MARK KIESLING: Pot comes to a boil

It's nice to know Lake County has an active, viable two-party system, but it is somewhat distressing that both parties are Democrats.

The Democrats have to fight each other because county Republicans continue to wander around like Mr. Magoo in a minefield, producing the occasional explosion that signifies nothing.

That became more obvious this week when county Democratic Party Chairman Tom McDermott Jr., who doubles as mayor of Hammond, took on Sheriff Roy Dominguez, a fellow Democrat, in a bare-knuckle donnybrook regarding the arrest of one of McDermott's closest associates on charges of growing marijuana in the associate's back yard.

McDermott also bad-rapped Prosecutor Bernie Carter and sheriff's Police Chief Marco Kuyachich, also both Democrats, over this month's arrest of Dave Woerpel, who is precinct committeeman in Hammond 5-12, is the 5th District captain and is -- in McDermott's words -- "very, very powerful, very, very political."

McDermott blames politics for the arrest of Woerpel, his wife Tina (the city's recycling director) and two of their sons after Indiana State Police spotted the pot plants growing in the backyard of their home in the 7400 block of Olcott Avenue.

Rather than saying he was embarrassed that one of his top guys had weed growing in his back yard, McDermott went on the offensive, calling the arrest "one of the dirtiest tricks I've ever seen."

And that's saying something.

How do we know all these sordid details? McDermott left a message on Dominguez's answering machine calling the sheriff everything but a Republican. And Dominguez made the voice recording public.

One would think the mayor would have learned a couple of valuable lessons from experiences past, but apparently I have given credit where credit is not due.

First, don't leave potentially explosive messages on an answering machine -- like he did during the past mayoral primary when he was challenged by the son of his council nemesis (and fellow Democrat) Bob Markovich. McDermott called the elder Markovich and basically threatened to use any political means necessary to defeat the kid -- who was 18 and in high school.

The message, left on Markovich's answering machine, smacked of bully tactics to dissuade the younger Markovich from running, even though McDermott knew the kid had a snowball's chance in Hades of winning the contest.

It became public knowledge, and although the kid dropped out and McDermott won, it left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouths about the mayor's tactics and judgment.

Second, McDermott defended indicted political fixer Bob Cantrell as a "stand-up" guy who would not turn federal informant to save himself prison time. McDermott's stand-up buddy is now a guest of the U.S. government at its correctional facility in Ashland, Ky., doing time on public corruption convictions.

Now McDermott defends Woerpel for having what McDermott said was "five tiny pot plants" in his backyard. It's not the world's biggest criminal allegation, but now the mayor has made it an issue, calling attention to one of his top advisers.

Woerpel has admitted knowing the plants were there, state police said, but he told them he was not running a drug cartel. That is probable, given that five plants are not going to produce an Acapulco Gold mine.

It's not really Woerpel who comes off badly here. It's the mayor.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.