Pants on fire

Lanny Davis is not a stupid man, but he plays one on TV. Convincingly.

His job is to stick to whatever message his clients have paid him to disseminate, regardless of how boneheaded that message is. Such as the message that Hillary was not dead yet after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. Or the smear that it was antisemitic to say Joe “Vote McCain” Lieberman shouldn’t be Connecticut’s Democratic senate candidate. Or that AB1991 won’t set a precedent.

Half Moon Bay is paying Lanny Davis (probably thousands of dollars an hour) to lead its disinformation campaign around AB1991. Lanny Davis is the man behind the city’s Truth Squid.

Wednesday, Half Moon Bay’s Truth Squid shot a cloud of inky obfuscation in Coastsider’s direction over AB212 – a bill designed to overturn Los Angeles zoning regulations in order to turn a big swath of LA’s precious open space into yet another subdivision. So, let’s examine the Squid’s assertions one at a time and understand the truth behind the ink.

• Yes, AB1991 was introduced after AB212. But Half Moon Bay’s ticking stinkbomb has left the Assembly, and AB212 was waiting in the wings. AB1991 would have been a precedent for passing a bill just like AB212.

• Yes, AB1991 is supported by the Half Moon Bay City Council, while AB212 is opposed by the LA City Council. However, AB1991 is designed to overturn the authority of the Coastal Commission, which adamantly opposes it – just as AB212 was designed to overturn the authority of the LA City Council, which adamantly opposed it.

• Yes, AB1991 is narrowly tailored to fit a special set of circumstances. But, so was AB212. That’s the nature of special-interest legislation. It is designed to benefit a single, narrow interest by overturning the law at the expense of the public good.

• Yes, AB1991 is not a “precedent” in the way that attorneys use that word. It’s a precedent in the way that 99% of the public uses that word: a justification for future behavior. As I pointed out in another context, if you have sex for money, you don’t create a legal obligation to do so in the future. But you do increase the likelihood that you’ll be offered money for sex in the future. That is called a “pre • ce • dent”. You can look it up. Go ahead. I’ll wait while you do it.

The city needs to make their best possible case, and that requires disputing the facts and interpretations with their opponents. But they crossed a line two weeks ago when they accused their opponents of lying to the legislature and to the public.

Lanny Davis has no stake in the damage his disinformation campaign is creating. He doesn’t have to live in our bitterly divided community. He has no stake in whether the city wrecks its relationship with Coastal Commission. And he has no stake in the integrity of the Coastal Act. But the Half Moon Bay City Council will have to live in the wreckage this divisive campaign is leaving in its wake.