In my opinion, Putting Paulson on the Lexington was just another way that Tolwyn could control what Blair saw of the whole incident on the frontier, I am basing this on the fact that orders are issued to clear the flight deck when Seether arrives etc. and Blair doesn't have the whole picture when he defects, it is more a leap of faith for him, trusting Eisen and the others that they are not "traitors" so to speak.
Ripper, I'd interpret that comment (WW made) as a joke, because of the reference to the weasel in your original post, sometimes its hard to convey what you really mean in a post, cause there is little emotion