View Full Version : Another self-hating Republican homo exposed in Spokane
What is WITH these losers??
Talk about SELF-HATING nut jobs.. Christ..
Copyright 2005 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
ABC News Transcripts
SHOW: WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETER JENNINGS (06:30 PM ET) - ABC
May 10, 2005 Tuesday
MAYOR SCANDAL REPUBLICAN JIM WEST UNDER FIRE IN CHILD MOLESTATION, GAY SEX SCANDAL
CHARLES GIBSON, ABC NEWS
(Off Camera) The mayor of Spokane, Washington, began a leave of absence today, after he acknowledged he's been living a double life. Jim West, once one of the most powerful Republicans in the state of Washington, has acknowledged in recent days that he is gay. And he's being battered by allegations that he molested children and offered jobs to men he met on the Internet. Here's ABC's Neal Karlinsky.
NEAL KARLINSKY, ABC NEWS
(Voice Over) In his two decades of public service, Spokane mayor, Jim West, a Republican, has been a consistent conservative opponent of gay rights. This week, his former supporters crowded city hall to say the man they thought they knew is a hypocrite, and quite possibly a criminal.
LOCAL RESIDENT, FEMALE
This is unacceptable, mayor. And I will not stop speaking until you step down.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Voice Over) The mayor faces allegations he molested two young boys in the 1970s. And more that recently, he's given professional favors inside city hall to young men he met on a gay web-site. There are now calls for an ouster from his own city council ...
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, FEMALE
I call on Mayor West to resign.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Voice Over) ... to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force ...
NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE MEMBER,
MALE
It's a disgrace that he's still sitting in the mayor's chair.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Voice Over) ... and the voters, who have launched a petition to recall the mayor. The Spokane Spokesman Review broke the story, after hiring a computer expert to pose as a high school student and chat with the mayor on a gay web-site called gay.com.
STEVEN SMITH,
EDITOR, SPOKESMAN REVIEW NEWSPAPER
And in the end, he offered this young person, somebody he'd never met, with no discernible interest in public life or public policy, he offered this young man an internship in his office.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Voice Over) Twenty-four year-old Ryan Oelrich says that's exactly what happened to him.
RYAN OELRICH, ALLEGED VICTIM
He would offer me a job, and then, in the next sentence would say, we need to go out, let's have dinner, I want to go out with you. I'm very interested in you. I find you very attractive.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Voice Over) West denies any wrongdoing, but admits he is gay.
MAYOR JIM WEST,
REPUBLICAN, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
I hope that you and the people will reserve judgment.
NEAL KARLINSKY
(Off Camera) Mayor West says he intends to serve his remaining 3-year term. For now, he has taken a leave of absence to prepare his defense. Neal Karlinsky, ABC News, Seattle.
Copyright 2005 Spokane Spokesman-Review
Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)
May 8, 2005 Sunday
Idaho Edition
RODGERS: WEST USED CITY OFFICE;
Councilwoman says mayor admitted sex act during online chat at City Hall;
Relative of late deputy says West spent time with boys from Morning Star ranch;
Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele Staff writers
© The Spokesman-Review
Spokane Mayor Jim West confided to a city councilwoman Thursday that he masturbated in his City Hall office during an online chat on a gay Web site.
"He wanted to kind of bare his soul ? He wanted to give me a heads-up," City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers said Saturday in describing a conversation she had with West.
West's admission led Rodgers on Saturday to renew her call for West to resign as mayor, an independent elected position he has held since January 2004. A recall election would require 12,567 signatures of registered voters.
Other council members, however, continue to say that any decision about resignation should be left to West.
Also Saturday, a Spokane man told The Spokesman-Review that West and former sheriff's Deputy David Hahn "checked out" boys from Morning Star Boys Ranch for day outings and camping trips in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
West was seen Saturday playing golf at Esmeralda Golf Course, but he could not be reached for comment.
Rodgers said West told her about masturbating in his City Hall office when he called her Thursday morning. Rodgers had just finished talking on a radio program about the allegations of child sexual abuse and abuse of public office against West, reported in Thursday's Spokesman-Review.
Immediately after her 6 a.m. radio interview on KXLY-AM, West called her, Rodgers said.
