Who will tell him it’s time to go?

Even Richard Nixon recognized when the endgame was upon him. Two years after the Watergate scandal erupted and as the last significant support within the Republican Party evaporated over the smoking gun tape, the president called it quits.

History says that it took a couple of influential Republicans, including Sen. Barry Goldwater, to tell Nixon his situation was hopeless.

Who’s going to give the word to Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona? He claims membership in Mensa, so he should be able to figure it out for himself, but sometimes smart people have the worst common sense.

It isn’t political sport at work here. There’s very little about Carona’s politics that inspire heated opposition. In fact, it was his image as a consensus-builder and appealing guy that originally stoked reports that he had a bright political future.

It’s the seven-count indictment that a federal grand jury returned against him, alleging, among other things, that he regularly received money and other gifts over a four-year period from a supporter and fundraiser. Carona then named him an assistant sheriff shortly after taking office in early 1999. Beyond that, it’s the web of criminality that already has tainted his inner circle.

What levelheaded friend or advisor will clue him in? Who will tell him that seeing a county sheriff in handcuffs, as Carona was Wednesday in his first court appearance, is not a good thing for law enforcement?

Who will tell him it’s not about “fighting” or proving his innocence, because those things will take months, if not longer? Who will tell him that he can prove his innocence without remaining on the job?

Let’s look at rationales for him to stay in office:

* He was elected in June 2006 to his third four-year term and owes it to voters to stay.

True, Carona got about 51% of the vote in a four-man field, avoiding a runoff. But that was hardly a mandate for an incumbent against three relative unknowns. And I think it’s safe to assume that had he been under indictment at the time, the vote might have been different.

* He has the support of the Sheriff’s Department.

Well, it’s a large department and he certainly has support inside it. But in the 2006 election, the deputies association gave its endorsement to challenger Bill Hunt, a lieutenant in the department who had made an issue of budding scandals.

* It would send the wrong signal to resign under fire.

That’s a subjective matter. I’d argue it sends the wrong signal to stay, in that it puts one person’s interests -- Carona’s -- over those of the department.

* He can focus on the job even while under indictment.

If you mean signing documents and going to conferences, sure, why not. But I’m picturing a sheriff who attends public functions or other forums, where he is representing the best of law enforcement. How does an audience take seriously someone charged with witness tampering and accepting cash and gifts in exchange for political favors?

At some level, Carona gets it. In March 2004, he fired George Jaramillo, a longtime ally and his hand-picked top assistant, when it became clear that Jaramillo was fast becoming a liability. And that was six months before Jaramillo was charged with anything. Now that smacks of a preemptive strike (Jaramillo has pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with the grand jury’s investigation of Carona).

So who will take the walk to Carona’s office and set him straight? Who will pick up the phone and tell him that you can still fight from the sidelines?

I tapped a couple of obvious possibilities Wednesday -- the influential Lincoln Club and the county Republican Party.

“The club doesn’t have a position right now,” says Richard Wagner of the Lincoln Club. “We are a deliberative body, and whatever decisions the club makes are made by our board of directors. So I’m not at liberty as president to say, ‘Here’s what I think’ or ‘What we are going to do?’ ”

That doesn’t mean the club is blithely observing. Wagner says it isn’t obvious to him that, if only for appearances’ sake, an indicted sheriff should step down. But, he says, board members will discuss the Carona situation at its next meeting.

“It’s a sad day for Orange County,” Wagner says. “If the charges are true, there’s been a violation of the public trust.”

The club, composed of well-heeled and involved Republicans, endorsed Carona in 1998 and in 2002, but didn’t endorse anyone in the 2006 race.

The call to Carona won’t be made by Scott Baugh, either. Baugh, chairman of the county GOP, disagrees that an indictment automatically undercuts Carona’s tenure.

“I think what we have to do is recognize that he’s been a very good sheriff for many years,” Baugh says, “and that while charges like this are significant, I think people need to keep their powder dry a little bit longer and see some of the evidence that substantiates these claims.”

Baugh expects more details to emerge. “Inevitably the facts come out before trial, and I’d like to see some of those facts,” he says. While not ruling out the county party weighing in at some point, Baugh says that “if the party weighed in on something like this, the facts would be clearly known, and right now they’re not known.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.