CARSON CITY – Remember Joe Enge, the Carson City teacher who was canonized by our friend Chuck Muth after he got into it with the school board over the proper way to teach history? The guy who was briefly employed by Gov. Jim Gibbons’s state energy department, before his qualifications were questioned and he had to quit? The guy who is a contributing writer for Liberty Watch, a literary home for right-wing failures? The guy who was finally elected to the Carson City School Board in what right-wingers perceived as a triumph?

Yeah, that dude is screwed.

Today’s Nevada Appeal reports that Enge has, once again, been arrested and charged with DUI. This is not the first time, either: He was convicted twice twice in 1997, and again in 2005 (those charges were dismissed). And then there was that time he ran over a neighbor’s fence and drove away in 2007.

Look, we don’t know what kind of a hstory teacher Enge was, and frankly, we think his idea — teach history in chronological order, the way it happened — is the right way to do it. But we do think his nascent political career is probably over.

But Enge doesn’t. Check out a few selected quotes from the Appeal story:

“Despite my personal failing, professionally I’ve always been high achieving,” he said. “While I’m ashamed of my private failing, I’m proud of the accomplishments I’ve made and will continue to make toward education. My personal situation will in no way affect my professionalism on the school board. I’ll remain as focused as ever.”

…

“That’s pretty public now. I can’t ignore it anymore,” he said. “It’s a problem one needs to deal with as many others have so successfully done and as I plan to do. I will be going through a treatment program. That’s definite.”

…

“I do feel a great deal of self-satisfaction there [on the school board],” he said.

We’d never suggest a personal struggle with demon rum is enough to make a person useless to society. There’s plenty of examples of people who loved the bottle but did great things, too. But those personal failings have consequences, and Enge would do well to understand that. As a school board member, like it or not, he’s a role model for kids. If he doesn’t realize that, or is just now figuring it out, his failings can’t be blamed entirely on booze.