Friday, October 14, 2005

Oregon Legislator Girl Gone Wild: Update

Since I wrote yesterday about the situation with Oregon state legislator, Kelly Wirth, much has happened. She turned herself into the police and is being charged with felony drug possession for meth. A statement from the Democratic Party of Oregon leaked out where Kelley Wirth is gong to officially resign her seat in the state house of representatives today.

One person even claimed that Rep. Wirth is known meth user. This is sad because not that long ago she was part of the legislature efforts to rid oregon of this terible problem of meth. But the spiritual evil of drugs have proven themself as Rep. Kelly Wirth got sucked down through the drug world it brought on a sad cycle of poor decisions and bizarre acts that ruined her reputation and destroyed her career in the Oregon state legislature. What started out as almost laughable Jerry Springer typre capitol love triangle nonsense, soon turned sadder and sadder. Rep. Kelly Worth deserves the prayers of all that her life shows an upswing and she leaves her problems behind her very soon. But the Oregon legislature is no place for her or any legislator who cannot responsibly conduct themselves.

I was also pleased that the leadership of the state Democratic Party as well as her fellow representatives made no attempt to defend the absurd conduct of Rep. Kelley Wirth. Rep. Diane Rosenbaum D-Portland, hoped that most persons would remember the legislature for their efforts on behalf of "health care, education and public safety". Most legislators did in fact conduct themselves in a constructive manner. It was only Kelley Wirth would brought disgrace on herself with a scandal of sex and meth.

Oregon state democrats handled the scandals of Kelley Wirth very well. There appeared to be a large behind the scenes effort to urge her to quickly resign and not to tarnish either the legislature or the Democratic Party organization. On the other hand, at the national level, both Tom Delay and Karl Rove have not handled their situations very well at all. Tom Delay has turned on prosecutor Ronnie Earle in a new attack, and claimed partisanship on the part of Earle, although of the 15 politicians that Earle has prosecuted for corruption, 12 of 15 were democrats. And a lobbyist friend associated with Delay even has some association to a recent story on America's Most Wanted that dealt with a murder and organized crime. No major politician should be so close to a lobbyist friend with some ties to any story events on America's Most Wanted. It often seems that you can judge the character of some by who their friends are, and Delay needs at least one new friend.

Delay needs to quickly divorce himself of any relationship to any figures under serious question, or his vindicative attitude towards others and instead build a credible defense for the charge that Delay himself is facing. Delay needs to prove his innocence of the charge and prove to a judge or jury that he's a decent defendant, not some sort of thug . The attack on prosecutor Earle and the reputation of Delay of as "The Hammer" who brutally ruins his opponents is not helping his case . And the scandal involving Karl Rove in which an ambassador's wife was somehow exposed as a CIA officer to possiby retailiate for the ambassadors opposition to the Iraq War, also raises serious issues. Neither case has been handled in the mature way as the fellow legislators or Oregon state democrats have dealt with the scandals of Kelley Wirth.

Voters have the right to expect moral and reasonable leadership in government. Sex scandals, meth abuse, thuggery or other poor conduct is simply not acceptable or moral.