Why Mayor Sam Adams Should Remain Mayor Sam Adams (Audio)
January 22, 2009 by Bryan
In my quest to find the right words, and even more frankly the time to sum everything up, I got an email from a friend of mine who summed it up perfectly.
Here it is in Marc Acito’s own words:
I listened to Mr. Acito’s entire statement.
Talk about all smoke and no fire.
This type of feel good, shifting morality rationalization holds no sway in the courtroom. I know, I’ve been a social worker and defense lawyer for the last 19 years. A great deal of the work I do deals with issues very similar in scope and nature to this one.
Setting aside Mr. Acito’s emotional conjecture and verbiage, the only thing that will make any difference here are the facts of the matter and the results of any investigation.
The public will see if this was a momentary lapse of judgment on Sam’s part, or indicative of deeper issue with honesty and forthrightness.
I do think a fair and unbiased investigation is the only way to assuage the public’s rightful desire to know the answer to these questions.
Can’t go there with Marc. Adams was willing to destroy another mans reputation (Bob Ball), ask a friend to lie (Breedlove), and risk dragging Portland and its GLBT community through the mud. I don’t trust him any more to make smart decisions on my behalf. I think his actions show he’s capable of throwing any of us under the bus if he knew he wouldn’t get caught. Adams actions really hurt and Marc’s statement feels more like political talking points than an honest reflection. I could have used some healing words.
T Bloom -
Give me a break. Bob Ball knew exactly what he was doing. Sam never should have been asked the question in the first place. I was on OPB this morning with Nigel and he said that the first question he asked Sam was “Did you have a sexual relationship with Beau Breedlove”.
Wrong question to ask. Bad journalism. I think this is a point to go back to: This a rare error in judgment in a long political career. And it was a big error. Sam should have told the truth. In not doing so, he created more suspicion than would have emerged if he had just admitted it at the time, even though I think he had good reason to be concerned that the public may not accept his version of events.
Sam should stay in office unless there is a law that has been broken. And don’t come back saying that the trust has been broken. If your need to know the personal, consensual sexual life of Mayor Adams, that’s a whole other issue that you’ll need to deal with on your own.
Now, saying what I am saying does not make me–or any gay person in Portland who defends Sam–an apologist for him or his bad decisions. I expect that like me gay portlanders were perhaps the most disappointed when they heard the news. So many of us look up to Sam and have I think in some cases made him a larger-than-life gay role model. And what all of this shows is a message that gay people have been delivering for years: Gay people are are just like straight people. Sam is just like anyone else–straight or gay. He’s human and he makes mistakes.
Bryan
GRW Editor
Bryan,
I could care less about Adams sex life. I prefer to focus on my own thanks. Again, it’s his judgment – all the small decisions he made over the past 2 years. I don’t know anything about Ball and have no judgment about him as a politician or person, but from what I read, Adams staff was concerned about the appropriateness of the relationship at the time Breedlove was 17. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking the question if there is suspicion of abuse. In fact, as an outsider, not knowing who’s a sleazy politician and who’s not, I admire Ball for asking the question when no one else would. Obviously there was concern and I would want someone to say something if there was suspicion of any 17 year old being abused – male, female, straight or gay.
I’m not trying to be inflammatory, I don’t have all the inside information you do and I’m just a Portlander and member of the gay community trying to make sense of all this, so please be more respectful and skip the give me a break stuff.
RE: Bob Ball – I think all we need to know is when you live in a glass house… and you know the rest.
T Bloom – I apologize if I came off in a condensing manner. I really do
Good night folks.
Bryan
GRW Editor
Bryan, this is no update, just propaganda by another supporter missing the point and not seeing the big picture. Sam’s not the victim here and neither is the gay community. Sam made his own bed and lied about Beau lying in it.
What exactly do you know about Ball? All I’ve read is what’s been reported in the media based on Sam’s denials, which turned out to be lies. If you have some real facts, please share them.
Beau is apparently more honest and mature than Sam – he apologized to Ball (according to the media) for the damage caused be their lies.
In any case, Sam could end this right now by offering to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence in breaking the law. That would solve his major problem.
