It’s Monday, and we’re way behind over here. But we’ve got some Quick Hits for you anyway! Here we go!

• About time. Don’t get us wrong: We’re glad District Attorney David Roger is moving to oust embattled Recorder Frances Deane from office before her term expires in November. As Roger says, “It doesn’t make sense to keep paying her salary when it’s pretty clear she has committed some serious criminal acts.”

Our question is: What took you so long?

It’s been obvious — to everybody except Justice of the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron, who has yet to rule on whether Deane should be bound over for trial on charges she sold public records to shady businessmen — that Deane has committed some serious criminal acts. Her preliminary hearing was in June, for God’s sake.

Why wait until now to evict her? Why not do it when the allegations were first brought to light?

Partly, it may be explained by the fact that Deane hasn’t been around the office much, taking a paid “medical leave” for weeks and leaving her duties in the care of the assistant recorder.

But the fact remains, this move is long overdue, as is Bennett-Haron’s decision. How ironic will it be if a judge removes Deane from office before Bennett-Haron gets around to deciding whether there’s enough evidence to even have a trial?

• That’s debatable. So U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons wants to have a trio of debates, including one in Elko? We hope that state Sen. Dina Titus packs her .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver for that one. Not only will it endear her to locals, but it just might come in handy after Gibbons tars her as “a Kennedy liberal.” Up in Elko, them’s fighting words!

• Quotable: “He’s a 10-year congressman who was shunned for every committee position he ever pursued. His peers in the House have spoken volumes in the last few years. The speaker of the House and the leadership have spoken, and Nevada should listen.” — Political consultant Billy Vassiliadis on Gibbons.

Well, not every position, Billy. He is, after all, chairman of the Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee of the Resources Committee. Remember that bill that would have let big mining companies buy up the land surrounding old mining claims and put condos on them? That was an Energy and Mineral Resources special.

Oh, wait. That bill didn’t pass. OK, never mind.

• Don’t forget! Candidates for office including governor and Congress will appear at a candidate’s forum from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight at the Flamingo Library Theater, 1401 E. Flamingo Road. The forum is sponsored by Congregation Ner Tamid, and is guest hosted by my colleague Jon Ralston.

In our recent profile of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, we at Various Things & Stuff quoted current and former Senate staffers calling Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison a “Reid-hater.”

And, as if to prove those staffers correct, Morrison penned a column this weekend giving lots of ink to a prominent member of Reid’s faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In a letter to Reid, former Mormon Bishop James Howard upbraided Reid for failing to vote for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage.

Morrison quoted Howard thus: “You chose your party’s agenda over Nevadans’, over your Prophets’ wishes, and defied God in the process. … You have sold out for power and position. Whining about how offended you are that your ‘Brethren’ are not supportive of you anymore is not becoming of a leader of such high position. Justifying your weak stance in direct opposition to your Church’s position is lame. You fear your party more than God.

“But having sold out your church, your state and possibly your soul for political power, I will have a hard time supporting you or voting for you in the future, should you attempt to hold on to your seat. Your soul is vacant, and you have lost your moral compass.”

Now, to be fair, Morrison did quote from a Reid letter and floor speech defending his stance — saying the amendment was a Republican move to distract from the party’s failures elsewhere, and that the issue belonged with the states. Reid supported a gay-marriage ban in Nevada’s constitution.

And, to be even more fair, this is a legitimate subject for commentary. But Morrison missed the clear and obvious opportunity to note that Howard is … well, wrong. And Reid is clearly in the right.

Any time that anyone — whether they speak with the authority of a church or not, and Howard acknowledged he was speaking only for himself — tries to use religion to force a person into a political stance, the wall between church and state has been breached. And anytime that happens, it’s incumbent upon people of goodwill to stand against it.

The state of Reid’s immortal soul is between him and God. But his duties and obligations to his party, his Nevada constituents and his nation are between him and the people. And Reid was absolutely right to oppose the illegitimate Republican push for a gay marriage ban, even if some in his church think less of him for it. Those are not the people to whom Reid answers in his secular job. He swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, not the church.

Anybody should be able to see that. Unless, of course, they hate Reid to begin with.