Laffo: Hass saying he would have "Bent over backwards" for mayor creepy.

It's past the laughing stage now. Just sad.

This story is another long dagger in Sam's back. However, I'm still concerned that Portlanders may not have the initiative - or care enough - to recall him in a few months. It will be very interesting to see what happens.

I just looked at that - Dean Van Wormer of Animal House.

Machiavelli would have a lot of fun analyzing the people who support Sam.

Wow. At his "press conference," Adams didn't even get the bill number straight -- 709, 907, what's the difference?

Recall? Duck Soup.

Long Live Portlandia!

I've seen Mayor McLuvin talk in a variety of venues. From those experiences I have learned he's a bit of a dim bulb. When he gives a speech that was written by his staff you can hear him stumble over the "big" words.

What a joke. Has there been another public figure to cram so much controversy and ineptitude into such a short tenure?

Just leave Sam. Save the city some money for once and just step down before you're humiliated in the recall.

"Has there been another public figure to cram so much controversy and ineptitude into such a short tenure?"

Yeah Vera Katz, Creepy's mentor. So it's no suprise to many that he is what he is.

And she put together a whole series of short tenures of ineptitude.
Frankly I don't know how or why people of such low ineptitude get elevated to these positions. There appears to be some phenomenon that obscures their ineptitude while propping them up with imaginary talents and skills.

Ben- I couldn't agree more. The City Council is as sick as their secrets. We need to shed more light.

Remember when it was fashionable in politics to say how smart George W really was? The unspoken tag line was, "despite how he appears and everything you see him do."

I always wondered why Sam had a reputation for being smart. One of the commissioners - probably Randy - said Sam was the smartest man he knew. I think Saltzman implied that without Sam's brains Portland wouldn't last a week.

(Forgive me for being uncertain about these opinions but my brain is in the process of doing an involuntary data dump - something that happens when it determines there's no point in keeping information anymore.)

So where does this reputation come from? What's the skill that's so far above average that it draws praise like this?

For Sam, it's the gift of BSing. That's Sam's brain at its limited best - when he's lying his ass off. I bet you could bring in the Mentalist or one of those "signs of lying" shows and Sam would be hard to detect. The only real sign he's lying is when he begins to speak.

He has no reaction when this reporter tags him with the ineptitude charge, and denies it with such smoothness that you could argue it's his most impressive attribute.

The one I like here is, ""Our focus on the budget has been intense and all-consuming."

Oh really? You didn't manage to break away for anything else? Maybe a little soccer deal? Maybe to work on fighting the recall?

So that's why you crashed the truck - you were crunching budget numbers behind the wheel. You know that budget - the one you said doesn't have a penny for anything but basic needs. Yeah, right.

This could be what impresses the other politicians so - Sam's tireless ability to lie whether challenged or not. He's calm as if he knows the criminal investigation's going nowhere, and his internal polling numbers indicate the recall isn't going to happen.

It is impressive in a way, but I don't see it as true intellect. Sam lies like its his job. Sam lies like he's being paid extra for it. Sam lies like it's his source of energy - like a plant soaking in the sun.

I bet when the doctor hits Sam's knee to test his reflexes, Sam tells a lie. Let's face it: The speed with which the lying neurons in his head all fire together, is truly amazing, but is it a sign of smarts?

I have to conclude that it is not. Why? Because Sam lies when there's no reason to, and that's just dumb.

Besides, if he was really smart he wouldn't have so many foolish things that he has to lie about.

So I could tell you I thought Sam was bright, but then I'd be lying.

"Portland: The city whose mayor is taking cars off the road -- two at a time."

If I had a dollar for every post by Bill McDonald that was on a subject that has nothing to do with George W. Bush, but that he somehow gets in a reference to George W. Bush, I'd have a lot of dollar bills.

Original Bob W

so-ci-o-path: noun: a maniifestly anti social psycho"path
psy-cho-path: noun: a person who is mentally ill or unstable, esp. one who exhibits amoral and antisocial behavior"
According to the Randomhouse dictionary

Sam get some help! You need it! ...and this has nothing to do with sexual orientation, btw.

If I had a dollar for every post by Bill McDonald that was on a subject that has nothing to do with George W. Bush,

The subject is dim-bulb politicians who lie as a matter of habit and are in way over their heads. And you think this has nothing to do with George W. Bush? LOL as the kids say.

An earlier lesson in Creepy's ineptitude and dishonesty was his delegating to a know nothing/zero experience, gay young college grad, the role of responding on his CommissionerSam.com blog.

http://www.commissionersam.com/office/6
Senior Policy Director,
Roland Chlapowski

Many of his responses to constituents were nothing but blatant snow jobs or thoroughly ignorant replies.

My hope is that Creepy does turn to vandalizing city hall careers on his way out taking down a few other electeds and bureaucrats along with him.

A full purge would be better than replacing Creepy with a clone.

Adams is politics smart. But it's not natural talent--it's a smarmy smartness born of a few decades sucking at the public teat. He's survived by carefully and clearly attaching and endearing himself to the people who can ensure that survival.

And so, 20 years or so later, here we are. Now at the top of the local politics food chain, Adams' weaknesses are revealed, and the revelation is a yawner: Adams is, in fact, a mediocre leader who's finding out that the smarmy platitudes are no longer sufficient, and cannot replace leadership, real ethics, and courageous judgement.

Given that, isn't it weird that some Portlanders feel we can't function without him?

I guess he's leaving the full size pickup behind for his upcoming trip to Belgium. From the online Willamette Week:

"And then this morning, bikeportland reports that Adams is flying overseas to Brussels with his chief of staff Tom Miller for a bicycle transportation conference."

