Just in the last seven days, Farmer Jim has had to endure a skewering in the Modesto Bee about a potential conflict of interest, further commentary about his bizarre dealings with a young woman to whom he is not married and, if that wasn’t bad enough, we find out his chosen hobby is the collection of exotic birds, including four kinds of macaws and several varieties of parrots.

It was not a pretty sight for the Birdman of Stanislaus.

Let’s start with the Bee piece, which merely contemplates one of the most destructive things that a public official can be accused of:  Abuse of office and a conflict of interest.  Here’s a sampling:

(DeMartini’s) seemingly contradictory roles led Doug Sweetland, the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance economic development director, to tell DeMartini at a recent public meeting that he was “abusing his position.”

“I've had difficulty understanding how someone can negotiate in good faith on one side and on the other hand come out totally against it,” Sweetland said. “How can he keep an open mind in terms of negotiation?”

Pretty tough stuff … and DeMartini’s retort was hardly inspiring:

DeMartini said Friday he was entitled to voice his opinion and called Sweetland's comments "over the line and out of place." Senators and congressmen frequently speak their minds on issues, he said. "I don't know why the Board of Supervisors are held to different standards."

Oh, I don’t know, Jim.  Maybe because Senators and Congressmen aren’t asked to directly negotiate federal contracts?

Next, we have the “Yogi Berra Award for Déjà vu All Over Again” to DeMartini for being the latest elected official to get into a – ahem – complicated relationship with an intern.

The Bee’s Jeff Jardine really tells it like it is … and what it is, dear readers, is terribly embarrassing:

DeMartini, I'm told, took Essapour to lunch on numerous occasions. That in itself suggests nothing more, but it certainly leaves the opening for questions.

Why would a seasoned political junkie like DeMartini, who is married, give money with no expectation of repayment to Essapour so she could buy a car?

She had been in an auto accident, spent time in the hospital and her car was totaled. She needed help, DeMartini said.

DeMartini said he first heard from Essapour several years ago, when she called the Central Republican Committee to say she was moving to the valley from New York and was looking for work.

“The Central Committee had a little part-time work on the computer (with a program) nobody knew how to operate," DeMartini said.

She worked there briefly and then began a string of jobs, hiring on for a short time as a public-policy researcher for local land-use attorney George Petrulakis.

From May until September 2004, she was an intern for Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton, according to the Assembly Rules office. She also worked for Sen. Jeff Denham, and in a Turlock law office.

DeMartini said she told him and others that she attended Stanford University, and that is consistent with what she apparently told the Assembly Rules office, which hires interns for Assembly members.

Susan Maher of Stanford's registrar's office told me Essapour never attended the university.

Nor did Essapour tell her bosses at the Turlock Journal that she'd been arrested, was out on bail and faced criminal charges before taking over the police and courts beat, the paper reported.

Cases like this one seldom come down to a few basic facts. There are twists and turns, and there always seems to be a back story.

It was that way with Clinton and Lewinsky, and with Condit and Levy. I suspect it will be that way in this one, too.

And while DeMartini is the victim of alleged identity and grand theft, he broke the cardinal rule of politics at any level.

He allowed himself to get close to a young woman, and he could pay for it — with interest.

So this is what it comes down to.  The best that Jim DeMartini can hope for in this whole situation is that he’s the victim of identity theft by a then-teenager who he gave money to so she could buy a car.

As has been mentioned many times in this blog before, this is the primary problem of this region.  We’ve become at once too accepting and too dismissive … too impatient and too lethargic … to embrace and achieve real change.  As long as we put with cliché-driven Republicans like this, we’ll never achieve our full potential.