Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Keep your eye on the ball...

Imagine you are sent into a new community with an assignment that requires effecting political change. How would you do it? You don't have alot of time, you don't know anyone in the community, you have very little assets to work with...

What you have to do requires the support of local politicians who didn't know you from Adam.

Suppose that you came in, volunteered on their campaigns, made yourself invaluable.

Let's say you took a look at the political landscape, and see that certain candidates in a race are more likely to be supportive of your agenda than others, so you volunteer to help the one who appears most favorable. It's a seat-of-the-pants plan, figure it out as you go, seize the opportunities as they arise...

As you work to get people elected, they introduce you to others in the community, to the people behind the scenes, to the power brokers, to the movers and shakers, and to the people with money.

You work hard to ingratiate yourself with them. You learn your way around, who's who, what works and what doesn't. Maybe you even have a team that came with you. Your willingness to get the gruntwork done, along with energy and enthusiasm that is the most exciting thing on the political scene in years pays off. You are welcomed, and crowned a kingmaker.

Your political capital grows.

Nobody asks why you are doing this, if you have an agenda. Any idle questions are easily turned away with a bland answer. No one looks deeper. People turn their eyes idly away and go back to their lives.

Their disinterest and apathy frustrates you, though, too, you need them to stay committed, while they are tired of the game.

You have to keep them motivated.

So you stir the pot constantly, you latch onto any cause celeb that arises. Along the way, more and more politicians are indebted to you.

The plan works to a degree, but there are problems... You realize that some of your candidates are unsuccessful because they lack experience and expertise. Along the way, you find that some of the politicians you have helped have minds of their own, won't do what you tell them to do. And some of your successfully placed candidates require constant babysitting.

You realize that you still need a majority vote. Your goal is not as easy to realize as you thought.

But you are patient. You set up a another plan to fill the pipeline with your people, to start them in lesser positions, like school boards, and community water boards, knowing that you can groom them to run for the higher office, and they will have a resume to boost them along.

You tap into community groups, pump them up, help them organize, telling them how great they are, never revealing your true purpose. You are careful to set up these groups to run autonomously so that you can dedicate your energy elsewhere. None of them suspect what you are really about. No one knows if you are here on a mission, if you are being paid, or if you are just an "involved" citizen.

Along the way, you make some enemies, and you also find that you have let your success go to your head. You also give in to the urge to attack your primary foes, and your politics begin to revolve around that.

It was a plan that was intended to be accomplished quickly. It took longer than you thought. There were more roadblocks than you anticipated.

Where once you were an unknown quantity, now you are being examined under a microscope. You don't like it, but you have to endure it. Because the cause is everything.

26 comments:

  1. You must be really bored.

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  2. And you're highly entertained?

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  3. 12:16 see's the truth in it !

    12:16 didn't have to ask who you were talking about.

    My question is ..... ? How does this person pay his rent, utilities, everyday bills, car expense, gas, Prozac, internet ?

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  4. Well Rose, if that's all I had to live for I'd be pretty depressed.

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  5. Perhaps this is why R.Trent is so cranky.

    Good post Rose.

    Gotcha dick!

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  6. OR, he could have gone the other route and simply bought power and influence. All that requires is lots and lots of money. Remind you of any other locals?

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  7. Pierson? Bowman?

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  8. What specifically is the "cause"? Amusement? Accretion of power? It is very amusing when viewed from afar. Why did he pick Humboldt instead of Santa Cruz, Berkeley or Davis? Smaller scale?

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  9. The "cause" is GET PALCO, or more broadly, GET HURWITZ.

    Humboldt County because this is where Palco is, and the activists have been able to successfully "control the debate" here. Maybe they think we are stupid.

    They're able to stage events and get national attention, which adds to the coffers.

    The activist community (EPIC, Baykeepers) have come to use the court system as a Panzer Unit, their most powerful weapon by far is a DA who will file their lawsuits. This is the culmination of a decade + long effort. That's my take. I think it is wrong. That's why this blog.

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  10. God help us all, because you don't leave your house thinking ....Today I will be a victim. The victim's of our county will pay, and some will pay with what is near and dear to their hearts and I'm not talking about property here people. Everyday someone will suffer at the hands of the lack of concern and lack of commitment that is filling the office of OUR (yours and mine) District Attorney. Not a threat, not a prediction, but the cold hard truth. Educate yourself and your family members against the voltures who live in our community, because you will not get the justice you need, or deserve from the office of the District Attorney.

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  11. Political fallout is beginning at Bear River with a recall petition on Leonard Bowman going around and much of the tribe wondering where all the money went and on who's authority.

