ADAMSGATE BLOGSPLOSION

[Unless you're living under a rock, you've heard that Mayor Sam Adams has confessed to having lied publicly about the nature of his relationship with a young legislative intern, Beau Breedlove, in 2005. The Mercury was one of many local publications that had been pursuing the story, and our own News Editor Amy J. Ruiz was plucked to work in Adams' administration shortly before the story broke. All of which makes for some titillating reading over on blogtown.portlandmercury.com. Here are just a few of the comments.]

Sam Adams should resign this afternoon so the city can get on with the real and necessary projects that the citizens of Portland need. By staying on in the midst of all the scandal, after admitting that he is a liar, he is simply distracting city staff, journalists, and the other citizens of Portland from the real tasks at hand. If he doesn't resign immediately, then he is allowing his self-interest to overwhelm the public good and betraying the public trust.

-Posted by Number Six

Mayor Adams, in 2007 you said that Portland has largely been "blessedly free" of personal smears in politics and that you were saddened that it was taking place against you. Now we know that when you called this a "nasty smear" by a political opponent, you knew it was factually accurate. Wasn't your treatment of Bob Ball the type of "ugly politicking" you were criticizing at that time?

-Posted by Euphonius

If [Sam] humps 18-year-old dudes, it's no stick in my spokes. I'd lie to my friends about it if I got caught humping an 18-year-old girl.

-Posted by Zac

My question for Sam: Why the FUCK are you making a public statement, apology or not, on Obama's inauguration day? Why don't you sit the fuck down and wait, and let this day be about THAT, not about YOU. You fucked up. Now sit and suffer, unable to make a public statement just yet, because Tuesday is supposed to be about something else. Shithead.

-Posted by The One True b!X

One small step forward for gays turns into a huge disgraceful leap back. How many stereotypes does this strengthen? I was so proud of him, now I'm totally disgusted. He will be a black eye for the gay community for decades to come.

-Posted by John

If this was consensual, who gives a shit? We elected this guy because we care about progressive politics, not sex lives. Yes, let's definitely go with some middling do-nothing like we've had, so that we can feel good about our moral superiority.

-Posted by Ian

So the Merc's news reporter knew about this story; stayed on the job; obviously negotiated behind the scenes for a position working for the man she was supposed to be reporting on; and got a nice raise in the process. She gets a job as a city sustainability director, despite admitting she has no governmental experience, no experience in sustainability, and no experience in city planning.

-Posted by Devlin

I for one don't really give a rat's ass about this. Yeah, he shouldn't have fucked that kid. Yeah, he shouldn't have lied about it. But whatever, we didn't elect the man to be a paragon of sexual virtue. We elected him because he is a competent and very intelligent public executive. The only reason this should involve resignations or recalls is if he has lost enough political capital that he is no longer able to be an effective mayor. But then, if Tom Potter can declare that he's not relevant six months before he leaves office, maybe we've got a higher-than-usual tolerance for ineffective executives.

-Posted by Graham