even the gay community thinks so:

http://www.queerty.com/portland-mayor-sam-adams-slept-with-an-18-year-old-intern-scandal-20090120/

Asking the kid to lie about it, and then bald-faced lying about it to the media... it goes beyond jumping in the sack. Way beyond.

Are you sure Sam was on top? Queerty posting: "The intern was 18 years old, so nothing illegal happened. I believe the mayor is also single, since none of us can actually marry, so no one was cheated on. Its just a little unethical to mess around with someone how works under you. Another thing, Beau Breedlove, could that name be the best porn name of all time?

I like it that Sam had a guy named Wiener handling the damage control. You can't make this stuff up.

He should go... or else he will drag out his fight like Gov Blago from Illinois.

Best he go willingly and under his terms. He can step down and rehabilitate his image and make a later comeback. But he can not manage the City of Portland as Mayor. Just like a few years ago the Chief of Police had to step down rather than pretend the City will just forget about.

Adams is quickly rising to "Guisto" levels of sliminess.

His judgment is obviously flawed/lacking. Regardless of sexual orientation, how could you trust a forty something "mentor" who has sexual relations with his/her eighteen year old "mentee." Most of us know to stay away from teens once we hit the ripe old age of twenty-one (i.e. college juniors, as opposed to adult mayoral candidates).

Most troubling, however, is the persistent campaign of dishonesty. Overt lie after overt lie. What a total lack of leadership and sound judgment.

85% for resign! Then again, if Jack had run this survey last week it probably would have been 84.5%.

I wonder how the less partisan crowd will react. To give you some sense - and I promise I'm not making this up - when I mentioned this to the wife she said: "it was with a guy! I didn't know Adams was gay."

This is not a partisan thing. The guy's a sleaze.

I voted "no". Don't like Adams, who seems to lack both competence and integrity. But I don't hold other politicians to that standard where sexual conduct, and public statements about the same, are involved. So why treat him differently?

When it gets down to last Thursday, and Jaquiss has got Adams dead to rights, and he's still lying about it, that gets most people to a "Yes" vote, I think.

Do you think they will add this survey to one on the City's snow response on his website? Hmm, for a guy who even yesterday said "it's up to the people . . . ."

Allan,

If you already felt that he is incompetent and lacks integrity, you should have voted "YES" even without the evidence of his lies. What gives?

Granny used to talk about how things can always get worse. Who would be mayor if Sam resigns or is recalled?

I still want to know where the smoking gun is. Nothing I have seen in the news report is different than the evidence back in 2007 (other than his admission/apology) Surely Sam's coffession is more than an epiphany about guilt or hubris. Maybe his confession is an attempt to thwart future blackmail. Why didn't Sam marry Beau when he had the chance and claim spousal privelege?

I'm convinced on some level that Sam Adams is loving this. Sure, he'd prefer it be another topic but to be the center of attention and a national story...it's exactly what his ego craves.
Just reread his earlier email and you'll see the magnitude of his inability to get over himself. Rather than simply denying the affair, he brought up the very real problem of gay teens committing suicide.
That means in Sam's BS cover story he actually suggested that his noble act of reaching out to this young man could have saved the teenager's life.
What a guy.

I'm on the fence. His personal life is his (and his lovers) alone. It isn't our concern and shouldn't be 'news.' (Go get 'em, Sam!)

BUT (a) the public sliming of Bob Ball at the time it first was discussed. the (b) tutoring of his lover Beau on how to lie compellingly, (c) the hiring of the Mercury's investigative reporter (who may or may not have the credentials for a City job), (d) the issue of an intern/employer relationship, and (e) 18, eh? ( ...Yeah, right.)

A fish rots from the head.

Other Mike: We can't demand that people resign public office just because they are incompetent or lacking in character. There would be too many vacancies. I would prefer Adams were not our mayor, but he was elected.

It's on Huffington Post now as well. I'd say this is now a national story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/20/sam-adams-portland-mayor-_n_159289.html?show_comment_id=19909918

Tramuel is in deep doo-doo, and deservedly so. He needs to resign. He's proven himself dishonest, through and through, and it's finally catching up with him.

According to OPB News, Fireman Randy is also claiming he wants an "independent investigation", perhaps from the State Attorney General's Office.

http://news.opb.org/article/4067-adams-apologizes-leonard-calls-investigation/

Interesting . . .

What's there to investigate, other than whether the sex started before the 18th birthday? Adams has now confessed to everything but that crime.

Here's another fact that requires no investigation: Fireman Randy was a party to the stealing of an election. If he was so circumspect in what questions he did and didn't ask, he should have kept his mouth shut rather than trashing Bob Ball.

Here's a question for you Matlock fans out there: Sam's big point was that Bob Ball accused him of having an illegal relationship with an underage minor. That's the big lie Sam thought he had to fight by telling lies of his own.
Okay, but if it wasn't true, why would Beau Breedlove apologize later to Bob Ball? Wouldn't Beau be mad at Bob Ball instead for misrepresenting the situation?

If a straight city commissioner were caught screwing a doe eyed Lincoln High grad days after her 18th birthday -- having lied about just "mentoring" her -- he would already have resigned.

It is only because we live in PC Weirdtown -- and the fact that he's gay --that his political epitaph hasn't been written. Yet.