A boondoggle to Brussels seems like a not so wise use of taxpayer money right about now.

Sam's assertion that he hasn't had enough time to stay in contact with the Oregon Legislature is another load of BS from the ultimate BS meister. He has at least a dozen assistants he could have directed to interface with the legislature for him. He also has several full-time city lobbyists at his disposal. There is simply no excuse for Sam's inept handling of his relationship with the legislature.

And although Sam asserted that he didn't have time to remain in contact with the legislature, he did have enough time to schedule and carry out a press conference that blind-sided the legislature and angered many of the lawmakers who represent the Portland area. He let his narcissism get out of control and as a result, both he and Portland's citizens are paying the price for his arrogance and poor judgment.

Can I get Dave J on the dollar-per-Bush reference program as well?

Original Bob,
I'm in the healing process from the Bush years. My therapist says it helps to talk about it.

Hey Bill, if I can just get a buck a reference, we both win.

A quality liar? Hardly. Just a volume dealer.

His performance at the table with KATU reporter Dan Tilkin, was that of a sputtering amateur magician who can't fool the kids in the front row with his handful of elementary distraction gimmicks.

What, me worry?

It's time for the other members of the city council to sit down for a private chat with the mayor about his resignation.

Sociopath really is the correct term. It's sad that he was allowed to get this far, to go along this long. And however much further he intends to go.

This is why the ancient Greeks had a political mechanism for pre-emptive ostracization. It prevented toxic personalities from creating intense and polarizing conflicts before the inevitable calamity could develop. Our version is to let these personalities flourish, give them a pass or ignore them in the hope that they choose to go away or fail on their own energy. Which, of course, they rarely do.
If there's a benefit to Adams seemingly endless flame-out it's that it will give everybody time to come to a consensus, to prevent his legacy from being one of continued division, resentment and angry conflict. Unlike, say, George W. Bush.

bikeportland reports that Adams is flying overseas to Brussels with his chief of staff Tom Miller for a bicycle transportation conference.

Who do we pay to get them to keep him?

And really, a trip to Europe for a "bicycle conference"? On taxpayer money no doubt. Is this really in the best interest of the city? Or just more of Sam's delusions about how Portland looks to the rest of the world?

No time to make nice with the legislature? Could that be because he's spent the entire time in office (and before) with his face glued to Paulson's posterior?
Have fun in Brussels, Sammy. Don't come back! Was this trip one of the 'bare necessities you were talking about in your new budget press junket?

What we need is for a credible, outside candidate to step forward and publicly say "Yes, I am interested in the office and I will run". Someone who will concentrate on the basics of responsible city government. Someone who will not run up the debt any more, not be a whore for the wealthy group of developers who have already vandalized our cityscape, and someone who realizes how to act responsibly and sensibly in this economy. Someone who isn't on a 24/7 quest to build their own legacy with kooky, shaky, shady schemes that ultimately give the citizens the shaft. Anyone? I will work for free on your campaign...

"I'm in the healing process from the Bush years. My therapist says it helps to talk about it."

If it's a 12-step program, Bill, I think you have to quit first.

I'm just proud the right wing has stopped talking about Bill Clinton. Now just remember to take it one day at a time.

What Randy Numb/Dumb Leonard needs to realize is that ousting his creepy frenemy will not give him a mandate to carry out all his own self-serving bs either. The scrutiny will be just as intense on that clown and all his chicanery.

I guess trips to Belgium now qualify as "basic services", along with new baseball stadiums and tearing out stadium remodels that aren't paid for yet.

Can this be over yet?

I'm just proud the right wing has stopped talking about Bill Clinton. Now just remember to take it one day at a time.

Why would you be proud?

And if the reference to Clinton was pointed in my direction, old darling, please cite any comments I've ever made here about Bubba.

You wouldn't be any less obsessive if I had the same affliction, Bill.

Sorry.

TKrueg writes:

"Has there been another public figure to cram so much controversy and ineptitude into such a short tenure?"

Ah, how soon they forget.

dan Quayle anyone?

Is Wheeler viable? available ? interested?

I never thought I'd write the following, and I may regret it...

but given that the position of Mayor of Portland is a high-visibility, political job (like mayor of many other big cities)--shouldn't the office become a partisan one?

Civic leaders in small towns are best served by keeping city government non-partisan--but Portland seems to be unique among larger cities in the US in having a non-partisan government. While I despise partisan politics--the decades of amateur hour in the mayor's office make me long for Something Different.

If Sam were a registered Democrat--at least there would be a party apparatus telling him to get the f*** out of office, you're embarassing the hell out of us. Which he needs to hear.

If the Democratic Party was affiliated with the most visible gay mayor, and they didn't need the LGBT voters anymore, they probably would throw him under the bus.

The Party is bigger than this podunk town.

The Oregon Dems and their proprietors, the OEA and SEIU, would circle the wagons & fight 'til the last dog dies, like they did for Goldschmutz.

Have the City Sustainability Mandarins calculated the carbon footprint of a vacation for two in Brussels? Passenger No. 2 has probably been tasked with keeping "Randy" Adams away from the Manneken Pis.

"Have the City Sustainability Mandarins calculated the carbon footprint of a vacation for two in Brussels?"

Vacation for 3...

http://bikeportland.org/2009/05/05/mayor-aadams-headeda-to-brussels-for-velo-city-conference/

The comments there are very revealing.

"Right wing?" Hell, it's only been a year or so since David Letterman went more than a couple of days without a Lewinsky joke in his monologue.

It is shocking to see some bigmedia types actually doing a good job in this situation. He is history.