In the conversation, she said, he denied allegations by two men who told the newspaper that he abused them as young boys in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. West repeated his denial later that day in a brief press conference at City Hall in which he refused to take any questions.
But in their conversation, Rodgers said West acknowledged using a city computer to engage in Internet sex in his mayoral office.
"He said, we masturbated," Rodgers said. "He called it 'mutual masturbation' ? a term I hadn't really heard before," she said.
"I told him, your private life is your private life. I just have a hard time with your using city computers. He said, I know, I know," she said.
Rodgers said she told the mayor he'd still remain her friend.
She said West may have chosen her for his confession because they'd recently had dinner at Panda Express, where he talked about growing up in Spokane.
Since the allegations against West were revealed Thursday, national media stories have portrayed Spokane as an All-American city with a "homophobic" mayor who admits he's gay, Rodgers said.
"It's hypocritical. And he says he's not going to step down. But he should for the sake of the city," she added.
The sexual abuse claims against West include alleged incidents that date back more than 25 years to a time when West was a close friend of the late David Hahn. The two were both Spokane County sheriff's deputies and co-Scoutmasters of Troop 345 and lived near each other.
Dick Walters, Hahn's brother-in-law and a self-described "staunch Republican," spoke publicly for the first time Saturday. Walters told The Spokesman-Review that he knows West and Hahn took boys from Morning Star Boys Ranch on camping trips and day outings in the late '70s and early '80s.
Walters said he has no evidence that sexual abuse occurred when West and Hahn, working as volunteers, spent time with Morning Star boys. But he said he is now convinced that his late brother-in-law, who committed suicide in August 1981, was a pedophile.
The statement by Walters contradicts a statement made earlier this week by Morning Star spokeswoman P.J. Watters, who said West never had contact with boys at the facility.
When contacted Saturday, the spokeswoman said, "I am about as shocked about this as everyone else." She said her earlier comment was in relation to West's work during the past 12 years as a member of the facility's board of directors. "I knew nothing about this."
On Friday, West resigned from the facility's board, one day after stepping down from the executive board of the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts.
Hahn's brother-in-law, a geologist and mining company executive who voted for West in 2003, told the newspaper he has concerns about West.
"I believe these young men who are coming forward now and claiming West has abused them," Dick Walters said. "I feel very uncomfortable with Jim West as our mayor. I think he should step down."
Walters was referring to allegations from Robert J. Galliher and Michael G. Grant Jr., first published in Thursday's editions of The Spokesman-Review. Galliher and Grant claim they were sexually abused by both Hahn and West in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Both men, now in their 30s, said they were introduced to West by Hahn and were supplied marijuana to smoke in Hahn's South Hill apartment by the sheriff's deputies.
Walters said he suspects the abuse Galliher and Grant may have experienced as boys "may have damaged their lives," leading to crime and drug addiction.
Morning Star currently is home to 18 boys, placed there privately and by the state of Washington, which licenses and monitors the facility.
Morning Star opened in January 1957 and has housed 1,277 boys over the years. Its director, the Rev. Joe Weitensteiner, has the name of every boy who lived there in a log book he keeps, Watters said.
She said she was sure the facility still has records showing which boys may have gone on outings with West and Hahn.
"We're all about protecting these boys, so this is so unfortunate," she said. Watters promised to look into the matter further when Weitensteiner returns from out of town.
Hahn and West received a federal grant in 1977 to take a group of troubled juvenile offenders to a weeklong campout at Diamond Lake, but it's not clear if any of those boys were from Morning Star.
Walters, Hahn's brother-in-law, said he is struck by the similarities in the lives of West and Hahn.
"I don't know where David and Jim met, but I know they both were involved in taking boys from the ranch on outings," Walters said. "David sat right here in my kitchen and told me that."
Walters grew up in the same Shadle Park neighborhood as Hahn and remembered meeting Hahn when he was 8. In 1963, Walters began dating Hahn's older sister, Janice, and the two later married.
His wife, who has declined to talk publicly about her late brother, is troubled by current news reports centering on Hahn's friendship with the man who is now Spokane's mayor, Walters said.
Hahn and West, who were both raised in Spokane, "had totally parallel lives," said Walters, 61.
"They both were in the military. David was a Green Beret, and Jim was a paratrooper," Walters said.
