This is like one of those reality shows you really can't stand, but then you get drawn into watching week after week. Pretty soon you can hardly wait for the next episode.

Bet you dollars to donuts that this deal will be DOA.

Sam is jumping around like a fart in a skillet because he's desparate for any kind of a win. Doesn't matter if it's a loser.

Fritz and Fish called it in round one. Saltzman is gonna see that Sam is probably a goner and come around too.

Kroger's got Sam's balls in a vice. There is some horse trading going on right now, I'll bet.

Let's hope so. Wheeler for mayor -- reality-based governance.

It is amazing how soon this deal went sour.

What caught my attention the other day is the statement by Scam Adams the Memorial coliseum will cost more to keep than to demolish. First, even if you put aside the fact this is the same guy who proposes spending another half billion on a convention hotel because the original 100s of millions he help spend on the convention center has been a financial bust, you still got another problem with this statement. What it flags to me, as it should to most other Portlanders, is this city doesn't have enough money even to maintain the projects it already owns let alone continually adding more high end projects.

What is also very scarey is even if Adams goes, Commissar Leonard waits in the wings with union dollars to take over the Mayor spot. The only one who might keep him from the spot is someone like Wheeler.

With Wheeler, Fish and Fritz, we might actually get our city back.

It seems like just last night that Saltzman was suggesting the Beavers might need to leave town while we figure out how to get a new baseball stadium. 24 hours later Paulson wants a delay. I've always thought this wasn't really about soccer. It's about a new baseball stadium.

Have we already suggested a new soccer stadium? Perhaps something conveniently enough located it could host high school football and maybe championships and such? That's something I could get behind. Maybe a 15,000 seat stadium in Lents which would host MLS, Portland State football, and east side high school football. Now THERE'S an idea.

Looking at the awful attendance at the Beavers, I wouldn't be surprised if Paulson's prime goal for that franchise is to get a smaller, sexier stadium for it or fold it.

Apparently Paulson the Elder offered unwritten "guarantees" to make BofA "whole" following the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Nothing in writing, of course.

What cracks me up is how the "progressive," "blue" Portland City Council could hop right into bed with the most capitalistic, right-wing Republican dudes ever to open a carpetbag. And the sheep baa along.

This is starting to look like the business ventures of a young George W. Bush only without all the success.

What if the Mayoral Replacement general election resulted in Fish vs. Wheeler?

Who is less likely to coddle LLP?

Given how bad Adams has been, either would be an enormous improvement.

What really needs to be said is what a good leader Potter was on this sort of thing. He would have laughed the Paulsons and Don Mazziotti out of his office with their pathetic pitch.

Who's for recalling Paulson?

Paulson could be a great asset to the city and probably will be, but look who he has had to play ball with. As long as Sam is the dealer, he is calling the game. Paulson is just trying to play it as he sees it. Clearly, we need a new dealer.

Bob,

Adams is right...In the long run, maintenance and upkeep of the Memorial Coliseum is more expensive than demolishing it now. This line of thinking is the complimentary converse to that old adage "A dollar in my pocket today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow." What Adams is implying is that the maintenance costs will inflate so much along with demolition costs, thus demolishing it right now at today's market prices will be cheaper now than tomorrow.

Honestly, this whole drama has served it's purpose. Adams got behind it because he knew that doing so would draw attention, emotion and momentum away from the recall campaign onto a flimsy business proposal by the son of George W. Bush's last Treasury Secretary. In a town as far left as Portland, Adams knew that the Paulson name and a flimsy deal are enough to operate as the perfect diversion.

It's Thursday, the day Sam told Wheeler he needed to know whether Wheeler was willing to trade his support for the headquarters hotel for Sam's support for a new Sellwood Bridge.

My hope is that Wheeler didn't get back to Sam or said "no deal" so that whatever was on the table fell apart. I don't know where the deal for the stadiums fits in with the headquarters hotel, but I'm guessing it does.

This is an interesting bit. Apparently the USL players and the MLS players are the same guys, and move back and forth between USL and MLS gigs. I'm sure they take it to a new level when they play as an MLS team, so when we get to see the exact same team we have now with different uniforms they will be much more exciting to watch.

http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/index.ssf/2009/04/_portland_timbers_2009_usl.html

I don't have any financial skin in this game, but I go to about ten Beavers games a year at PGE. If they go all the way the hell down to Lents, that number will go down--possibly to one. It's just too far--and I lose the downtown atmosphere.

Adams is right...In the long run, maintenance and upkeep of the Memorial Coliseum is more expensive than demolishing it now.

you're both confusing price with value, my man.

that line of reasoning is invoked every time there's external pressure to get construction business--or when the invoker has their own agenda. in this case, both are true.

Before getting to excited about promoting Wheeler for mayor, might want to check where he lives. I recall hearing that he does not live in Portland. If that's the case, guess we can try to convince him to move.

At the core of this is the horrid track record of Creepy, Randy et al.

Any time they speak about what makes sense their reputation and credibility should turn on the canned laughter machine.
It's much wiser and a safer bet to simply assume they are wrong and pulling another boneheaded stunt.
The sleazy deal Creepy tried to make with Wheeler for the hotel was yet another sign of Creepytown politics.

However, with all of this chatter about boondoggles and scheming Creepy how is it that the worst boondoggle in sight gets a pass?
The $1.6 Billion Milwaukie Light rail and it's new anti-car bridge moves forward like it makes sense.

It's far worse than anything Creepy and Co. are working on.
It's the Tram times 100 with all of the worst elements in all of the SoWa, Convention center hotel, Soccer/Baseball
schemes.

And to move forward with this enormous waste in near silence is a very strange thing.

What up?

Different issue, different politics.

I know Wheeler is very good, but what kind of experience does he have in politics?

Where is this rumor coming from that Wheeler doesn't live in Portland? Has everyone forgotten the incessant, and much exaggerated, media reports, about his house in the West Hills during his campaign for Chair? It was the closest thing to dirt they could find about him in Portland-hates-anyone-with-a-smidgen-of-wealth. Except, apparently, Paulson, who even Randy "I'll endorse Diane Linn because she was raised blue collar" Leonard has become best buds with.