RON DAVIS -- Through My Eyes

I keep a couple of dead horses around the house. When you enjoy beating a

dead horse as much as I do, you’ve got to keep a couple of corpses around

for practice.

It doesn’t really concern me that Wal-Mart is going to be built. What

concerns me are the politics and seemingly acceptable practices of our

political leaders for or against a cause.

Last week, I showered you with my thoughts regarding a letter sent by

four Huntington Beach council members to some senior citizens regarding

Measure I (Wal-Mart). I told you that I believed that the four council

members had misrepresented the truth by telling the seniors that if

Wal-Mart wasn’t built, it would directly affect the city’s ability to

continue to maintain current police and paramedic services. I thought

their letter contained a lot of that stuff that bulls leave in a field

after a hearty meal.

After the column was published, I had hoped that some, any or even one of

those council members would explain to this writer or the community, not

only that my perception was wrong, but how the failure to build Wal-Mart

would’ve had a “direct impact” on the city’s ability to maintain the

current level of these important services. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted

them to persuade me that they really hadn’t deliberately misrepresented

facts to a facet of our community -- all in the name of winning.

There’s no 5th Amendment when it comes to politics and political figures.

Silence in the face of an accusation is an implied admission of the truth

of the accusation. At least that’s the way I treat their collective

failure to respond to my contention that they deliberately misrepresented

certain consequences solely for the purpose of winning. An

ends-justify-the-means, win-at-all-costs mentality that I find deplorable

in everything and particularly in politics.

Between submission and publication of my column, my mind wandered back to

the time when the City Council moved what should have been a January

special election on Wal-Mart to the primary election in March. At that

time, some of the signatories to “the letter,” publicly expressed dismay

that petition signatures may have been collected because those signing

the petition had been misled as to what the petition was designed to

accomplish.

In short, they professed disdain for the tactic of employing falsehoods

to obtain signatures or votes. They were right.

At that time, I stupidly believed they meant that misrepresenting the

truth was to be deplored always, not just when it was politically

convenient. I misunderstood. I didn’t realize that one was supposed to

only condemn deliberate misrepresentation when the other side engaged in

it and embrace it when your side needed to win. I forgot about the

double-standard.

What really chaps my hide is their failure to offer either a rational

explanation of how the loss of Wal-Mart would’ve affected the city’s

ability to maintain current police and paramedic services, or apologize

for deliberately misleading a group of voters.

Of course, I know they don’t have to do either. That’s politics too. But,

I don’t have to treat their silence as meaningless. I treat it as an

admission that four of our city leaders deliberately misled a group of

voters for the sole purpose of winning.

Because I’m not an optimist and expect this kind of thing to continue,

I’ll drag this poor dead pony back into the garage, so that it’ll be

available for a later flogging. Of course, it’s beginning to stink a

little bit by now, but that smell pales in comparison to the tactic of

deceiving people merely to get their vote.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He can

be reached by e-mail at o7 r.dd@gte.netf7 .