"They both went to Gonzaga University, they both became sheriff's deputies and they both became Scout leaders together and lived close to each other.
"They both had very proud, similar public lives, and both of them appeared to me to have this dark side, very similar private lives. It's my opinion that they both knew about each other's private life," he said. "It's my belief they may have even participated in each other's private activities."
He also wanted to let the public know that his late brother-in-law, "like Jim West," had many admirable attributes.
"David had a very loving family, particularly his mother, Virginia, and his two sisters," Walters said.
"As a boy, David never could do anything right in his father's eyes," and began to stutter, Walters said. The father, a tennis instructor, "abandoned the family" and eventually divorced Virginia Hahn. She was 89 when she died a few years ago.
Hahn got involved in a ham radio club and Boy Scouts, "looking for that father figure who was missing in his life," Walters said. "I believe he was abused by someone either in the ham radio club or the Scouts. I think that's what started this."
But as a young man, Hahn never talked about being abused. "I just know that a lot of people who are abused as children grow up to become abusers."
What a creep! I hadn't heard about his opposition to gay rights.
ahhh yes.. The louder they WARN US about gay perverts, the more likely they are .. to BE ONE ..
(which is probably why they are so adamant about warning us.. they know what sick fucks they can be!)
Copyright 2005 The Seattle Times Company
The Seattle Times
May 7, 2005 Saturday
West's public, private lives contrast;
Opposed protections for gays, lesbians
Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times staff reporter
Spokane
Sex scandal
The Spokane mayor's admission of "relations with adult men" runs counter to the stands he has taken in his political career, which includes two decades in the Legislature.
SPOKANE ? During his 18 months in office, Spokane Mayor Jim West has summarized his campaign to restore civility and professionalism to the fractious politics of City Hall with a catchphrase: "Dare to be dull."
This week, as a sex scandal tore through this city's political structure, West added a new quote: "I have always considered a person's private life private."
West's admission this week that he frequented a gay Web site and had "relations with adult men" appears at odds with his 25-year political career.
A lifelong Republican and former state Senate majority leader, West was best known in Olympia as a fiscal conservative. He rarely led on social issues.
Still, he opposed extending protected-class status to gays during his two decades in the state Legislature, and last week threatened to veto a city ordinance giving benefits to the gay partners of city employees.
In 1986, he supported legislation barring gays and lesbians from working in schools and day-care centers. At the time, he was actively involved in the Boy Scouts.
"He acknowledged he compartmentalized, building a wall between his public and private selves," said Blaine Garvin, a political-science professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane. "When you do that, you're not being honest with yourself. I think it's appropriately called hypocrisy."
State Rep. Bob McCaslin , a Spokane Valley Republican who served with West, disagrees.
"If you talk about [gay] rights, and his philosophy, I don't see any hypocrisy," he said. "I'm sure some people will, if in fact he's gay."
West told The Spokesman-Review newspaper that his opposition to gay-rights legislation doesn't mean he supports discrimination. "I have never been outspoken against gays, I have never discriminated against gays," he said. "It's dicey to vote for those bills I consider an extension of a benefit that didn't exist, need to exist."
West also vigorously denied more serious allegations published in The Spokesman-Review that he molested two young boys in the 1970s. He was a Spokane County sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout volunteer at the time.
He called those accusations "flat lies."
The newspaper also reported that West offered a City Hall internship to someone he believed was an 18-year-old high-school student whom he contacted through the gay Web site. The "teenager" in fact was a computer expert posing as a student and hired by The Spokesman-Review to confirm that West used the site.
West declined to talk about the scandal yesterday. He tried to go about his normal business, ignoring questions from a scrum of reporters at a morning appearance in support of Spokane's sister-city program.
"It's a great day," he said during the appearance. "Of course, every day is a great day."
The contrast between West's political stands on gay-rights issues and his now-public sexual orientation has begun grating on residents of the state's second-largest city.
Dan Mitchinson, news director for Spokane's conservative talk-radio station KGA, said West's string of accomplishments had gained him fans. But his station has been flooded with criticism from listeners, he said.
"This is a person who you thought you knew from this legislative stuff and the campaign trail, but then he does an about-face," Mitchinson said.
Political leaders and citizens yesterday appeared split on whether West could survive the scandal. The Spokane County Elections Office said it had received an inquiry yesterday about the recall process, and City Council member Cherie Rodgers called on him to resign.
