Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill disguised any anger he may feel for his disgraced former caucus chairman, John McGee.

But Wednesday’s decision by the Republican majority to acknowledge McGee is accused of sexual harassment by a woman staffer reveals the sting of betrayal.

Most institutions would have trotted out the “personal reasons” boilerplate, leaving Idahoans to speculate on what might have finally brought the man-who-would-be-governor down.

Not the Idaho Senate under Brent Hill.

Hill is both a gentleman and a gentle man. And he may simply be heartsick — the word Majority Leader Bart Davis chose to describe his own mood.

But Hill made it clear he’s had his fill with McGee’s recklessness. This, you’ll surely remember, is a man on a very short leash after his spectacularly ugly Father’s Day DUI.

McGee’s accuser could be mistaken, or, perhaps, lying. But McGee quit the Senate rather than defend himself before an ethics committee, shutting the door on his prodigious ambition.

Resignation isn’t enough to close the books on McGee, Hill said. He asked Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to investigate.

“We just need to make sure that the state is protected, that the woman is protected, that all interests are being taken care of,” Hill said. “So he’ll be conducting a review, even though the resignation has taken place.”

Hill took care with his words when asked whether McGee had “denied” wrongdoing when he met with Hill and Davis.

“He did not admit to any wrongdoing,” Hill said. “That’s the way I want to say it.”

Hill also made a point to empathize with the other victims in this drama, McGee’s wife, Hanna, and the couples’ two preschool-age children, who McGee used like shields to preserve his family-man image. Hanna McGee was there Jan. 11 pushing a stroller when the GOP caucus voted to spare McGee despite his DUI.

On Wednesday, McGee’s flesh-and-blood props were nowhere to be seen.

As the 27 Republicans left the caucus room Wednesday afternoon, faces were grim, somber, embarrassed. Some were red-eyed. The majority of the caucus that had extended McGee’s political life had been burned, and they made little effort to hide it.

McGee, 39, had been a prodigy since he worked for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne — good looking, smart, a cultivator of reporters, lobbyists and political sages who could assist him in his rise.

The DUI revealed a troubling lack of self-reflection. McGee figured he could weather the storm because he was a brilliant PR man. For seven months, he refused reporters’ requests that he fill in the gaps in his DUI story, despite advice from his wise men. Only when he faced ouster as caucus chairman in January did he agree to talk.

During my interview with him about the DUI, he put on his wounded puppy act, saying things like, “I thought we were friends.”

McGee’s charm appeared to have won the day with his colleagues. But the final coat of Teflon wore off in just six weeks.

On Monday, the last day I saw him in the Senate, his laugh was unnaturally loud. In retrospect, the boisterousness was the anxious cover of a man who knows he’s tested his friends’ patience one too many times. By the end of the day, Hill and Davis had heard the staffer’s allegation and reassigned her to another job. She is on paid leave.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder was among nine Republicans who had said they wanted McGee out of leadership in January. On Wednesday, Winder resisted the temptation to say he was right about cutting McGee loose.

“No one’s saying I told you so,” Winder said. “We were really optimistic over the last almost month that the Senate was healing, that the issue was behind us. The caucus had spoken, a majority had voted in favor of retention. We made our point, it wasn’t unanimous, and I think we all moved on.”

Then, another gut shot. “In all honesty, this fell out of the sky,” he said.

The Senate granted McGee forgiveness, a chance at redemption.

Then the guy who figured he could talk himself out of any corner blew it.

Dan Popkey: 377-6438