Sam Adams, You really screwed the pooch on this one
News has just broke that Portland Mayor Sam Adams has admitted to having sex with an 18-year-old. From the Oregonian:
Portland Mayor Sam Adams is expected to make his first public statement today in response to news reports that he had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old in summer 2005 and, on the eve of his campaign for the city’s highest office, lied about it and urged the young man to lie as well.
The story was originally broke by the Willamette Week, august slayer of philandering Oregon politicians.
Adams is the first openly gay mayor of a top-40 city in America, and as such, you would think he would have the goddamn common sense not to do something like this. He’s just playing into the hands of those troglodytes on the religious right. It’s hard to say how this will affect LGBTQ politics, but mark my words it will.
And no, I don’t have a big problem with the sex aspect of the whole debacle, besides, y’know, the lecherous old man part. It was consenting, and according to statements from Adams, Beau Breedlove (seriously his name) was 18 at the time of their, uh, liaison.
Another point worth commenting on: It’s bizarre how most of the comments in the Oregonian story try to defend Adams, saying that the media are being “petty” and “intrusive.” Frankly, that’s the media’s job. I didn’t hear much crying when stories broke claiming that erstwhile House of Representatives-candidate Mike Erickson allegedly knocked a girl up and paid for her abortion. To put it another way: The media’s job is to uncover the lies of politicians. Therefore, you can only blame politicians when they get exposed for, say, having sex with 18-year-olds and lying about it.