    Gallegos is insulated through the inability of most private citizens to get court ordered review of Gallegos' District Attorney's office procedures that would show collusion on the Bowman case. The A.G. office is headed by a friend of Paul so no go there. Paul is hoping by playing it silent the case against him will go away but it's not. Bear River is just the start of getting questionable leaders out of office. There's always next election and I don't think Dikeman's record would hurt him this time around whereas Paul's record will.

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  12. The cause is keep your eye on Paul's balls...

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  13. There will be a new AG soon. Don't give up.

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  14. You have faith in Jerry Brown? Hey, he's burned the left before and probably will again. But Brown's ahead by about 15 points in the last poll I read about.

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  15. Well Eric, I have a lot more faith in Jerry Brown that the current AG.

    Moonbeams's "burned the left before" ? How many times has he burned the right ? I don't know the answer but I guess it would have to do with your definition of "burned"? Do you mean he didn't do exactly what you (lefties) wanted him to do so that means he BURNED you? An honorable politician is not always going to side with the left or the right. Compromise is what makes things positive happen. But the radical left (locals included) don't seem to care what's best for the community just what fits their agenda.

    Another thing Eric, Jerry Brown's Dad was the AG in the 50's and aledgedly one of his goals was to clean up Humboldt County (from corruption). Wouldn't that be something?! Local Solutions and CREG or AEB can't do squat against the AG, an AG that has been governor and the mayor of Oakland. And when he was governor he didn't live in the Governors mansion he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment.

    Bottom line is I do have faith in Jerry Brown (especially over the current AG, Bill L). He (Brown)seems to seek public office to actually do good things, you know public service as opposed to scratching you buddies/allies backs and seeing how much money, power, and influence you can rack up.

    Go Moonbeam !

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  16. Also, public service includes things like this blog, WatchPaul.
    Putting out factual information that is and should be a serious concern for HC citizens.

    Not only does Rose do the research and post the blog but takes the rude comments from those that oppose her or her information. Rose doesn't comment on her trip to Willows, or Sacramento, or Ukiah, or what her favorite food is. She puts out information that many people don't know but should know.

    Eric, sometimes I halfway think you may be an OK guy, more often not. But your blog is about your EGO and your well documented "elitist" attidtude than any real public service. It is OK to have a blog just for fun.

    My point, I appreciate Rose's work and I check her blog everyday I'm near my computer. There are serious problems at the Humboldt County DA's office that need a bright light shined on. These problems will have long term effects for Humboldt County and those who live in HC for years to come.

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  17. I agree wholeheartedly. Rose is a treasure to those of us who care about community democracy, the real stuff that rides on educating the people through publication of unbiased facts, not the phony politicized crap that's put out by Progs.

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  18. Eric, sometimes I halfway think you may be an OK guy, more often not. But your blog is about your EGO and your well documented "elitist" attidtude than any real public service. It is OK to have a blog just for fun.

    Thanx, because that's really what it's there for. It's a release for me - an opportunity to be able to write about something other than easements and burdens of proof. Sure it's about my ego.

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  19. Eric, we didn't need to hear that from you...we can read it for ourselves and figure that one out.

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  20. "...he didn't live in the Governors mansion he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment.
    He got his mail there. A lot of his time was spent in Linda Ronstadt's beach house in Malibu and doing the drunken party circuit in Santa Monica/Belaire/Brentwood. This would include being driven home drunk by LASO deputies after bullying his way through a LAPD roadblock during the Malibu floods in 1978 and busting the oil pan on her Mercedes by driving over a rock slide. You'd better hope he has turned his life around. But who could be worse than Lockyer?

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  21. No one could be worse than Lockyer. Lockyer's office has a stack of complaints about District Attorney Paul Gallegos, including one from the Grand Jury, and still Lockyer bestowed his rubberstamped 'endorsement" of Paul Gallegos in the most recent election. He didn't bother to check in with Humboldt County law enforcement before he called Gallegos one of the "best DAs" in the state - every single law enforcement group in the County endorsed Gallegos' opponent, with good reason. If Lockyer had bothered to ask maybe he would have acted differently. When called on it, he just said that unless a guy was under indictment, it was standard practice to endorse. It's nice to know his endorsement means so much.

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  22. I take that back. there are people who could be worse than Lockyer. Galleogs for one.
    But Jerry Brown, or his opponent, will be an improvement

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  23. Jerry's dad ran on a ticket of cleaning up the corruption in Humboldt County...maybe someone can remind Jerry of that.

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  24. 11:54 AM

    Yes he did and I' sure Jerry heard about it sometime in his adult life.

    The State AG's office CAN take over prosecutions in a county under certain circumstances! Isn't that right Eric ?

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  25. No further comment from his highness Eric Kirk on this one either ?????????

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