eager embrace of the recalls and willingness to front them and make money off them through his law firm. He had neither the fortitude nor the statesmanship of Gov. Brian Sandoval, who was clearly disgusted and outraged by the recalls. Hutchison has not been the governor’s lieutenant; he has been Roberson’s.

----State Senate GOP Caucus: Roberson’s prostrate colleagues have been a portrait of cowardice and ambition. They were so desperate for chairmanships and power that they were willing to mortgage their integrity and honesty to either support the effort or cower without comment. They did not find it hard to bend to Roberson’s will because they are invertebrates. Their reward: They will remain in the minority.

----Stephen Silberkraus: He seemed to many like a thoughtful, principled guy during the 2015 session. But after he lost in 2016, he shambled through the Legislative Building hallways with no reason to be there, like the guy kicked out of a club who begs to be let back in. When he agreed to be the leader of the recall against Woodhouse, Silberkraus showed just how desperate he was to please Master Roberson. He also refused for months to talk to the media about what he was doing because he obviously had no idea what he was doing. He is running again this cycle, and he should wear this like a Scarlet R.

----Carrie Buck: The Pinecrest Academy boss ran a credible race against Woodhouse in 2016 and lost. But when she agreed to be the candidate against the senator in a proposed recall election just a few months later, she revealed herself as a sore-losing opportunist. I wonder if she has installed a “If at first you don’t succeed, cheat to win” course for her students.

The Democrats were caught off guard and initially feared the scheme might work. But they rebounded, started a counter-field campaign and hired the best legal team – renowned national expert Marc Elias and superb local counsel Bradley Schrager – to file state and federal lawsuits. The tell that their efforts were working was when Roberson did his usual ad hominem thing, sneering at Elias for being Hillary Clinton’s lawyer and feeding his media echo at the Review-Journal tales of Democratic operatives being mean to people at the door. (I kid you not.)

The Democrats were nearly panicked and turned up their wails to a screech at times. Their assertion that this was being done because the three lawmakers are women was ludicrous; Roberson would have done this regardless of the targets’ gender.

Ironically, though, turning Farley, Woodhouse and Cannizzaro into martyrs just as the #MeToo movement began could help drive female turnout this year for the Democrats. (Just don’t mention – whispers – Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen.)

The Republicans may lose even more seats in both houses because of this debacle. If by some chance the Democrats have veto-proof majorities in both houses and a Democratic governor come 2019, they can thank the Senate Republican leader.

I don’t expect Roberson & The Recallers to show any remorse for what they have done. Shame is not in their repertoire.

But the odds are they will lose. Why?

They are just not very good at this.

Jon Ralston is the editor of The Nevada Independent. He has been covering Nevada politics for more than 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ralstonreports