The last openly gay person to run for a citywide office, Dean Lynch, lost by 49 votes out of 16,200 cast.
Tom Rasmussen, Seattle's first openly gay councilman, said that living in the closet can result in a "tortured life."
"The irony is that it's because of policies he and others have advocated that people lead tormented and tragic lives," Rasmussen said.
"I think disclosure by a person is up to them as individuals. But I can't accept the integrity of a person who is gay and actually advocates for discrimination against people who are gay."
In a debate during his failed run for mayor of Spokane in 2000, West said that "people still disagree if it [homosexuality] is a learned behavior or one you're born with."
Three years later, he said he opposed extending protections for gays and lesbians as bad for business.
Rick Forcier, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Washington, said it's not uncommon for people to live one life in public and another in private.
"Here's a man who knows right from wrong. Evidently, his flesh has been in control of his spirit," Forcier said. "I don't think he was trying to be two different people. I think he was two different people. I hope he seeks professional help."
West resigned Thursday from the Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and was added yesterday to a national list of "ineligible volunteers."
Had he not resigned, the council would have had to decide whether West's admissions that he contacted young men through the gay Web site disqualify him from scouting, said Tim McCandless, the council's executive.
The resignation absolved the council of that decision, he said.
West also resigned yesterday from the board of the Morningstar Boys Ranch, a home for troubled teenagers in Spokane founded by the Catholic Church.
"He asked us to keep him in our prayers," said P.J. Watters, a spokesman for the ranch. "That's something the whole community needs right now."
Staff reporter Bob Young and staff researcher David Turim contributed to this report. Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com
happyjill
05-13-2005, 01:15 PM
I was wondering if this story would show up at IH. This was all over the local news in Seattle; Spokane is the second biggest city in Washington, out in the redneck eastern half of the state. West is an amazing hypocrite-one of the loudest voices in the state government over the years against gay rights in what is ostensibly a very progressively oriented state. He is a reflection of the politics of his locale-the rural and eastern portion of Washington are big and Red versus the ultrablue of Seattle and Western Washington. This was a pretty aggressive outing on the part of the Spokane paper who went after him, and I guess I gotta say that West has to sleep in the bed he made for himself. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any self-hatred as much as he is a total fucking hypocrite who would be DEMANDING that a person in a comparable situation to his would have to resign. The irony is pretty sweet in this situation.
I was wondering if this story would show up at IH. This was all over the local news in Seattle; Spokane is the second biggest city in Washington, out in the redneck eastern half of the state. West is an amazing hypocrite-one of the loudest voices in the state government over the years against gay rights in what is ostensibly a very progressively oriented state. He is a reflection of the politics of his locale-the rural and eastern portion of Washington are big and Red versus the ultrablue of Seattle and Western Washington. This was a pretty aggressive outing on the part of the Spokane paper who went after him, and I guess I gotta say that West has to sleep in the bed he made for himself. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any self-hatred as much as he is a total fucking hypocrite who would be DEMANDING that a person in a comparable situation to his would have to resign. The irony is pretty sweet in this situation.
I thought of YOU when I read this story
LOL.. I knew you'd have a comment!
Thanks
Bman
Rightwingnut
05-13-2005, 01:21 PM
I didnt read all the way through those articles...but wasnt West outed by an internet sting operation contracted by a local paper?
happyjill
05-13-2005, 01:24 PM
I didnt read all the way through those articles...but wasnt West outed by an internet sting operation contracted by a local paper?
