Carona's charm may spell the difference in his trial

I'll make every effort not to stretch the point here, but just like Bill Clinton, former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona knows how to work a room. He's personable, well-spoken and has that innate speaker's gift of knowing how to go from serious to funny and back to serious with seeming ease.

And as Carona's trial nears -- still scheduled to start next month -- it's hard to picture how he'll clear himself without testifying. That is, for Carona to stay silent, the government's corruption case would have to be so unconvincing that Carona's lawyers would think they could get an acquittal without him taking the stand.

Attorneys on both sides are fighting like mad these days to prepare for that stretch of hours or days when the former sheriff would take the stand. And, to invoke the former president one last time, at least some of the turf in the Carona trial may involve sexual behavior and other alleged character flaws.

Which raises a provocative question for potential jurors, not to mention an interested Orange County audience: Just how much of Carona's life do we really need to know to divine the truth of the charges against him?

Carona faces several counts that he used his office to enrich himself and pay back favors and that he then tried to encourage one of those money men -- former Asst. Sheriff Don Haidl -- to testify falsely about their alleged financial relationship.

On paper, it is the Haidl relationship that appears most problematic for Carona. Haidl apparently has told prosecutors that he gave Carona thousands of dollars over a six-year period before and after his 1998 election. Immediately upon taking office, Carona got special dispensation from the Board of Supervisors to put the otherwise unqualified Haidl in his administration.

Last year, unaware that Haidl was secretly recording their conversation, Carona allegedly made statements that prosecutors say are incriminating and designed to influence Haidl's testimony before a grand jury. Some of those transcripts are being released in pre-trial motions and they reveal the then-sheriff as profane and crassly offensive in describing sexual exploits or other situations.

And what does that have to do with whether Carona took money in exchange for political favors?

I'd guess that most people would answer: nothing.