It is:

"A veteran writer, political activist and failed mayoral candidate in Portland, Ore., Busse also serves as executive director of the Northwest Institute for Social Change in Portland."

Yes, it's the same Phil Busse. He writes in his original article, Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer, that "I even ran for mayor of Portland, Oregon once myself".

His blog post in on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-busse/confessions-of-a-lawn-sig_b_139179.html In the post he says he ran for Mayor of Portland. Thanks Phil for giving Portland something else to be proud of, you and Tanya Harding.

It isn't as if this sort of thing doesn't happen regularly. Growing up as a Democrat in Lake Oswego our lawn signs had to be replaced every day as the one from the day before was always laying in shreds by morning. Obviously it is a much greater offense when this happens to a Republican sign.

Now this has made the front page of the Drudge Report.

As they'd say in Ireland, what an eejit. Just goes to show we got 'em on both sides, I'm sorry to say...

It happens regularly and is a criminal act. Problem - no one ever gets caught. This bonehead however published his mea culpa for which he lost his job and is now being very publicly prosecuted. Good. A message like this should resonate with those considering such juvenile behavior. Ponder, what would be fitting for the public service element of his sentence? (hint; there sure are a lot of McCain/Palin signs needing pick up and recycling)

Busse reminds me of Tom Green: he's an attention whore who will say or do anything to advance his "career".

Same guy who got twenty long from Branam as a "contractor"... taxpayer "clean" money... and he couldn't be classified as a contractor because he was working full time for and under the direction of the campaign.

Hating Phil Busse is like food to me.

I've been hungry for a long time. Thank you BoJack for the nourishment.

Seriously though, dude is a d*****. (paraphrasing) ..."stealing political signs was one of the most exhilirating political acts of my life."

Who says s*** like that?

Can we start a petition to have Mr. Busse NOT come back to PDX. Although, con men usually don't go back to the same spot again.

Somebody tell Busse there's a city in Texas contemplating public financing. That should settle things.

Reggie Theus.

Echoing Mister Tee, Phil Busse parlayed
"a one-semester temporary visiting appointment to teach one course in introductory media studies for the college during the fall term" (as the school's press release put it) into instant name recognition.

It's enough to make Wm™ Steven Humphrey stain his pants.

Phil's going to be the left's answer to Joe the Plumber for a couple of days and then he'll be on Dancing with the Stars.

(Class dismissed.)

Before I rip on Busse, a little trivia. Northfield, Minnesota was the hometown of Johnny Western, who went to Hollywood and became the singer who did the soundtrack to "Have Gun Will Travel." Possibly the greatest baritone in the history of country music vocalists, even rivaling Johnny Cash.

Now to tee up on Busse...

In an e-mail correspondence with the News, Busse expressed remorse for stealing the signs, saying that the thefts were “immature and impetuous.”

“Writing the essay was an opportunity to explore and talk about political speech and the desire that most of us have to express our politics — both in mature and immature ways, and sometimes a mix of the two,” Busse said in the e-mail. “I’m disappointed that most readers seem to have focused on the thefts, and not on the larger thoughts.”

In the article, Busse likened his thefts to an act of civil disobedience and said that stealing the signs was “one of the single most exhilarating and empowering political acts that I have ever done.”

Get it, people? You can't possibly comprehend the "larger thoughts" of Busse. He could have just gone riding around in a '78 Chevy Scottsdale, looking for cows to tip, but he was on a higher mission, like the one that led him to get 10,000 votes for mayor in Portland. The $20,000 in taxpayer dollars he took as a political consultant and campaign manager was all a part of this higher cause of his. So were his hairy chested, Andy Gibb-style photos for his voter's pamphlet pics. It's all about "larger thoughts" than you little people can understand.

Wealthy royalist elite in Boston had their homes burned and were paraded around covered in pitch and feathers.

Now stealing a 50 cent placard from a lawn is a serious crime.

You've come a long way baby.