That conservative Republican Spokane Mayor Jim West is gay is no surprise to anyone who’s been around the Legislature in the last 10 years
Spokane Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith was on the John Carlson Show (KVI, m-f, 3-6p) today discussing the paper’s explosive investigative report that alleges West molested two boys in the 1970’s when he was a Boy Scout Leader and a Spokane cop.
The former Senate Majority Leader denies the molesting allegations, but admits to having online relationships in the past year on Gay.com (the site Carlson recently frumped about for using the American flag as a coverlet on a bed full of hunky, naked men on a Capitol Hill billboard).
Little did Carlson know, that one of his most admired and powerful conservative partisans would be crucified on that very site.
The Spokesman-Review said West offered gifts, favors and a City Hall internship to a consultant hired by the paper to pose as an 18-year old man in a sting to confirm it was Hizzoner doing the cyber-cruising.
Rumors of West’s sexual preferences were always rife in Olympia, even though he was a family values conservative who opposed and stymied gay rights, and abortion legislation over and over in the decades he was in the Legislature.
The whole nation laughed in 1990 when he introduced a bill to make teen sex illegal. In 1998, West fought for the Defense of Marriage Act, the ban on gay marriage.
In the ‘90’s when reporting the Legislature, a Seattle editor asked me to look into the rumors that West was living a secret gay life.
Who cares? I asked. The editor said that since West had worked so self-righteously and hard against gay rights-- if we could prove he was secretly gay--that would be news, and he should be outed.
I agreed.
Asking around, almost everyone I talked to had little doubt about his proclivities. Shoot-from-the-lip Sen. Pam Roach, a fellow Republican but no fan of West’s, had no doubts--off-the-record, of course. Rep.Ed Murray, the hard-working Seattle legislator who, at the time, was the only out gay in the Legislature, told of having a business dinner with West and his staff, and having his “gay-dar go off like a fire alarm.”
There were reports of blatant prancing, tales of festive all-male Sunday brunches, and many subjective observations based on wishful thinking by people who hated West’s guts.
There wasn’t enough to go with--you can’t do news based on gay-dar and morning mimosas, so nothing ever came of it. Investigative reporting is expensive, and the publication had no budget for it.
West was a skillful budgeteer, a brilliant legislative strategist, and a strong GOP leader. An asshole of note, he was abrasive, vindictive, known for temper tantrums, and door slamming.
In 1998, West left a threatening message on the answering machine of Tom McCabe, lobbyist and ED of the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW). “You son of a bitch, you better get me,” West screamed on the tape, “because if you don’t, you’re dead.”
We now know that West’s summary of McCabe was accurate, but a judge made West pay fines and apologize.
In Spokesman-Review reporter Karen Dorn Steele’s copyrighted story, she doggedly catalogs West’s formidable record opposing liberal social programs having to do with sex, and revealing an hypocrisy load with few precedents in modern legislative history. It's well worth a read.
Steele quotes Seattle Democratic ace Christian Sinderman who helped run the campaign for Laurie Dolan, who lost to West in a 2002 challenge for his state senate seat.
“’[West’s sexual preferences were] the worst-kept secret in Washington politics,’ according to Sinderman.
'The Dolan campaign decided not to use the issue of West’s sexual orientation for political advantage,' he said.
'We decided his personal life wasn’t germane to the campaign because his private life is his private life. It’s not a public issue unless it involves the abuse of power. He was an incumbent with a record. We addressed that, and we lost,' he said.
‘Spokane wouldn’t have believed us’ if her campaign had tried to bring up West’s sexual orientation,' Dolan said.
‘People wanted to believe that Jim represented family values,’ Dolan added.”
(If the situation were reversed, and a closeted Democrat was running in a close race in a conservative district, would Republicans be so fair? Pardon me as my beverage of choice shoots out of my nostrils).
He got a lot done in Olympia, but he made plenty of enemies. West’s foolhardiness cruising the Net and dating local young men as the mayor of the very conservative City of Spokane, can only be chalked up to arrogance born of his own self-inflated idea of his power and invincibility. His hypocrisy was matched only by his ego. What’s so amazing is that he thought he could live this double life without one of his many friends busting him.
Unless he moves to Palm Beach, Jim West is finished in politics. It’s sad that a gay man--no matter how talented--has to hide his true self in order to succeed in public professions.
It’s sad, sure, but I gotta be honest. It’s delicious watching the downfall of this man who held himself so high above the rest of us.
Pretty horrible, MH. You allege he's queer...
But the only fact we have is:
"Spokane Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith was on the John Carlson Show today discussing the paper’s explosive investigative report that alleges West molested two boys in the 1970’s when he was a Boy Scout Leader and a Spokane cop."
Molestation does not equal gay.
Molesting two boys makes him a pedophile, a scumbag, a vermin, but not homosexual.