PDX LAB:
First understand that this is a news blog and without question will have opinion in nearly every piece. The opinions reflect my own and any other folks who contribute to this blog.
Because Marc’s comments were not what you wanted to hear, you immediately call it “propaganda” when in fact it’s merely an opinion that I share.
You asking Sam to take a lie detector test about a situation fueled by rumor, speculation, hearsay and a writer at the Willamette Week on a mission for a second Pulitzer Prize for exposing a sex scandal is absurd.
Nigel at Willamette Week never should have started question with “Did you have a sexual relationship with Beau Breedlove”. The only question that should have ever been asked is, “Did you have a sexual relationship with a minor named Beau Breedlove”. The answer would have been no and the story would have been dead – or should have been dead.
And for the record – the only thing that I’ve heard about Beau apologizing was a blanket statement sent from his PR rep. I have not heard of any direct correspondence between Beau and Bob Ball and I would hope that Beau’s PR agent wouldn’t let that happen.
Its hard to get over the hypocrisy here. The perpetrator, is suddenly the victim?.. He is 40 and odd years old, and here is this 17 soon to be 18 years old kid.. Kid throws himself on him, and he doesn’t have the moral compass to say, I am suppose to be your mentor, isn’t he suppose to be the better judge of things..And for him to sit up there and lie in 2007 that, its sad the gay community is accused of older men predating after younger guys. And that’s exactly what he was doing. This is the problem with the gay community. Take responsibility and act a man, if you want yourself to be respected and expect your due rights. Has he also convinced Breedlove or ask him to lie that he was 18 years old when he had sex with him? who knows. How can he expect any respect from any officials under him is beyond me.. The problem is not the sex between two consenting adults(that is if we believe him), but the calculative manipulation of asking other people to lie for him to get elected.
Bryan – sorry, but you implied that you had a news update, or at least I took it that way.
It seems to me that Sam’s apologists don’t want to hear the truth about their candidate. Sam himself invited the media into his bedroom, not the other way around. He did so by publically dating a 17 year old, raising suspicions of illegal sexual activity. Why shouldn’t that have been of concern to the authorities?
Whn Sam was confronted with the issue, he lied and engaged in an elaborate cover-up and a campaign to discredit Bob Ball, to the point where Ball was intimidated from running by Randy Leonard.
These are the real issues here and Sam’s supporters refuse to see this. Sam engaged in willful deceit, unethical behaviour and abuse of political power.
Since Sam himself has admitted to so many lies, it’s only fair to ask Sam to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence regarding sex with a minor. How can we believe hin otherwise? He’s an admitted liar, and at the expense of so many people.
This whole thing is a media made mess — not because of who decided Sam’s sex life is in the public interest but because they WANT to paint the story as him having sex with a minor. That seems to be what everyone is thinking and it doesn’t help that there is now an investigation.
But if Sam didn’t really have sex with a minor and only chose to lie about it, yes, I wish he’d have done differently, but come on, what politician DOESN’T lie?!?
My guess is this — if he resigns, it’s because he’s worried that the REAL truth will come out. If he stays put, he’s just going to need to work hard to get everyone to forget that he got caught in a little lie that pretty much any other politician would have told. If he is a good mayor, then the voters won’t hold it against him, but he might not be able to run for higher office for some time.
I didn’t watch the Mayor’s race that closely and considered Sam a shoe in. What margin did he win by? If he had just come out and said, “here’s the kids drivers license, we had sex on these dates, he was legal and I was willing and it’s really none of your business who I have sex with” then we could have actually done something for promoting honesty in politics. Would it really have cost him the race or would the majority of Portland voters say, “who cares which adults he has sex with?”