here's a blurb about it from one of the weekly alt mags in Seattle-
FRIDAY, MAY 6 The week continues with the most just deployment of karmic retribution since Roy Cohn died powerless and alone in a New York hospital. The culprit: Jim West, the Eastern Washington Republican who spent 20 years distinguishing himself as the anti-gay pit bull of the state legislature before becoming mayor of Spokane in 2003. His retribution: a brilliant sting operation conducted by Spokane's Spokesman-Review, which hired a forensic computer expert to log into gay online forums under the guise of an 17-year-old male, to investigate a pair of allegations made against the mayor by two men who claim West sexually abused them 20 years ago. And while the Spokesman-Review's cybersleuth found nothing to support the original allegations, the faux-teen soon stumbled into thrilling new territory, as 54-year-old West--using the name RightBi-Guy--allegedly wooed the imaginary 17-year-old with offers of prime Seahawks and Mariners seats, assistance getting into college, and an internship at city hall before attempting to arrange a would-be liaison after the virtual teen claimed to have turned 18, at which time the Spokesman-Review went public with West's recorded e-chats. "I'm very closeted," wrote West in a February 26 online conversation. "Openly gay guys are a little over-the-top for me. I don't really like the in-your-face attitude… I say live and let live." If only West had followed his own motto, instead of fighting to ban gays from employment at schools, daycares, and certain state agencies and backing legislation to restrict marriage to the union between a man and a woman. In a statement yesterday, West categorically denied allegations that he molested two boys more than two decades ago. As for reports of Gay.com cruising and sex with men aged 18 and up: "I don't deny that."
Rightwingnut
05-13-2005, 01:30 PM
Thanks. I heard about this on the Radio yesterday and a few things struck me about it.
First, it amazes me that the paper was able to pull it off. According to the reports I heard they actually conducted a 3 year investigation into this.
Second, I think its great that he was outed and has to face his own hypocrisy. Maybe it will scare a few more so much they will actually start using a conscience instead of the party line.
here's a blurb about it from one of the weekly alt mags in Seattle-
FRIDAY, MAY 6 The week continues with the most just deployment of karmic retribution since Roy Cohn died powerless and alone in a New York hospital. The culprit: Jim West, the Eastern Washington Republican who spent 20 years distinguishing himself as the anti-gay pit bull of the state legislature before becoming mayor of Spokane in 2003. His retribution: a brilliant sting operation conducted by Spokane's Spokesman-Review, which hired a forensic computer expert to log into gay online forums under the guise of an 17-year-old male, to investigate a pair of allegations made against the mayor by two men who claim West sexually abused them 20 years ago. And while the Spokesman-Review's cybersleuth found nothing to support the original allegations, the faux-teen soon stumbled into thrilling new territory, as 54-year-old West--using the name RightBi-Guy--allegedly wooed the imaginary 17-year-old with offers of prime Seahawks and Mariners seats, assistance getting into college, and an internship at city hall before attempting to arrange a would-be liaison after the virtual teen claimed to have turned 18, at which time the Spokesman-Review went public with West's recorded e-chats. "I'm very closeted," wrote West in a February 26 online conversation. "Openly gay guys are a little over-the-top for me. I don't really like the in-your-face attitude… I say live and let live." If only West had followed his own motto, instead of fighting to ban gays from employment at schools, daycares, and certain state agencies and backing legislation to restrict marriage to the union between a man and a woman. In a statement yesterday, West categorically denied allegations that he molested two boys more than two decades ago. As for reports of Gay.com cruising and sex with men aged 18 and up: "I don't deny that."
That is AWESOME!
That's the kind of work the media SHOULD BE doing..
Unfortunately, there's so little of it
Bman
Spot on.. from a blogger at raisingkaine.com
Starting to Sense a Pattern Here?
Filed under: Republicans— Lowell @ 10:48 am
This morning comes word that James E. West, the Republican Mayor of Spokane, Washington, is leaving two youth group boards amidst allegations that he molested two boys and “recently offer[ed] a City Hall internship to someone he met in a gay online chat room.” Interestingly, James E. West has long been an opponent of gay rights, including while he was State Senate majority leader.
Why does this story sound familiar? Perhaps because it seems to happen so often these days — anti-gay Republicans being outed (David Brock, Michael Huffington, and of course Virginia’s own Ed Schrock), busted for molesting boys (West), caught engaging in sex wih teenage male prostitutes (Robert Bauman) posting sexually explicit pictures of themselves on the internet (Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert), or heading to Massachusetts to marry their longtime gay lovers (Arthur Finkelstein), etc. We could go on and on.
The scary thing is that this list doesn’t even take into account all the ultra-moralist “conservatives” who have gotten into trouble for other vices: gambling (former Drug Czar, Bill “Book of Virtues” Bennett), drug abuse (Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush), cheating on their wives (Newt Gingrich, Rudolph Guiliani, Rev. Jim Bakker, Neil Bush, Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr — also caught in photographs licking whipped cream off the breast of a stripper), engaging in sexually “inappropriate” behavior with female employees (conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly, Family Research Council’s Gary Bauer, Republican Congressmen Dan Burton and Dan Crane, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former Republican Senator Bob Packwood, - 10,000 pages of evidence against him), and pressuring their wives to perform sex acts in public at sex clubs (former Illinois Republican US Senate candidate, Jack Ryan).
