There’s an old line, while often attributed to many people, is more closely associated with Abraham Lincoln, which would seem to be guiding principle of the re-election campaigns of Hillsborough County Commissioners Brian Blair, R- Witness Protection Program and Ken Hagan, R-Marcel Marceau.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than speak out and remove all doubt.

While candidates for various offices cavort about the county speaking to numerous community groups, while also participating in a number of panels, forums and debates, Blair and Hagan have been more AWOL than George W. Bush contemplating his Texas Air National Guard uniform.

Much to the consternation of their opponents, the two commissioners have ducked events like the Tiger Bay Club and the League of Women Voters, where they would run the risk of having to answer a question from the audience on their conduct in office, which might best be summed as a couple of lotion boys for the county’s development interests.

And oh yeah, they aren’t too crazy about gay people either.

Hagan traditionally has been more shy than Greta Garbo meets Osama bin Laden when it comes to public appearances. Even during his first run for office some years ago, he kept a lower profile on the stump than J.D. Salinger and still manged to get elected. So why change his stump stealth strategy now?

Well, for one reason, Hagan is now an elected official and if you are going to ask the public to return you to office, isn’t there an inherent responsibility to present yourself to the voters to justify your performance on the job?

Blair has insisted he has indeed appeared before the public noting a visit with the Republican Party Executive Committee and a two meet-the-candidate forums at Idlewild Baptist Church and Bell Shoals Baptist Church, where no questions were asked. Say, there’s a profile in courage for you.

It is certainly true if Blair and Hagan want to confine their campaigning before the National Association of Mimes, the Deaf and Dumb Society of America and the Order of St. Benedict, which practices a variation of the vows of silence, well that’s their decision.

There’s no question when a pol shows up an event there is always the possibility doom lurks only a question or two away revealing the candidate as a complete, unmitigated boob, who barely knows he or she is alive. And that could obviously explain the reluctance of Blair and Hagan to risk exposing themselves as a couple of gladhanders who are dumber than a sack of anvils.

Fair enough. More than fair enough.

But the next time either one of these chaps starts mouthing off during a county commission meeting about how brave they are, what great leaders they are and how they are out there fighting, fighting, fighting for you, it might be worthwhile to remember when it came to simply showing up to interact with the public that elected them, they were more gutless than the quivering knights in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw: “Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ Some men dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’ And some men spot their opponent on the campaign trail and run away, run away, run away!”