Wednesday’s conference call featuring Nevada Republican Party Chairman Paul Adams and impeached Controller Kathy Augustine was a fun time for those of us in the media-industrial complex lucky enough to be invited to listen in. (Thanks to Citizen Outreach boss Chuck Muth, our one conservative friend, for the invite.)

Adams outlined his desire to adopt a party rule that would allow the Republicans to essentially shun any elected official who’d been impeached and convicted while in office. (And since Augustine holds the dubious distinction of being the only public official ever impeached while in office, this bylaw change would apply exclusively to her.)

“I believe that the party can and should establish standards for candidates,” Adams said. “This is more a matter of standards for the party than any particular race.”

Adams also knows it’s an issue of credibility: He regularly slams U.S. Sen. Harry Reid in news releases for partisanship and ethics (Reid refuses to return more than $60,000 given to him by clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff). Adams knows he can’t slam Democrats on ethics and partisanship if he’s got a problem in his own house.

Speaking of the problem, Augustine refused several entreaties from Muth to detail the circumstances surrounding her crimes, which included using her employees and office equipment to campaign for re-election in 2002. (If you notice we didn’t use an “allegedly” in front of that, it’s because there’s no need; Augustine admitted her violations before the state Ethics Commission, and was assessed a $15,000 fine.)

But Augustine refused to discuss it. “I don’t think that this is the venue to discuss that,” she said, more than once. But if a conference call with conservative leaders isn’t the place for Augustine to argue she was mistreated, what is?

Our favorite line was when Augustine told Adams he didn’t have all the facts about her case. Augustine was represented in her impeachment trial by Dominic Gentile, one of the state’s foremost defense lawyers. He knows how to prepare a case, and we’re convinced that he brought out all the facts favorable to Augustine during the hearings before the state Senate. (And he was effective, too; she was convicted on only one count of the impeachment and acquitted on two others.) All the facts about the case are out, and they’re well-known.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Adams is doing the right thing in proposing the bylaw change. It sends the message that the Republicans won’t simply be shills for anybody who decides to check the GOP’s box on his voter-registration form. And it shows the party is serious about ethics. (Under the bylaw change, the party would refuse to even allow impeached officials to speak at club meetings, to say nothing of denying them access to party funds. A person could still register and run as a Republican, but would do so without any party support.)

We hope the rank and file of the Republican Party sees his wisdom when they meet in Mesquite in May.

And now for some Quick Hits!

• Did anybody else notice that the No. 1 beneficiary of the proposed county redistricting plan would be Republican Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald? Currently, her District F seat is home to 41,363 active-voting Democrats, 34,424 active-voting Republicans and 14,591 active non-partisans.

But under each of the redistricting plans under consideration, Republicans would gain a majority in District F. Moreover, the district would lose more than half its Hispanic population, according to a Review-Journal report on the plan published today.

The paper quotes Boggs McDonald thusly: “I don’t think about it because when a citizen calls me I don’t ask them if they’re a Republican or a Democrat, I just take care of business.”

That may be true, but when a partisan voter steps into the voting booth, he or she does ask what party their commissioner is. And Boggs McDonald knows that.

To be sure, Boggs McDonald has shown she has the ability to win in the district; with the help of consultants November Inc., she dismembered ex-Assemblyman David Goldwater’s campaign in 2004. But Goldwater’s campaign strategy — post high numbers in the primary in the hopes of drawing dollars later in the contest — didn’t work as well as he’d hoped. Future opponents may not make the same mistake.

And the boundaries won’t be changing before November’s elections, so Boggs McDonald will still greet Election Day with her nearly 7,000-voter deficit. If she wins again, however, her future seat will be much safer than her current one.

• Bad news for Assemblyman Scott Sibley.

• Really bad, post-Mormon conversion news for ex-Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera.

• Super-bad, campaign killing news for would-be sheriff, Lt. Ron Williams.

And finally today…

• Say what you want about Mayor Oscar Goodman, and we’ve said plenty over the years, he’s right on at least one issue. In today’s Review-Journal story on the expansion of the city’s sometimes-controversial redevelopment area, Goodman outlined a simple philosophy that will guide the council when it comes to the use of eminent domain.

“There are certain rules we will abide by,” Goodman said. “This council, as long as I’m the mayor, will not take private property and give it to another private owner.”

On it’s face, the statement seems obvious, even patronizing. You mean you’ll abide by the provisions of the Bill of Rights’ Fifth Amendment, which allows only the taking of private property for public use. You won’t engage in armed robbery? Super!

But it is a big deal, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s gentle erasing of the Fifth Amendment’s meaning over the past few decades, culminating in the horrid Kelo v. New London decision last year, which essentially legalized the theft of private property in order to turn it over to other private owners. And Las Vegas — under a different mayor — was doing Kelo-style property thefts downtown before it was even cool.

In light of that, Goodman’s policy isn’t obvious at all. It’s welcome, and, from what the R-J reported, it seemed to calm his constituents who were worked about Kelo-style abuses. We wish more public officials would adopt the Goodman Doctrine with respect to eminent domain.

But just in case they don’t, there’s a way you as a citizen could stop any eminent domain abuses. Sign and vote for the so-called PISTOL initiative, now circulating. (It stands for People’s Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land.) You can find more information about that here.