Starting to sense a pattern here? For instance, that the same people who love preaching strict “family values,” intolerance, and harsh judgmentalism towards various “vices” are among the biggest “sinners” themselves? Interestingly, psychological studies have shown that the most intolerant people tend to also be the most repressed. One well-known example was the 1996 University of Georgia study, which found that 80% of homophobic men showed some degree of arousal when shown male homosexual videos. In contrast, only 34% of non-homophobic men showed such arousal.
As the lead researcher on the homophobia study, Henry Adams, said back in the February 1997 Esquire Magazine “Men who are upset by being around gay men probably have these tendencies themselves. The thing you dislike most in yourself is the kind of thing you might jump on somebody else for.” Wow. Who woulda thunk it? Hmmmm…..
http://www.raisingkaine.com/blog/?p=205
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 31, 2005, Tuesday, BC cycle
Spokane Mayor predicts he'll survive scandals
By JOHN K. WILEY, Associated Press Writer
SPOKANE, Wash.
Spokane Mayor James E. West told a national audience Tuesday that he voted against gay-friendly measures because that was what his conservative district wanted, even though he was a closeted homosexual.
Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, West called child molestation allegations against him "absolutely wrong" and predicted he would survive investigations into allegations that he misused his office for personal gain.
West, who is attending a conference in Tampa, Fla., told host Matt Lauer that residents are urging him to remain in office, even as business organizations and politicians are telling him it's time to go.
"The e-mails that are coming to me are in my favor not to resign. Stand your ground," West said. "They say, 'If the allegations are true, you ought to go.' Well, they are not true."
The mayor is the subject of an FBI inquiry into whether he committed criminal acts by trolling gay chat rooms and offering city jobs to men he met there. The city has appointed a commission to determine whether he violated policies against misuse of computers.
West has repeatedly denied allegations, raised in a series of articles beginning May 5 in The Spokesman-Review newspaper, that he sexually molested two teenage boys when he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Spokane City Council scheduled a vote Tuesday night on a resolution asking West to resign. The vote is advisory and West can only be removed from office by recall. A group of residents have begun circulating a recall petition.
West, a former GOP majority leader in the state Senate, said he wasn't being hypocritical when he opposed gay-friendly bills.
"I voted to represent my legislative district in the Legislature. I was not an advocate," West said. "I was not a leader of the charge in any of those cases. Every representative and every senator from my district voted the way I voted."
West, who characterized himself as "bisexual, gay" who had intimate relationships with both men and women after his divorce about nine years ago, said he doubts he would have voted differently had he not been closeted.
"I am a conservative. I am not a closet liberal pretending to be a conservative," West said. "What is wrong with somebody having an alternative sexual orientation being a conservative? Can a ... gay or black be conservative? I think they can."
West said he will be exonerated by the FBI and city investigations.
"I haven't misused my office for personal gain," he said. "... I welcome those investigations because I believe they will clear me."
He told Lauer he expects more allegations to surface as political enemies "pile on."
The e-mails that are coming to me are in my favor not to resign. Stand your ground," West said. E-mails from whom??? His parents??
Well, this asshole refused to resign...
He finally got his just reward, however, on Tuesday
Spokane Mayor Recalled in Sex Scandal
Spokane, Wash., Mayor Recalled From Office in Special Election Stemming From Sex Scandal
By JOHN K. WILEY Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. - Mayor James E. West was recalled from office Tuesday in a special election over allegations he offered jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room.
West, 54, became the city's first elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.
With just over half of the 110,000 mail-in ballots counted, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted to recall West, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain him.
West must leave office when the election results are certified Dec. 16. He has spent 25 years in public office.
The campaign to recall West began last spring after the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that West was a closeted homosexual who visited gay chat rooms using his city-owned laptop computer and offered internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with.
West, a former Boy Scout executive and sheriff's deputy, was elected mayor in 2003 after serving more than two decades as a Republican in the state Legislature, where he voted against gay-friendly bills.
