Don's Tuesday column

          THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   9/11/2012

Musical chairs and political games

By the time you read this, you will have hopefully given some time and thought to commemorating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that have so defined America’s life, military, security and politics since that date. I know the Tea Party Patriots are planning to show some flags for passers-by today, and plan to have a program at their meeting tonight at the Westside Grange at 6 PM. Your attendance is welcome. I will have already returned to our home-away-from-home RV next to the Deschutes River in Oregon. See you at the fair.

My first obligation is to put my cards, so to speak, on the table and remind readers that I endorse, support and attend events for both State Senator Doug LaMalfa and Assemblyman Jim Nielsen; I serve, when in town, on the Republican Central Committee. I think my fellow committee members wish I was in town more often, but that’s not the issue here.

I found the editor’s commentary, “North State’s political shell game explained,” quite entertaining reading and struck just the right tone, with a bit of tongue firmly planted in cheek. It is not particularly unusual for those serving at one level of elected office to both hone their skills, as well as broaden their appeal through constituent service, and aspire to higher office. Call it the elective party farm team system. I mean, isn’t it true all the way up to contests for the highest offices in the land that voters want to judge someone based on how they have performed at lesser official levels.

The distinction between genuine servants of the citizens, laboring selflessly while fairly compensated for their time, possessed of the best of motivations, ethics and values, and, on the other hand, mere poseurs possessed of avaricious ladder-climbing and shameless opportunism – that distinction presents itself often. The way I have come to see it, LaMalfa and Nielsen are among the former group and Assemblyman Dan Logue, unfortunately, is among the latter. I will welcome an admission and apology from Logue whenever he chooses to offer it, over the despicable mud-slinging, disingenuous mischaracterizations and flat-out lies his campaign engaged in against Supervisor Bob Williams when they vied for the Republican primary contest for the 3^rd District Assembly seat.

Had the best man, Mr. Williams in my opinion, won, it would have been to Mr. Logue’s benefit, rather than embarrass himself politically by stating repeatedly, to another local paper’s reporter in particular, that he had no intentions to run for the State Senate seat vacated by LaMalfa simultaneously with his, Logue’s, run for the Assembly. That deceptive maneuver could be fairly characterized using the editor’s words: “political theater,” “wacky realm” and “the best show in town.”

You can add to that, as events fit, two items from my email inbox on Friday the 7^th: “The Road Not Taken” by Jack Lee, Chair of the Butte County Chapter of the Conservative Republicans of California, and “LaMalfa pays visit to Glenn GOP, irks local management” (by Larry Mitchell, Chico Enterprise-Record, 9/07/12, http://www.chicoer.com/fromthenewspaper/ci_21488624/lamalfa-pays-visit-glenn-gop-irks-local-management).

When Doug LaMalfa paid his reported visit to the Orland office of the Glenn County Republicans, who are certainly free to endorse in races but should also provide campaign material in an evenhanded manner, some “theater” did transpire. He has taken issue with the editorializing of the Chico E-R against him and found that the Glenn GOP had an editorial on display. The offending section, while acknowledging that LaMalfa’s campaign touted the money saved by taxpayers resulting from his resignation, then had this to say: “In reality, he was doing it in (an) attempt to give his had-picked successor and political ally, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, an inside track on his Senate seat – and to spite Assemblyman Dan Logue …” LaMalfa took the piece down and wrote, next to that statement, “this is not factual.”

Now, I’m hardly a journalistic or editorial expert, but that sentence sure reeks of casting unwarranted aspersions on the motives of an honorable public servant. It displays a complete absence of doubt that the editors might not actually know the heart or motives of LaMalfa. It strikes me as a bit of editorial arrogance; a borderline cheap shot. One online commenter opined that the Glenn GOP is little more than an arm of the Dan Logue campaign.

Moreover, I just don’t get the uproar over Herger’s endorsement of LaMalfa or LaMalfa’s of Nielsen; endorsements, along with money, are certainly part of the famous “mother’s milk of politics.” Whether from newspaper editorial boards, businesses, unions or, in this case, other elected officials, they don’t carry any more weight than what voters give them. They certainly don’t constitute imposing someone’s choices on others.

Jack Lee’s “The Road Not Taken” offers a far more principled and truthful take on the honorable and taxpayer-friendly decisions of LaMalfa and Nielsen to resign and avoid costly special elections. Go to “Polecat News and Views” in the blog section (donpolson.blogspot.com) where I will post his fine, complete statement as well as the Chico E-R’s article.

Small correction: I mistakenly suggested that PG&E’s baseline amount of electricity had no charge, when I clearly intended to describe it as having the lowest applicable rate, which remains nearly double the rate we pay in Bend, Oregon.