The Goldschmidt Good Old Boy Network scored some points yesterday, as two of his lieutenants advanced toward public offices, so appointed by our illustrious governor. The Senate Rules Committee easily endorsed dozens of Governor Ted's appointees to state boards, commissions, and bureaucratic jobs, including a couple of Neil-ophytes.

One was Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto, who is being reappointed a director of Tri-Met. Giusto was The Goldschmidt's chauffeur at the time when, as governor, the latter was dealing with the very distraught girl with whom he had gotten it on when she was 14 years old. State Sen. Vicki Walker, the former abuse victim who's taken a keen interest in all things Goldschmidt, gave old Bernie (who went on to have a "special friendship" with his old boss' ex-wife) a hard time at the hearing yesterday. But his nomination sailed through the legislative committee.

For the scandal-plagued board of Saif, the governor offers us "Rev." Matt Hennessee, who goes way back to the Neil Nike Days. Hennessee, who apparently is set to run for some public office or other, currently sits as chair of the Portland Development Commission, whose main function appears to be to siphon money from taxpayers over to the Gerdling/Edlen Development group, all in the name of the condo-ization of Portland. Now he'll get to oversee a big state pork barrel to go with his municipal one.

Rounding out this gallery was Dale Penn, the former Marion County district attorney, who's going to be a director of the scandal-prone Oregon Lottery Commission. It's ironic that he should be ascending to this position the same week in which both The Portland Tribune and the Willamette Week have called him out once again for the apparently bogus prosecution in the "unsolved mystery" case of the murder of former Corrections Director Michael Francke back in the Goldschmidt Salad Days. Penn is the last person on earth who, with a straight face, is still insisting that Frank Gable, the drug-dealing thug who's doing time for the murder, actually did the killing. I wonder what new fantasies he'll indulge in over on the Lottery board.

Governor Ted, you don't get out enough. There are plenty of great Democrats out there who aren't tainted by the bad old days. If you really want to clean up messes like Saif and the Lottery, and prevent Tri-Met from becoming another one, you really need to find some new blood.