The recall petition contended West used his political office for personal benefit by offering a city internship to someone he thought was an 18-year-old man he had met in a gay online chat room and with whom he had sexually explicit chats.
One person he believed was a high school senior was actually a computer expert hired by the newspaper to snare West.
West, who has not been charged with any crime, acknowledged making mistakes in his personal life but asked voters to give him a second chance.
City Council President Dennis Hession, a lawyer first elected to the seven-member council in 2002, will become mayor pro tempore until the council appoints a replacement to finish the two years remaining on West's term.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=1380198
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 31, 2005, Tuesday, BC cycle
Spokane Mayor predicts he'll survive scandals
."
Yet ANOTHER miscalculation.. LOL
TrustButVerify
12-07-2005, 02:47 AM
name RightBi-Guy
HHAHAHAHA what a moron, Its like the guy was trying to get caught
:mad_08: :mad_08: :mad_08:
Lotimer
12-07-2005, 06:45 AM
Forgot about this thread. Thanks for the update Bman.
and yet another one.. exposed in Florida
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
Gays comment on Foley resignation
BY STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
''He was a homophobe who needed to be exposed,'' said journalist Michael Rogers, whose website, http://www.blogactive.com/, reported on Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach for three years.
''I first started to report on Foley in March 2003,'' said Rogers, who is gay. 'The reason why -- he's antigay. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and has not renounced that vote. He refused to acknowledge that he supported the repeal of `don't ask, don't tell.' He would not sign on as a co-sponsor. He should be held accountable for not supporting that or co-sponsoring.
``No community is expected to harbor their own enemies from within. He is an enemy of our community, yet he wants to step into our community and put us at risk. He puts every one of us in a bad light.''
During his 2003 run for U.S. Senate, The Advocate outed Foley, who has not publicly said that he is gay. On May 23, 2003, Foley called a news conference and said that the innuendo about his life was ''revolting and and unforgivable'' and that he would not discuss his sexual orientation.
''Elected officials, even those who run for the United States Senate, must have some level of privacy,'' Foley said during a half-hour conference call with newspaper reporters from across Florida. ``My mother and father raised me and the rest of my family to believe that there are certain things we shouldn't discuss in public. Some of you may believe that it's old-fashioned, but I believe those are good ideals to live by.''
Rogers said Foley's problems come from being in the closet.
''I do believe that he had unhealthy sexual advances to these guys because he was living his life as a closeted gay man,'' Rogers said. ``Healthy gay men who are mature and dealing with their sexuality in a mature way don't hit on kids who are 16 years old. What's his signature issue? You don't know whether to laugh or cry.''
Finance writer Andrew Tobias of Miami, who is gay and treasurer of the Democratic National Committee said:
``As somebody who has met Mark Foley personally and has mutual friends, I am sad for Mark and I hope he doesn't go to jail. The last time I saw Mark, he was 19 years into a relationship. That was sad that it had to be hidden.
``I hope the Republican Party continues to evolve so it's not so difficult to be an openly gay Republican.
``Will this play into the fears that all gay people are pedophiles? I hope not. There are heterosexual situations as well. Everybody decries this kind of situation. Even Mark Foley did, but he couldn't control it.''
Other gay activists were more circumspect.
''It's a tragedy for him and his family. I don't want to get into the pain of the closet. It's irrelevant if he's gay or not,'' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Luis Vizcaiño, communications and marketing director for Human Rights Campaign, declined to discuss Foley's resignation. ''We're not going to comment on it,'' he said.
In 2005, HRC gave Foley an 88 out of 100 score on gay issues, making him one of the highest-ranked Republicans in Congress.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15643524.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
wanderer1
09-29-2006, 11:03 PM
Interesting, the the crotch-sniffing brigade is virtually absent from this thread.
As for homosexual republicans being self-loathing, that's nothing new.
Leonidas
09-29-2006, 11:07 PM
"instead of fighting to ban gays from employment at schools, daycares, and certain state agencies and backing legislation to restrict marriage to the union between a man and a woman. "
Restricting marriage between a man and a woman is one thing. But there was actually legislation fighting to ban gays from employment at schools, daycares, and some state agencies? Thats ridiculous. Is this for real?
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