JUST when you thought he was out of the picture, a campaign poster endorsing Carl T.C. Gutierrez as a write-in candidate for public auditor began circulating on Facebook yesterday. Good morning, Ms. Doris Brooks.

Not surprisingly, the Facebook post quickly entailed a thread of mixed reactions, including“yeehaaahs” and “bibas” with lots of exclamation points from the Gutierrez loyalists, as well as loaded one-liners from critics who wrote “OMG,” “Oh, dear.” There is a neutral “Wow” and a curious “Is this real?”

So, is this real? A prank? Or a trial balloon?

Ms. Brooks has been getting a good night’s sleep when Zenaida Asuncion-Nace, a comptroller at the University of Guam, pulled in her horns.

But Ms. Brooks, as the rest of Guam’s political observers, will be in suspense until July 31 when the former governor comes back from his vacation, according to Democratic Party of Guam executive director Carlo Branch. Until then, Carlo’s mouth is zipped.

An insider said a run for public auditor was suggested to Gutierrez to give him “some leverage as party chair.” And so, the source added, “he decided a couple of weeks ago that he would like that.”

What’s Guam politics without Gutierrez? It would be like a Chamorro dish without finadene.

The predictable unpredictability of Guam politics always adds thrill to local elections, which for some offer hope, and for others a venue for intellectual masturbation. Even those who may have lost faith in the electoral process will always see the entertainment value of politics.

We thought Gutierrez had retreated to the periphery when the Democratic Party released an ostensibly staged photo-op showing Gutierrez and Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo shaking hands and arresting the rupture that threatened to sink the party. The former governor left the congressional race to Bordallo and the newbie Karlo Dizon.

But trust his loyalists to persistently bring the Sunshine back into the landscape. “Everyone is accountable,” reads the Gutierrez for Public Auditor poster that raised some eyebrows.

“I am so glad I am leaving the island and do not have to deal with the local politics anymore,” read a comment posted by a Facebook user.

But Gutierrez didn’t earn the moniker “Teflon” for no reason. He survived 158 indictments amid the guilty verdict rendered on him by his critics.

Despite his two failed attempts to return to Adelup, his campaign always came close to becoming a cult of personality. You either like him or hate him. And if you have decided to make it a career to loath him, better not talk to him; he can be strangely disarming. Here is a traditional politician who knows the key points of “The Art of War.”

“He has been here before. Gutierrez, arguably the most brilliant politician the island has ever produced, has gone through many ups and downs in his storied political career,” my colleague and friend Gerry Partido wrote in his Nov. 2, 2010 column.

And like Batman, he’s been a hero and a villain; he’s been loved and derided; he’s been prosecuted and vindicated; he appears and disappears.

But in the meantime, this episode is a cliffhanger.