He was a hypocrite to blather for family values and commit these crimes, but shame on you for equating child molestation with queer.
Here's how you should re-write it:
mayor jim west: arrogant, ill-tempered, powerful, conservative, and...pederast
That conservative Republican Spokane Mayor Jim West is a molester is no surprise to anyone who’s been around the Legislature in the last 10 years.
Posted by: Kook | May 06, 2005 at 10:12 AM
Um.....if he was not a homosexual, why did he choose boys to molest and not girls?
It is true that people in the Legislature would have no reason to believe he is a molestor, even if they thought he was gay. You are correct that not all homosexuals are molestors, and not all heterosexuals are molestors. Pedophiles are molestors.
I think the point of the whole story is that while they may be surprised he is a molestor, they are not suprised he chose two boys ( allegedly, of course.)
Posted by: Sparky | May 06, 2005 at 10:47 AM
I don't l know if West did the sex crimes he's being accused of as reported by the SSR. Hets commit far more of these kinds of crimes than gays
I don't care that he's gay (as reported by the SSR, that he dated young men in the Spokane area after meeting them on the Net). What matters to me is that he positioned himself as a hardline "values" Republican conservative and fought gay rights, AIDS relief, and all manner of liberal legislation like sex education, all the while living a lie in an elegant closet. All through that, West wasn't even likable. Such hypocrisy deserves exposure and condemnation. And that's happened, finally and I'm glad he's dead. MH
Posted by: blathering Michael | May 06, 2005 at 11:30 AM
To the writer of this blog:
If you want your writing to have credibility in the blogosphere, you need to correct your spelling before you post.
The word is "copyright" -- not "copywrite"
[transitive verb (past cop·y·right·ed, past participle cop·y·right·ed, present participle cop·y·right·ing, 3rd person present singular cop·y·rights)]
Style -- which includes proper spelling -- is as important as substance, which explains why editors and proofreaders are so necessary to writer and blogger alike.
Posted by: tom | May 06, 2005 at 01:54 PM
Tom,
Re: your last post on "correct spelling", etc., I would suggest that it is you, sir, who is lacking credibility with regard to the blogosphere.Your “suggestion” that there is, or should be, some sort of spelling/punctuation/style litmus test for bloggers is not only ignorant, but pompous and plain silly as well. You seem not to understand that one of the most appealing aspects of blogs is that there is a certain "built-in" level of acceptance by (most of) the participants of such minor mistakes as these; a tolerance, if you will, that permits ANYONE (regardless of their formal education or particular written language skills) to easily participate in the conversations. If you think you need an editor and proofreader to blog—boy, I think you clearly don’t yet “get” this new medium.
For even more cogent explication of why this acceptance of mistakes is in fact a virtue of blogs, I refer you to David Weinbergers excellent presentation to the Library of Congress, available as a free download here:
http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/product.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0051866816.1115414005@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfaddeidmhijdcefecegedfhfdhfk.0&uniqueKey=1115414181451&pageType=preliminaryResults&productID=FR_ADBL_041115
This seems such a small snit to bring on an excellent blog site, I wonder if this might have more to do with irritation that yet another "social conservative" has been shown to be a flaming hypocrite...?
“Elitists? We don’t need no stinking elitists”
Posted by: dkallem | May 06, 2005 at 02:44 PM
Dkallem,
I believe that Tom may have a point. It is especially relevant when you consider the fact that writer was an English major.
Posted by: MNM | May 06, 2005 at 03:14 PM
Holyshit, Tom! Suggesting that MH blogs sans style is as ludicrous as suggesting that bloggers need proofreaders! Are you an unemployed editor of Team Gannon or a tedious word-nazi? Get a life!!
Posted by: Fremont | May 06, 2005 at 03:33 PM
"Spokane Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith was on the John Carlson Show today discussing the paper’s explosive investigative report that alleges West molested two boys in the 1970’s when he was a Boy Scout Leader and a Spokane cop."
"Molestation does not equal gay.
Molesting two boys makes him a pedophile, a scumbag, a vermin, but not homosexual."
On the contrary, Kook, it is precisely what a homosexual is. A heterosexual pedophile desires girls of a narrow age range and once past this age of desirability the pedophile goes on to abuse another of the proper age. A homosexual male seeking sexual contact with males in a broad range of age is the most common type of sexual abuser. The ratio is nine pederasts per one pedophile. This is the reason the male on male sex crime is found everywhere boys and young men assemble.
Main Entry: ho•mo•sex•u•al
Pronunciation: "hO-m&-'sek-sh(&-)w&l, -'sek-sh&l
Function: adjective
1 : of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex
(From Merriam-Webster Online)
The fact that West has remained involved in youth activities only cements the allegation that he is attracted to boys and young men. He even offered an internship with the city of Spokane recently in exchange for sexual contact with a consultant portraying himself as an eighteen year old MALE! He clearly is interested in young men and boys and his history and internet chat room habits are very incriminating.
