Moonage Political Webdream

SPOKANE, Wash. — Mayor James E. West, a former Republican legislative leader and opponent of gay rights, has been accused of molesting two boys decades ago and more recently offering a City Hall internship during an online chat to someone he thought was a young man but was in reality a computer investigator hired by a newspaper.…..

West opposed gay rights, abortion rights and teenage sex during a two-decade legislative career. He used the online aliases, "Cobra82nd" and "RightBi-Guy" to chat on the Web site. West was in the Army’s 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper "The Gay.com thing has only been, I can’t recall, but it hasn’t been very long," he told the newspaper. "I can’t tell you why I go there, to tell you the truth … curiosity, confused, whatever, I don’t know." Concerning his sexual orientation, "I wouldn’t characterize me as ‘gay,"’ West said.

I just don’t get it.  These revelations of politicians doing what they base their careers on trashing are coming out weekly.  This one I think is particularly weird.  Washington is not exactly a Republican stronghold.  Washington is also not exactly the conservative bastion of the US.  Being gay in Washington is not a big a deal as it is in say, oh, Kentucky.  So, we got a conservative Republican mayor in a very liberal Democrat environment.  He does some time in the legislature and become mayor of Spokane, basing a lot of his political agenda on bashing gays.  Now, I can think of a issues Spokane and Washington in general are probably concerned with.  But, attacking gays to me doesn’t seem like a terribly smart political agenda there.  So, just to make it more appealing with "the other side", he goes cruising gay.com for young men. 

This is beyond stupid, this is some type of political death wish.  If he had been busted cruising teengirls.com, then at least he’s sticking with his agenda.  No, this guy is doing what he is condemning a lot of other people for doing.  He’s political toast now.  He should be.  He needs counseling because there is something bad wrong here.  My life experiences tell me that he knew he swung both ways for a LONG time and in order to repress "the other side" he attacked it.  You can’t fight your instincts forever.  His instinct eventually beat out his common sense.  However, what’s got him screwed now is his common sense should have just told him to leave the issue alone a long time ago.

Technorati Tags: Ethics, Political Correctness

Tags: Ethics, Political Correctness

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