[pwd72s]

Here's a cut & paste of the rag's lead editorial of the 7th...I'm being to kind to describe it as trash...a "choice"...that's what they call pedophilia???

Goldschmidt's tragic choice
A sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl in 1975 emerges to end the public life of Oregon's leading citizen
Friday, May 07, 2004
It is beyond sad to see former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt's remarkable service to Oregon end this way, with a brilliant public man brought down by a stunning personal failure nearly 30 years ago.

Goldschmidt acknowledged Thursday that he had a yearlong sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl beginning in 1975, while he was mayor of Portland. He also announced Thursday his resignation as chairman of the State Board of Higher Education and his withdrawal from the Oregon Electric Utility Co. and its proposal to acquire Portland General Electric.

Over his remarkable 35-year career in public service, Goldschmidt was so smart, so quick and politically adept, he always seemed at least a step ahead of everything, even the whispers about problems in his personal life. It was a shock Thursday to see his personal failures and the stress of a public life lived at full speed finally catch up with him.

Thirty years of "enormous guilt and shame," Goldschmidt said, as well as constant worry that his secret would be exposed, have left him exhausted and suffering from heart problems. Goldschmidt also said that in 1994 he set up a fund for the woman, knowing he bore some responsibility for problems she faced in her life.

The whole sordid story is a tragedy for the young woman involved and her family, as well as Goldschmidt and his family. It is a real loss for Oregon, too. One of this state's best and brightest leaders, the most talented public figure of his generation, now seems finished with public service.

That's an incalculable loss. One measure of Goldschmidt's stature is that it seems like Oregon has no one capable of fully replacing him on the State Board of Higher Education and leading the much-needed overhaul of the university system. There's no one else in Oregon like Neil Goldschmidt.

He became the city's youngest mayor ever, at age 32. With a series of brash and bold decisions, Goldschmidt revived Portland's downtown and redirected federal freeway money to a light-rail transit system.

Goldschmidt kept moving after leaving City Hall in 1979 to join the Carter administration as secretary of transportation. The Washington Post's David Broder included Goldschmidt in a short list of young politicians destined to rise to national prominence.

Carter lost his bid for re-election, and Goldschmidt left politics to work as an executive for Nike Inc. He couldn't stay away long. Goldschmidt charged back into Oregon politics in 1986, launching a campaign for governor and declaring that Oregon's economy had suffered from a lack of leadership.

Goldschmidt won the election with a platform centered on an "Oregon Comeback" -- one that reflected his own successful return to public leadership. No one could have predicted then his successes and failures as governor.

The former big-city mayor created the best rural economic development strategy this state has ever had. He also presided over the largest prison buildup in Oregon history, but largely failed to deliver on his ambitious children's agenda. There is one significant legacy in that area -- Start Making A Reader Today, or SMART, a program that sends 10,000 volunteers into Oregon schools to read to at-risk students.

For now, it is hard to reconcile the public Goldschmidt -- the tack-sharp, charismatic leader -- with such indefensible personal behavior. For as much as Goldschmidt contributed, it's impossible to know how different, and perhaps better, the young woman's life would have been if she never had met him.

Goldschmidt offered a heartfelt, deeply emotional apology in an interview with The Oregonian and in a one-page written statement. He said, in part, "I have known all along that my private apologies and actions, deep and true though they were, would never be enough. I apologize now, publicly and completely."

Goldschmidt said he is struggling with his health and with finding some measure of personal peace. Stepping aside from his public service, he said, is a necessary part of that struggle.

Even now, it is painful to watch him leave.