But there is another, more difficult issue at play — Sam was Beau’s “mentor” and is this really the proper thing for a mentor to be doing with the people he is mentoring? Do we think bosses should sleep with their employees? Should professors sleep with students? Or maybe what people really want to say is that these are exactly the types of relationships that SHOULD NOT be sexual because later on it is much harder to understand why a mentor has made a certain choice introduction, or why an employee received a promotion or raise, or why a student got a high grade. Unfortunately, you don’t have to be be rightwing to view this as an abuse of trust by an individual in a position of power. This is something that I think IS troubling people about this “scandal.” But like most things, the media wants to focus the story in a way that catches attention “Mayor sleep with much younger man, news at 11…”
Time will tell…
When you run for public office and your opponent raises in the press the possibility you had sex with a minor, you have to respond honestly. Regardless if it was legal and consensual, the age difference and the mentor/intern relationship would register with voters assessing your character and judgment. Apparently Sam couldn’t find a way to deny sex with a minor while simultaneously protecting his consensual adult sex-life privacy, so he lied to protect his own political future. He says he asked Breedlove to lie. We know he aggressively lambasted his opponent as a liar and played the gay card. As mayor, he hired the Mercury reporter who was covering this issue to be his advisor on sustainability planning despite the fact she has no qualifications for that “in a city full of planners” (her words). To be effective as mayor, you have to have the trust and respect of the community at large. Knowing all this, it seems he should resign.
Isn’t it about time when we as a people start to demand more from those who would act as “Role Models” ~ We have excused all forms of behavior from those in public life with the excuse “We all do it too” ~ The difference is the collective “We” live our lives in private. We don’t put our selves forth as role models, mentors or leaders. I think if you want to be the Mayor of a major city, the Governor of a state or any position to represent other people then you had better be able to hold yourself to a higher standard. After all you are asking to “Lead” ~ Is Sam Adams leadership to be interpreted to say that it is perfectly all right for people to lie if they are embarrassed by their own actions? Worse yet is it OK to ask others to lie to cover your own embarrassment. Sam Adams as a “Role Model” should have thought twice about how his relationship with Breedlove would look to others and when push came to shove, should have at least had the balls to not lie about it. No one forced him to run for Mayor of Portland and no one twisted his arm when it came time to lie about it and ask others to lie to protect him. I don’t see how anyone can condone or excuse his actions in light of the fact that he asked Portland voters to place their TRUST in him to run the city. He has broken that trust to the point that it can not be repaired. He should resign.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Glad this whole thing has finally been laid to rest (at least for a while). Some final thoughts have been lingering in my head – especially this thought of holding politicians to a moral high standard… They aren’t moral leaders.. go to a church for that (and you’ll still be disappointed in my opinion).
I voted for Sam originally because of his interest in, and in-depth policy knowledge of, transportation and planning issues, among other things. I thought his city restructuring plan in the first week of his term was well crafted. Sustainability should be the new focus of planning and Sam gets that.
At issue here is whether or not even bringing up this type of accusation/story is informative/worthwhile. Think about it.. the circumstances don’t appear to indicate any form of “abuse”. While the law is clear – have sex with someone a day under 18 and it’s illegal versus one day later and it’s legal. Is there some mysterious change in consciousness that makes someone who just turns 18 more intelligent about his/her sexual decisions than a day prior? The law says 18 because it’s the age that the vast majority of teenagers have reached maturity. Most reach it much earlier and can therefore make decisions about their sex lives without any more regret than someone who’s 30 regrets his/her decisions regarding sex. Just because the relationship occurred when Beau was still a teenager doesn’t make it any less appropriate than if Beau was in his early 20’s. (As an aside, I made better decisions about sex when I was 17 and 18 because I didn’t drink back then.) Similarly, it was inappropriate for me to receive oral sex from another man in the midst of a recent relationship I had. Inappropriate of me, yes. Do I no longer deserve to have a job or am I no longer able to make important decisions about issues I’m most experienced with? – no. Inappropriate or not, I come back to my reasons for voting for Sam – none of which included “appropriateness” of his sexual relationships (none of which included me).
Now to the lying part. This is what some people appear to be hung up over. I’ve been in situations where I chose to lie about an “inappropriate” sexual relationship and others when I chose to tell the truth. From my experiences, I would say I’d choose to lie more often than not in the future. Some people just can’t handle, nor want to know about, my inappropriate sexual relationships. Does this make me a bad employee/leader? No. Does this make me a bad partner? Yes, but what do you care? – I’m not dating you. In conclusion, I’m not dating Sam, so I don’t care about his sex life either.