H. L. Mencken once said, “When someone says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.” When Richard Carrigan says, “It’s not about politics,” Mencken would have answered, “It’s about politics.
Mencken would have loved Ozzie (Silna) and Carrigan. They’re the perfect combination of money and politics. When Ozzie appeared at the City Council meeting and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court, it became clear that he was the money and Richard was carrying the political water. Their legal miscalculations in this latest debacle have cost them at least $50,000 in legal fees. Now what do they do?
My strong belief is that they will protect their investment and find some way to support John Mazza with a ton of late money in this campaign. There will be so-called independent expenditures by people we’ve never heard of and by organizations our grandmothers would never join. When you see this late money coming in, remember Deep Throat. “Follow the money.”
But I don’t think even Ozzie has enough money to convince the voters Mazza would be good for Malibu. Mazza has opposed every homeowner who wanted to pound a nail. His web site says he’s against term limits because it only took nine years to build the Panama Canal. That’s because Mazza wasn’t around to appeal the project.
It’s going to be interesting to see how they try to sell Mazza’s death-bed conversion to kids, schools and residents’ rights. But then, Mencken also said, “It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Having said all that, as the famous political commentator Lloyd Ahern would say, “Let’s not lose our sense of humor. It’s only politics.”
Lloyd Ahern