Bill M - I don't think Bob Ball accused Adams of having a relationship with a minor, just with someone much younger. Breedlove apologized to Ball because he didn't know, when he said there was no sexual relationship at all, that it was an issue in Portland politics. Am I wrong?

I'm going by articles from back then that said Bob accused him of an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year old intern. Plus, Sam's many statements today that he was being attacked by Bob Ball for underage sex.
If someone attacked a friend of mine with a serious charge like that, and I knew it wasn't true, I wouldn't apologize to him even for getting it slightly right.
One other thing: Today was one of the great days in American History. I just got off the phone with my sister in D.C. who got to meet Barack last week with some other Inaugural Committee volunteers and she was just beyond delighted. The big news is my sister will be at the White House tomorrow with her husband for a reception.
Anyway, Sam had an opportunity to be there at that Inaugural ceremony - he was there, but rushed back to address this. That irritates me. He could have listened to Aretha Franklin for God's sake.

If he's as innocent as he says, take another day and witness history. This felt like a man rushing back to shovel a new pile of BS after the first one didn't work.

I could be wrong, and I hope I am. But I bet there were little meetings with media consultants where they decided to do it today in part because Inaugural coverage would supersede it and dull the impact. You could tell from the way Sam kept repeating key phrases that he was coached up on this - maybe even the same guy who coached up the kid.
When you get into the area of using our new President to cover your sorry ass, then you make me mad. When I talked to my sister, I didn't mention anything about what was happening out in Portland. It's so wrong to tarnish a day like today with a smalltime local politician like this.

If he would just resign, we would get rid of him and Bush on the same day. Which would be doubly wonderful.

I thought you had to be 21 to drink in Oregon, this kid turns 18 and first thing he is sucking down a Sam Adams?

Jack, by your read, who would replace the Mayor were he to resign or be recalled? I tried to muddle through the city code, and came up blank.

Dunno off the top of my head. I'd say bring back Grampy.

Jack Bog for MAYOR!!!
And me as your chief of staff. I'm serious. Let's do this.

Jack, you're right on about Randy. He is just trying to backpedal--he's trying to publicly appear to be throwing Tram Boy overboard to try to hide the fact that he's an integral part of this whole mess. That's right up there with what Tram Boy did with respect to the sleaziness factor. He needs to go, too.

This is really Goldschmidt all over again. Except this time, the perp might actually pay the consequences of his actions. Now that would be a "linchpin".

So RANZ, what are you going to do for Jack to become his chief of staff?

Seeing a lot more opinion than fact about this affair, I'm going to hold my judgment for now. The whole truth, if there is more, will come out at some point.

I suspect if Sam resigned, the council would pick an interim mayor from among the remaining four. Please, don't make Randy Leonard mayor.

Can an interim mayor be recalled from the City Council?

I wouldn't be on that council right now for three times what they're paying. The wheels are coming off.

Who paid the extra fees to change the Mayor's airline tickets so he could come home early from DC to face the cameras?

Thanks, Bill M.

I went back and looked at articles from 2007. All of the reporters were circumspect in their language, writing things such as the "inappropriate relationship" you mention.

The only people who are quoted as talking specifically about alleged sex with a minor or a relationship with someone underage are Sam Adams, as part of his apology made yesterday for lying (http://www.willametteweek.com/editorial/3510/12093/)

and Randy Leonard speaking to The Oregonian yesterday
(http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/01/portland_commissioner_leonard.html).

It appears that things were said "off the record" in 2007 that weren't put into print back then.

Randy Leonard seems to think that an investigation will rehabilitate Sam Adams. I don't think so.

I also regret that this ugly mess has intruded on this historic day of national celebration.

Agree with Jack. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Who puts the _Pud_ in Puddle City, Baby!

The most compelling reason for Adams to resign quickly, in my book, is that the story has barely broken, and we already know more than we want to. The longer he holds out, the thicker and deeper it will get. The lack of integrity already proven in this is damning. Spare us any more, please!

So, this high school kid was an "intern", but not for the City? ...and they met how? ...and the parents were where while all this was warming up? ...and Adams was at his 18th birthday party in what role? ...and Adams' consultant Mark Wiener is advertising himself as an expert in fixing sexual abuse scandals? ...and reporters who might have broken this were hired into Adams' office? ...and that hiring was done by Adams' chief of staff without input from Adams? ...like Adams says mayoral staff hires usually are? ...and Adams' story is that his lapse in judgment was that he thought he had to lie and get the boy to lie in order to avoid being lied about? Really? Really!?!

First prize in all this goes to Gary Blackmer for tossing the "Adios, Losers!" letter on the Council table early enough to avoid the cameras and microphones.

One positive thing you can say about his apparent plan to hold out, though, is that the long term presence of national and international media covering it will bring lots of incidental local spending. The advance for the boy's book deal alone might make up for a lost convention or two.

Hate to break it to you, but Sam is mayor for the term if not life. The whole mea culpa and it's persecuting me for being gay approach will work and this will blow over.

God, I give up on this town. I mean look at the populace that keeps electing this confederacy of dunces. No wonder politicians show such little respect for taxpayers - beacause they can.

After this, I'd think people would now realize Sam is wide open for blackmail by any developer since he can't seem to control his actions and this will happen again multiple times.