The bad penny returns

If politics could be compared to toxic waste, Pacific would be a Superfund site. Like the beast that won't die, the poisons just keep boiling up out of the ground.

In the last Speed Trap City, I posed a question: who raised the issue of Councilman Gary Hulsey’s three-decades old murder conviction, and why at this time? Superficial, sentimental media coverage created a smoke screen that helped to divert the discussion from who stood to gain by the disclosure. However, it appears that the other shoe has dropped and that the bad actor has peeked out from behind the curtain. That compulsive indiscretion suggests who else was involved and benefited.

Twelve years ago, when Pacific’s politics were particularly venomous, I was involved in Pacific Candlelighters, the predecessor to Pacific Partnerships, with the aim of trying to build community. In my naïveté, I  telephoned one of the political activists to see whether both sides in the brouhaha might be able to be civil with one another. It took about 30 seconds of a telephone conversation to realize this particular activist wasn’t well centered. I contacted a leading candidate and suggested that there might be a problem with this activist. The candidate didn’t disagree, but observed that the person we were discussing was very useful politically. That usefulness persisted for some time, particularly in the area of character assassination, and there were several individuals who stubbornly continued to dip into this resource even after the ethics of this exploitation were called into question.

There’s a term for a person who can be used as a remote tool to accomplish an end without the prime mover getting his hands dirty: cat’s paw. Here’s how Wikipedia defines the term:

Cat's paw is a phrase derived from La Fontaine's fable, "The Monkey and the Cat", referring to a person used unwittingly by another to accomplish his own purposes.

I think there’s a great possibility that Gary Hulsy’s past was exposed through the use of this particular cat’s paw, the bad penny who bubbled back up into Pacific politics.

Folks whose memories stretch back for 10 years and longer  won’t  have any trouble understanding whodunnit, the personal connections and loyalties, and who stands to gain at this time. Of Pacific’s elected officials, Councilman Clint Steiger has been around long enough to figure it out and realize who got sucked in. It’s quite possible the rest don’t have a clue of how they’ve been worked for a political end.