Posted on 01/20/2009 9:43:51 AM PST by mojito
One thing we seem to breed in Oregon are big political scandals, and the latest one is hitting Portland Mayor Sam Adams with gale force.
Adams admitted to The Oregonian and Willamette Week Monday that he lied back in September of 2007 when he denied rumors that he had had a sexual relationship with a teenager who had been a legislative intern. Adams, who is openly gay, said that while he first met the intern, Beau Breedlove, when he was 17, the two did not have sex until after Breedlove turned 18.
When rumors about the two first surfaced in September of 2007, Adams had not yet announced he was running for mayor but was clearly angling for the job. A potential mayoral rival to Adams, developer Bob Ball, had talked about the rumors with such figures as City Commissioner Randy Leonard and former Mayor Vera Katz, and Ball wound up being widely criticized after both Breedlove and Adams denied the rumor.
If Adams had admitted the relationship back in 2007, it likely would have seriously jeopardized his race for mayor. Reporters would have pushed hard to find out if the sexual relationship began before Breedlove was 18. Voters - and the power brokers who wield endorsements and campaign dollars - may have been bothered enough just by the age discrepancy to look elsewhere for a mayoral candidate.
At that point, it would have been easy to find an alternative to Adams. Adams undoubtedly knew that when he decided not to tell the truth and, as he acknowledged to Willamette Week, to ask Breedlove to lie for him as well.
Now, however, we're past the election and the city has invested itself in Adams' new mayoralty. There is a lot left to learn, including whether - as Willamette Week suggested in its reporting - Adams gave a job to a reporter for the Portland Mercury, Amy Ruiz, to keep her from continuing to chase reports that Adams had lied about his relationship with Breedlove.
It's way too early to know how this scandal will spin out - and whether voters will view it as a major blow to Adams' credibility or as a personal relationship that is none of their business.
Who was it who said, “Unless I’m caught with a dead woman or a live boy, I’ll be re-elected”?
Beau Breedlove? Is this a joke?
Well, Teddy Kennedy proved the first part of that saying wrong. (Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.)
Gov. Edwin Edwards of Louisiana
50/50? Are you kidding?
This practically guarantees he’ll be the next US Senator.
This guarantees his re-election.
so this will be headliner news for the next 5 weeks right?
It’ll be the first segment every morning - with updates and interviews.
It’ll be on the front page of the papers.
This guy’s every move will be carefully monitored.
Oh wait - he’s a democrat.
Nevermind.
Believe me, we are not far behind San Fransisco.
I don’t believe it. Everyone knows that homosexuals don’t do this kind of thing.
[rolls eyes]
Mark Foley was guilty of......TEXTING.....a page.
If there has been one NAMBLA-type encounter, no doubt there have been many more. The Oregonian’s reporters had better start literally beating the bushes in Oregon.
Not a chance. He hasn't stolen any money or committed any felony breaches of the Constitution.
Have faith, its ‘in there’ like Ragu!
Is that your final answer?
Will this become a national story? Will this have blowback for the DNC? Evidence of a 'culture of corruption'?
To answer your questions:
No, No, Yes, respectively.
Mark Foley was guilty of being a Republican.
The whole Foleygate thing was a media-DNC collusion news-item. They had information that they sat on until late in the campaign and used it as an October Suprise to turn off the Religious Right. While the social conservatives were upset enough at just learning that there were some homosexuals in the GOP, the media implied that Foley was molesting boys (a blatent lie).
Subsequent congressional investigation showed that the DNC was lying when they said that GOP leadership “knew and did nothing” when both the DNC and media knew MORE earlier and did NOTHING (except sit on the info for use in a smear campaign).
But the “culture of corruption” talking point gave Congressional control to the DNC in 2006.
Way to go. Media collusion and pravda reporting. The Stalinists won.
When the press kept running news items about last minute pardons from Bush, they were concerned that Edwin Edwards (D-LA) may not get his pardon. I don’t think he ever did.
“Odd. No mention of Adam’s political party affiliation anywhere in the article.”
To add the cherry to the “Name That Party” game, the first article that I saw about this carefully avoided mentioning Adams’s political affiliation, but carefully pointed out that Adams met Breedlove while Breedlove was a page for a Republican representative. Classic.
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