Pederasts are attracted to positions of authority over boys and young men. The fact that he has admitted to a homosexual lifestyle and was a BSA troop leader follows the pattern of the priests, teachers, coaches, and BSA leaders that have abused boys. He probably caused those boys' lives to change dramatically and for the worse. It follows the pattern of abused boys losing respect for authority after a figure of that authority assaulted them sexually. It causes an immediate loss of self respect followed by loss of respect for everyone. He should be placed on leave while all the boys from those years past that had any contact with him to be interviewed. Until I see proof of an exhausting search that ALL the boys he had contact with has confirmed his allegation that he did not abuse any of them, I am convinced Republican Mayor West is a Pederast.
Posted by: Freemont | May 06, 2005 at 08:34 PM
dkallem:
Proper spelling is elitist? Interesting response, but I'd say that you've jumped the shark if you believe that.
Freemont:
Who suggested that bloggers need proofreaders? What I suggested was that the blogger serve as the editor/proofreader for himelf or herself. Is that really so difficult?
Didn't someone suggest that the resident blogmeister was an English major?
Finally, let me assure you that I do have a life. And what does my "getting a life" have to do with one's need to consult a dictionary? My guess would be next to nothing.
And one is a "word nazi" for pointing out that "copyright" is the proper spelling of the word?
Clearly, you have an under-developed threshold for textual blight.
But, then, hyperbole and insults are often the first refuge of the dim of wit.
With respect to "team Gannon" -- that cut-and-paste queen didn't need to spell; he just lifted other people's work wholesale without attribution.
Posted by: tom | May 07, 2005 at 12:51 AM
"It’s sad that a gay man--no matter how talented--has to hide his true self in order to succeed in public professions."
Jim West didn't get hammered because he's gay, he got hammered because he's (1) a pederast and (2) an asshole. You are correct that he made a number of enemies for those reasons. Ed Murray is an out gay in the Legislature and has done just fine.
Posted by: Moi | May 07, 2005 at 08:53 AM
Jim West's assholedness served him just fine, but if you think he could have been even elected in Eastern Washington (let alone climbed to the pinnacle he achieved in the years he did), you don't know much about our political culture. Ed Murray is allowed to thrive because he's from Seattle...
Posted by: blathering Michael | May 07, 2005 at 09:11 AM
Tom: I don't know what you do for a living, but me? I write. Between my usual work and this blog, I pump a hell of a lot of text--often at odd and late hours and always on the fly.
Blogging is a blessing to me because a) there's no editor as gatekeeper, b) I can editorialize c) I don't have to worry about 4 letter words, political correctness, or taste d) there's no intern crossing out words she's never seen before.
A trade-off for all this freedom is: I'm the editor and proof reader. I am perfectionistic by nature but damnit, I keep bumping into my own infallibility--misspellings, garbled syntax, typos committed by the ring finger of my left hand, crazed semi-colons placed in the heat of the moment. I disapoint my inner English major...infrequently, I like to think, but it happens, and that's why I depend on IMPERIOUS BOOBS LIKE YOU to pick the occasional nits and keep me in the moment of my human-ness.
I recently read a great book for sticklers like you (and me), it's "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss, who writes about language for the The Times (London). It's about punctuation, and delightfully whimsical. Please keep writing--you'll notice I corrected the 'copywrite' abomination almost immediately...
Posted by: blathering Michael | May 07, 2005 at 09:55 AM
OH, JEEZ, TOM! Proofread your posts! You misspelled my NAME! DAMN!
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." -Matthew 7:1-5
Posted by: Fremont | May 07, 2005 at 11:01 AM
Jesus said, "Before you try to remove the speck from your neighbors' eye, try taking out the beam from your own".We all want to justify our own sins,errors, and perversions, and it is easier to do so when we can point out someone elses. It diverts attention away from ourselves. The true judge of our lives will not be misled by any such tactics. We will all give an account of our words and deeds before a judge that doesn't care what our value system is; He only cares about His value system.
Posted by: Iknow Yew | May 07, 2005 at 11:30 AM
Ditto on Eats, Shoots and Leaves...
Put it on your reading list, Tom!
Love,
Dim of Wit
Posted by: Fremont | May 07, 2005 at 12:34 PM
Bravo, Fremont:
You fell for it. There is no better way to test an individual's threshold for the textual blight of spelling errors than to misspell his or her name. Sheer narcissism alone will arouse such a person -- usually so amenable to misspelled words -- to mount that high horse to point out the error. Well done.
So, first you hurl insults and then you go all biblical and start waxing about Jesus and beams and motes in the eye. Save it. I'm probably more immune to biblical intimidation than I am to insults.
For what it's worth, I don't need to acquire Eats, Shoots & Leaves -- it's already on my bookshelf.
