POLITICAL FLU: IT'S SPREADING.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

THERE is something wrong with our politicians, and it could be spreading.

Did Rocky Delgadillo imagine that his job as the top law enforcer for Los Angeles exempted him from the rules that he applies to everyone else?

Did Sheriff Lee Baca honestly think that he could give special treatment to another celebrity and no one would notice?

Did Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa truly believe that the public wouldn't assume Corina filed for divorce and moved out of Getty House because he was fooling around?

And does Ed Jew really believe that he could live outside his district and it wouldn't get found out?

You might not know who Ed Jew is, but you should. He's a San Francisco supervisor under investigation by the FBI for shaking down businesses in his district for thousands of dollars. His very job is in jeopardy as the San Francisco city attorney tries to force him out for not living in the district -- or even in the county.

But more importantly, he is one of those who have been infected in an outbreak that's raging through California's political class.

Some virus or parasite or brain cloud -- science has yet to identify which -- seems to be attacking elected officials, and those in Los Angeles with particular virulence. It hits basic common sense first, then spreads throughout the body, impairing judgment, perspective and normal critical-thinking skills.

As the disease -- call it King George Fever -- progresses, it causes delusions of grandeur in the infected, who come to believe that they are special, or even chosen by God, and protected in some mystical way from the normal rules of the universe. In its final stage, there's no known cure. It's 100 percent fatal to political life.

L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo seems to have a particularly nasty case. You can chart his outbreak over the past couple of weeks and watch it progress with alarming speed. It started almost undetectably with Rocky getting on his high horse about Paris Hilton's release from -- and immediate return to -- county jail.

So many people were trying to use Paris' woes to catch a piece of the spotlight that it was hard to tell whether Delgadillo's commentary indicated anything more than the usual political grandstanding. But the symptoms became clear when the press turned its attention Rocky's way, and found a shocking amount of hypocrisy.

Even as he was calling for Hilton's head (figuratively) and those who may have given her special treatment (Sheriff Baca), Rocky's own wife was guilty of a strikingly similar situation. Paris might have been driving drunk and without a license, but at least she wasn't running into things all over town with no insurance or license, then sticking the public with the bill.

There's no true test of this disease. No antibodies to identify who has it. But it's the only explanation for how otherwise not-dumb people could suddenly be struck so dumb. How could Harvard-educated Rocky assume that having his staff baby-sit his kids and do other personal errands wouldn't go unnoticed as the scrutiny of his office heated up, especially considering all those political feet he squashed on the way to the TV cameras?

King George Fever is not a new disease. In fact, it's as old as politics itself. Like Ebola, there are sporadic outbreaks that -- thankfully -- haven't spread too far beyond politicians and their circles of influence. Transmission comes via politician-to-politician contact. The disease is so potent that it tends to turn up, then burn out before it can spread to the general public. Thank God.

Take the case of San Diego Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who was most likely one of the infected as well as a longtime carrier. On the surface, Cunningham seemed like an upstanding politician. Inside, the sickness turned him into an ethical monster who saw no problem with accepting gifts and cash from defense lobbyists whose bosses were getting contracts voted on by Cunningham himself. No one caught the case until 2005 -- years after infection -- and by then it was too late to save his public persona.

San Francisco's Ed Jew is already on political life support, and is not expected to survive much longer.

Mayor Villaraigosa and Sheriff Baca appear to have mild cases of the disease, evidenced by their curious public behavior in recent weeks and enduring hubris. Still, with the right amount of vigilance and early treatment of the symptoms, such as setting double standards and throwing private tantrums, they could have long and healthy political careers.

Unfortunately, early detection of King George Fever is especially difficult since those most vulnerable are often infected with a complementary, but less fatal, disease called Political Hangeronism that renders their moral compass inoperative.

King George Fever is a potentially explosive disease, if left unchecked. It is stoppable, however, particularly with modern technology. The onus for this public-health danger rests on the public to be vigilant for signs in its elected representatives.

Sadly, it may be too late for Rocky Delgadillo, poor guy. End stage. The prognosis is grim.