Jack, the renaissance has already begun in Massachusetts. It'll happen.

Not exactly a new sentiment, but Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right is quite apropos for almost every politician of any stripe any more.

the renaissance has already begun

Yeah, a worthless Democratic Senate will now be completely gridlocked. Oh, for joy.

Gridlock worked very well back in the mid-to-late 90s, and Oregon state government sure could use a heavy dose of it now. Since Reagan, one party rule has been disaster with big government Republicans or Democrats in charge supporting a brand of Crony capitalism.

Recall: Not gonna happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

The recall always needed 6 months. Now that we have another three months it will get done.

And maybe city council will actually strive a bit to be a more effective body, when they see that lover-boy is actually seriously unpopular, and Portlanders are paying attention.

I have to tell a funny story. So, we like classical music and we attended a concert last fall that featured Portland classical musicians and Sapporo musicians, playing together to celebrate the sister city relationship.

During a short speech, the director made a few acknowledgments, including thanking Mayor Sam Adams. You could have heard a pin drop in the Heathman concert hall during a short, uncomfortable silence.. Then she went on to thank the Japanese consul for his hospitality. The whole place erupted cheering.

Its all about the money...Jasun had no money ....This guy (and his friends) have the go power to cause noise about the recall.

They will get the signatures... they have enough money to do that. But they won't get the votes. Most of the outrage is in the burbs where they can't cast a Portland ballot.

Your too hard on our mayor.

So he's sorta creepy, as you put it.
He's not much different than most career bureaucrats/politicians.

Ego inflated, self righteous, arrogant to the max etc.

But he is out there, he actually answers me when I send him a twitter message. And he updates us all about what he is doing on twitter/facebook.

I like that about him, he's sorta a nice guy.

And that is how he wins elections.

He is not threat to the city as far as I am concerned.

They should let him serve out his term and let the next election be the decider.

I wouldn't sign the first recall, cause I think its a waste of time.

One more point:

The right wingers, while having a huge presence on the blogs and TV, actually are a minority in this city.

It appears otherwise since they are so good at being loud, but they are definitely a minority.

Mayor Sam will NEVER be recalled, so just forget it.

There are worse things than supporting streetcars and bicycles.

One of the biggest mistakes the first recall campaign made was to cozy up to the likes of Victoria Taft and Lars Larson -- after swearing up and down that the campaign would not, repeat not, tolerate homophobes. Wurster apparently thought he could get away with this because very few progressives listen to these shows. What he didn't realize is that there are activists who *do* listen, and they pass the word along to their communities about what goes on. As a result, the campaign received no public support whatsoever from any progressive constituency leadership. (Having a KPAM station van parked at the "drive by signing" events couldn't have helped much either.)

This new campaign appears to have dropped all remaining pretense of being "progressive" in nature, employing a right-wing signature-gathering outfit with funding from high-profile conservative-leaning businesspeople, and leadership by a turncoat Democrat who endorsed Gordon Smith. I fail to see how that can be expected to help matters. Personally I dislike Adams, Leonard et al. but these people are worse.

Personally I dislike Adams, Leonard et al. but these people are worse.

So what?

These people aren't proposing anyone to replace Adams - they just want to get rid of him.

Was it wrong to make a (temporary) ally of Stalin in order to defeat Hitler?

(and no, adams isn't like hitler any more than Lars is like stalin)

When the recall is over, you can vote for whoever you want to fill the seat.

Hopefully Portlanders will do a better job next time, but I won't hold my breath.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Tre Arrow qualify for public funding and make it to a mayoral runoff from jail. Whatever the case, Sam Adams needs to go. If the next one stinks to high heaven then recall him/her too.

Pancho, if Sam Adams was murdering people by the thousands, then I could see joining with the likes of Lars Larson to stop him, OK? But we're talking here about a futile, basically symbolic mayoral recall attempt that doesn't even take itself seriously enough to offer a prospective replacement candidate. Under such anodyne circumstances, there's no way I'm going to help give the likes of Gordly, Mannix, Larson and Taft a political victory, symbolic or otherwise. Adams is by far the lesser evil compared to that bunch.