Posted by: tom | May 07, 2005 at 01:12 PM
blathering michael:
"Imperious boobs" like me?
You might check the spelling of "disappoint" -- especially when referring to your "inner English major."
While Lynne Truss does invite flexibility in punctuation -- as do most postmodern linguists -- she does not suggest that anyone abandon standardized spelling just yet. This is not 16th century when you could spell your own name five different ways without incident.
Posted by: tom | May 07, 2005 at 01:35 PM
how sad, he's not even a political troll. He's just a troll.
I'm a total newb here, but please troll people on their politics, not their spelling! Its the difference between 'exciting debate' and 'dullsville'
Posted by: windie | May 07, 2005 at 02:52 PM
Tom: I hate jumping to stereotypical conclusions, but damn it, it's my blog. My guess is that the stick up your ass reaches well up into your political persona.
God, I'm glad I'm a liberal!
"If you don't want to be lonely, don't always be right." -Jules Renard"
Posted by: blathering Michael | May 07, 2005 at 03:30 PM
Right on topic here....Okay, Tom, you've been outed! Admit it...you're a stick-in-the-ass REPUBLICAN troll! Come out, come out, wherever you are! And please, Tom, use upper case when you're referring to the sacred text. It's an abomination...
Posted by: Fremont | May 07, 2005 at 04:13 PM
dkallem: I can't access that Audible website. (Perhaps, I'm misspelling it). Suggestions?
Posted by: Fremont | May 07, 2005 at 04:44 PM
To My Would-be Detractors:
First, you attack me with cheap insults and the Bible, and then you resort to calling me a "stick-in-the-ass" Republican troll.
If your sticks and stones have missed their mark, what do you think will be the impact of ill-chosen twigs and pebbles?
By the way, Fremont, the proper term (and spelling) is "biblical," while the book to which you refer is the "Bible." Although that tome may be your "sacred text," it is not mine -- nor that of many other people across the globe.
Besides, what do my political affiliations have to do with a passion for linguistic and rhetorical perfection, even though such aspirations will forever remain beyond my reach?
For the record, I am as far left-wing as it's possible to be in this country, and I have never voted for a Republican in my life.
My notion of worthy Democrats includes the late Paul Wellstone, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Al Sharpton, John Lewis, and Jim McDermott, to name but a few.
I support the ACLU, a woman's right to choose, conservation, the Endangered Species Act, sustainable energy, gay marriage, and the recently-defeated anti-discrimination legislation in Washington State (HR1515). Damn you, Ralph Reed and Microsoft!
Moreover, I listen regularly to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, Air America -- in particular, Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, and Mike Malloy. I love Mike Webb on KIRO, and Mind Over Matters on KEXP, which features a variety of left-wing speakers such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Robert Fisk, Michael Parenti, Christian Parenti, Naomi Klein, William Greider, Paul Krugman, and Chalmers Johnson (among many others), and the BBC World Service (if not left-wing, at least anti-establishment in its willingness to challenge the powerful not just praise them).
Frankly, I see no conflict between my leftist politics and a cultivated affection for well-crafted prose that includes proper spelling and the conventions of style -- whether that text appears as a blog and/or print journalism, scholarly articles, or books. In what way do high stardards render me or anyone else a "stick-up-the-ass" Republican?
It's possible to be very left-wing and still not be an "American Idiot"...something you might consider.
If you believe that one can't deliver up deliciously well-written social and political snark in conjunction with the elements of style, I refer you to the master of the art:
http://jameswolcott.com
A model blog to which you can only hope to aspire.
Cheers.
Posted by: tom | May 08, 2005 at 06:39 PM
Prodigious thanks for your candor and references, Tom. I assume you also read James Kilpatrick's "The Writer's Art" in the Sunday Times/P.I. I am certain that the English-major lefty blogmeister and reputed grammar-nazi (as am I), welcomes your syntactical as well as substantial observations. Blather on (grammatically correctly), Tom....
Posted by: Fremont | May 09, 2005 at 10:03 AM
with all your liberal credentials and literary abilities, why don't you bring your brilliance to the progressive cause and post your own blog instead of pissing all over mine? The inherent danger to the republic is not my spelling.
Posted by: blathering Michael | May 10, 2005 at 08:18 AM
Fantastic idea! Call it "Uncle Tom's Blabbin'", "Tom's Tomes", or "The Tom-tom Beats...and beats...and...beats....."!
Posted by: Fremont | May 10, 2005 at 02:16 PM
Discussion of grammar aside, it is interesting reading these comments after the Jim West scandal has exploded. The doubters seem unable to hold two ideas simultaneously, i.e., that Jim West is a powerful Right Wing pol, and, he is a homosexual. Of course, with the man's referring to himself as 'a gay man' Monday, the matter is clearly resolved. But, why did the doubters doubt?
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