Bob Dunning: Perhaps Parish has learned his lesson

FALLING HARD … I was sad to see that our good friend Clint Parish, who last year ran the ugliest campaign for Superior Court judge in Yolo County history, is now in hot water with the State Bar … not that he doesn’t deserve it … here was a church-going family man whose reckless ambition knocked his moral compass so far off kilter during the course of the campaign that he lost friends, endorsements, respect and ultimately his job with the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office … at the end of the day he ended up with a mere handful of votes and a reputation in tatters …

Acting on a complaint, the State Bar has initiated proceedings that could cost Parish his ability to practice law in California … harsh punishment, to be sure, but one that certainly can be justified … still, I hope it doesn’t come to that … while some sort of punishment is in order, it may be that Parish has learned his lesson from the intense criticism that came his way and will never again sully another judicial election here or anywhere else …

SPLIT DECISION … my friend John at dcn.org notes that on Pole Line Road there is a home with “one driveway, two signs, one yes and one no” … rather than a house divided against itself, John, this is clearly an instance of a voter who generally likes the project but hates the rate structure to pay for it …

HO, HO, HO … into every heated campaign a little humor must come … a kindly soul forwarded me a blog item that suggests the Above-Pictured Columnist is violating election laws by expressing in print his opinion about the water project and water rates in general … all I can think is the blog must originate in the People’s Republic of China, where the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been declared unconstitutional …

EVEN MORE HUMOR … a couple of members of the Water Advisory Committee penned a recent Enterprise op-ed that suggested the Above-Pictured Columnist had a hand in crafting that water-related lawsuit against the city of Davis … their evidence? … seems I predicted that a lawsuit would happen four days before it was actually filed … all that proves is that my source on this issue was a good one … then again, at the same time I was predicting that the 49ers would beat Baltimore by three touchdowns in the Super Bowl, so my forecasting record is only 50-50 so far this year … some have suggested I should sue the two for libel, but I’d be laughing so hard I don’t think I could convince the judge that any harm was done …

EVEN MORE FUN AND GAMES … apparently the Yes on I campaign stretches all the way to Stockton, where a dentist in that fine city fired off a letter to the editor in favor of the Woodland-Davis project … which is certainly his right in the land of the free and the home of the brave … writes the Molar Man with a wag of his finger: “Since we are downstream from you, clean it up before you pass it on.” … geez, at least give me some Novocain before you scold me like that … still, the good doctor makes a point … which makes me think maybe we should let the citizens of Stockton vote on this measure, too …

Adds Dr. Floss: “Here in Stockton, we have made an expensive decision to seek surface water to reduce our reliance on groundwater. The new plant is costing us $217 million.” … far be it for me to suggest that Davis should not follow Stockton’s lead, but didn’t that city just file for bankruptcy? … if I lived in Stockton and the city had 217 million dollars lying around, I think I might want to have it spent to help solve that city’s sky-high homicide rate first … but that’s just me …

Nevertheless, I’d like to welcome our San Joaquin Valley friend to Davis politics and invite residents up and down this great Central Valley to join in the discussion, whether they be upstream or downstream …

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net