Must be all the rage these days...
More than a year after denying it, the newly elected mayor of Portland has admitted having a sexual relationship with a male teenager in 2005.
Sam Adams, who is openly gay, acknowledged the relationship in a statement Monday, after the Willamette Week newspaper broke the story on its Web site.
The boy was 18 at the time.
You might notice that the newspaper article does NOT mention the Mayor's political party--therefore you know immediately what Party he belongs to.
HT: The McCain Who Didn't Lose
And while the article doesn't cite the church he attends, should we also wager a guess on that?
ReplyDeleteHow I wish we could make politics less about prurient personal relationships. I for one find it offensive whenever I hear a government representative moralize at me about things which the government has no legitimate interest in--like whether one consenting adult has had sex with another consenting adult. Frankly, I doubt whether holders of national office are any more likely to stick to the moral tenets they spew for at us so regularly. In fact, they are probably less likely to do so, given the fact that they are wealthy and powerful.
ReplyDeleteIf an elected official has not broken the law, has not shown a conflict of interest in the execution of his office, and has not made a hypocrite of himself by doing the very things he exhorts us all not to do... well, why should we care?
I know it's idealistic to think that these kinds of things will never enter into politics. I know it will always be there--and perhaps one could make a case that it should always be there. But for goodness sake, we often seem as if we care more about these things than about the policies which affect our families, businesses and security!
As usual, Scott, it's not the deed--it's the denial/admission.
ReplyDeleteSure. And if he'd admitted it his conservative political adversaries would have just said "no harm no foul," right? C'mon. Obviously we don't want people to lie, and lying speaks ill of one's capacity to serve honestly and with integrity--but these kinds of lies don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a world of character assassination, innuendo and, as I said before, an undue focus on and prurient interest in people's private lives
ReplyDeleteYah, well...
ReplyDeleteMy interest in YOUR life is probably about the same as your interest in MINE.
But neither of us are visible politicians; and in the case at hand, "hanging out" with a 17-y-o is simply stupid. Dumb.
Gary Becker-esque.