Just a note of clarification, RE Councilman Jeff Weninger.

This afternoon, I received an email from a reader of this blog who expressed concern that I, in my previous blog entry, was implying something sinister about Councilman Jeff Weninger. Perhaps I used poor phrasing to express something - it seemed straightforward enough - and that has given rise to the inference that I don't like Jeff, or that I believe he was behind the Recall issue. Of course, I never said any such thing.

I responded to the reader with an explanation that this was not my intent. And in case it is an inference that others have as well, I wanted to share a bit of my thinking to hopefully clarify my views.

I do not believe Jeff personally organized the Recall campaign nor that he provided material support to the effort. I do not personally dislike Jeff, at all - quite the contrary, I feel a sense of comity with him, even amid our significant differences of opinion on some issues. In fact, I pray for him and his family on a regular basis, as I do with all of our City Council members and others in leadership.

I do believe that, regarding the Recall, there are a few things that have to be admitted, though.

1. I believe it is indisputable that Jeff made the Pentz issue - and his profound disagreement with Sepulveda and Orlando's actions - one of his central campaign issues.

2. Ray Pilara, the original organizer of the Recall effort, was a volunteer on Jeff's campaign. At no time did Jeff repudiate what Ray was doing, which is a tacit support, or perhaps an act of omission on Jeff's part. One might argue that a candidate shouldn't be held accountable for what their campaign volunteers do in the private lives. But when the activity is so directly related to the campaign issue most central to the candidate's platform, it is hardly so dismissable.

3. I also believe it is indisputable that Jeff was a beneficiary of the Recall effort, in that the Recall drummed up support and anger over the Pentz issue which was used so effectively in the campaign.

As I told the reader in my email:

There is a distinction there that is important to me, but I’m not sure I’m communicating it well. It pricks my sense of ethics when I see politicians benefiting from their supporters’ activities, who never condemn the activities, yet expect to maintain plausible deniability because they never provided specific, material support to those activities. I believe ethics requires a higher standard of accountability, but I recognize I am in the minority in those views, and I readily acknowledge that I am not always able to meet my own standard.

A classic example of this is the swiftboating of John Kerry's combat service. Not once did we hear a repudiation by President Bush or his staff of the attacks. After being questioned several times about whether he supported the attacks, Bush refused to separate himself from the views that were being promulgated in his name. In my book, this kind of behavior clearly removes any plausible deniability that Bush himself was providing cover for the attacks, or at least fostering a climate in which the attacks were made.

That the attacks were not just against a political opponent, but also attacked the very nature of combat service and the blood and sacrifice-sanctified meaning of the Purple Heart makes them inexcusably scurrilous act and a serious ethical breach by President Bush, in my opinion.

Ray Pilara and others were intentionally making the Recall of Councilmen Sepulveda and Orlando a major issue this summer and doing their best (one imagines) to make it come to pass. Ray was a volunteer for Weninger. Weninger had ample opportunity to distance himself from the Recall effort and chose not to do so.

So, two questions:

1. Do I believe that Jeff nefariously and intentionally colluded to use the Recall to agitate and polarize the electorate to improve his campaign prospects? No. But ethical behavior isn't satisfied by seeking merely the technically acceptable. It calls us to a higher standard. I think that Jeff probably fell a bit short in this case and cannot simply wash his hands of what Pilara and others were doing.

2. Do I dislike Jeff or think evil of him? No. I appreciate his commitment to public service and what I sense to be a genuine desire to do good. I also wish nothing but the best for him and his family, and continue to pray that his tenure and legacy on the Council will be one marked by wisdom and discernment, comity and compassion.

Finally, I should also note that I have many friends with whom I have intense disagreement on some issues, and who (like me), do not always measure up to the standard of ethics we'd like. But we do hold each other accountable when we fall short.

If we didn't, we wouldn't be friends.