Hypocrisy kills way more political careers than bad judgment. The almost instinctive reaction of most elected officials caught in a compromising position is to lie, spin and seek cover rather than face the music.

For reference, see Richard Milhous Nixon (Watergate) and William Jefferson Clinton (Monica Lewinsky). History teaches us the cover-up is always more damaging than the original mistake.

Many will wonder if this is what went down in last week's imbroglio at Hamilton City Hall. First, Mayor Fred Eisenberger was forced to admit that he had violated council's code of conduct by discussing a confidential personnel matter with Spectator columnist Andrew Dreschel. Then Councillor Brad Clark was outed for surreptitiously leaking information about the mayor's breach to the media.

Ironically, the debacle provided defining moments for both Eisenberger and Clark on the issue of integrity -- something that each of them had campaigned hard to call his own. But because of diametrically different responses to their respective political problems, Eisenberger emerged surprisingly strengthened while Clark's reputation sustained significant damage.

Some elements of the mess will require sifting by council's new integrity commissioner but other fundamental facts are now crystal clear.

The mayor provided an off-the-record briefing to Dreschel about the departure of then-planning commissioner Lee Ann Coveyduck.

That conversation was taped in May 2007 when the mayor's press secretary was Ian Dovey, who later had his contract terminated by Eisenberger and launched a wrongful dismissal suit against the city.

Councillor Scott Duvall has confirmed turning over to police copies of e-mail traffic that appears to be sent from Dovey to Clark.

Duvall says the e-mail indicates Dovey counselled Clark on how to disseminate the transcript to the media to create the greatest impact.

Clark subsequently tried to persuade two council colleagues (Duvall and Sam Merulla) to circulate the information to the media. He also took it to Hamilton Community News (formerly Brabant).

When their reporter Kevin Werner contacted the mayor about the transcript, a contrite Eisenberger quickly called a media conference to acknowledge his mistake and asked police to investigate the leak.

I've read the transcript and it holds no smoking gun for Eisenberger -- it is tellingly innocuous.

That same evening, Merulla contacted the mayor and disclosed an e-mail trail that clearly identified Clark as the source of the leak.

When Clark was subsequently confronted by the media with evidence that he, too, had violated the code of conduct, he obfuscated, claiming to have acted as a whistleblower.

Unfortunately for Clark, his behaviour met none of the tests for either courage or candour that distinguish true whistleblowers.

Had he been interested in acting with integrity and getting to the bottom of the matter, he would have simply placed the transcript in front of the mayor and city solicitor and asked for an explanation.

Instead, Clark saw an opportunity to damage the mayor politically and attempted to exploit it. Clark has now asked the integrity commissioner to investigate his conduct but, frankly, it is too little, too late.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi used to say that adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it. The details of last week's scandal will quickly be forgotten by the public. But what Eisenberger's and Clark's responses to it revealed about character is unlikely to fade anytime soon.

Freelance columnist Terry Cooke lives in Hamilton. He is a former regional chair. terry_cooke@sympatico.ca