10.26.14
Portland’s alternative newspaper, Willammette Week, has done an excellent job of reporting the Mafia-like ethics and documentable corruption of John Kitzhaber.
Time after time they have been the leading edge of the investigative journalism that has exposed just how deeply Oregon has fallen into a pit of Chicago style back room deals, insider scams, and outright theft.
In a recent article about the elections they said:
“Four years ago, we could not have predicted that the adjectives to describe Kitzhaber in 2014 would also include bumbling, slippery, dishonest. But they do.”
They went on :
“Kitzhaber served as Oregon governor from 1995 to 2003, two disappointing terms defined by the gap between his big ideas and his failure to see them through. When he sought to reclaim the governorship four years ago, WW raised concerns about a Kitzhaber 2.0. ‘He was more interested in being right than successful,’ we wrote of his track record as governor in our 2010 endorsement, “and that despite all his smarts, he lacks the people skills to translate his ideas into action.”
And:
“He put the school reforms so dear to him in the hands of education czar Rudy Crew, who touched down in Oregon only long enough to collect speaking fees and abuse his expense account before splitting town. Kitzhaber then shirked responsibility by blaming Crew’s hiring on a committee.
Meanwhile, Kitzhaber has put the governor’s office up for sale. He named as his top adviser on the Columbia River Crossing the chief consultant for the project’s biggest contractor. Patricia McCaig walked off with $553,000 for a project that never got built. Kitzhaber then concealed that she was working for his re-election campaign and running damage control for Cover Oregon.
Kitzhaber brushed aside ethics concerns as first lady Cylvia Hayes shook down advocacy groups for consulting contracts, directed state workers to handle her private business, and traded on her unofficial title and proximity to the governor for her own benefit.”
Here’s what they said about his opponent, Dennis Richardson:
“Richardson is a congenial Republican from Central Point, a retired lawyer and Vietnam War helicopter pilot with ample legislative skills and a keen eye for state budgets. In five terms in the Oregon House, he’s shown himself to be smart, hard-working…”
There was more, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
WW closed the article with this:
“What has been stolen from us in this campaign is not just trust but a moment of grace. The election of an Oregon governor should be an opportunity to lift our spirits, not break our hearts.”
These heartfelt words of despair and disappointment were all in a piece that was ENDORSING John Kitzhaber!
That’s right. The man they described as “dishonest” and “putting his office up for sale” is who they endorsed over a legislator they called “smart” and “hard working.”
So what followed their comments about Richardson being “smart” and “hard working” with a “keen eye for state budgets?” The mortal sins to the liberal ideologues.
Richardson opposed abortion and same sex marriage. Two issues that are as likely to come up in a legislature controlled by pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage Democrats as issuing concealed handgun licenses to visitors from Neptune. And two issues Richardson hasn’t even defended in his race.
He says of both of them that they are not issues because “the people have spoken” when in fact in Oregon, when the people spoke, they said “no” to same sex marriage. It was “decided” by the courts when our own liberal Democrat Attorney General refused to defend the law the voters had approved. But even that wasn’t enough for WW to back off of their endorsement for someone they themselves call a crook.
Under Kitzhaber and the Democrats Oregon consistently ranks in the cellar in employment, education, and economic growth. Entire counties are destitute because they are forbidden from making use of the natural resources that once paid wages and kept schools open and cops on the road. We are failing, badly.
So WW says “FOUR MORE YEARS.”
Well it will certainly provide plenty of material for future stories. And Oregon will continue to slide into third world status.
