I haven't heard back from Wyden's office, but a bit of digging revealed that Willamette Week reported earlier this week that Sam Adams was absent from the list of invitees for Monday's stimulus plan meeting: it was, in fact, a deliberate snub. Tom Towslee is the Wyden staffer I posed the question to today via voicemail, and he is quoted in the article as confirming the intentional omission of Adams.
I think this was a misstep on the part of Sen. Wyden. His unwillingness to work directly with Mayor Adams, especially on a matter that has a dire effect on the city, does not eliminate "distraction". The press, local officials and the public are not focused on the outcome of the meeting, but on this "snub" and how it speaks to the viability of Sam Adams as a local leader. Frankly, I feel the omission of Adams from the invitation list was petty. Wyden has spoken openly about his disapproval of Sam's actions but claims he will refrain from stating anything further until the investigation concludes. He has, however, made a passive-aggressive statement about his feelings towards Adams as a fellow politician.
I've always respected Ron Wyden and felt fortunate that he has served many years as an effective representative for Oregon. This, however, does not sit well with me. I will be contacting him about this and asking him to rethink his approach to Mayor Adams. Either ask him to resign or work with him. Anything else is, in Wyden's words, distraction.
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Somehow I'm thinking that Senator Wyden really just wants some attention from all of this. He has been decidedly absent during most of this ordeal and I'm sure that's weighing on his ego. You're absolutely correct that, if Senator Wyden really wanted to "eliminate distraction", he'd have met with Mayor Adams rather than direct attention to the very issues he claims to want to avoid.
ReplyDeleteMayor Adams took a bit of heat from the recall group and its cronies over all of this and his quote "I have to respect how people have responded to my issues" was taken out of context repeatedly. Senator Wyden's response was nothing more than a complete contradiction.
RobertWagner
www.pdxsucks.com
I was very disappointed as well about our Mayor not being invited to this meeting and in fact emailed Hollie to suggest she write a blog about this issue. I also sent an email to Ron Wyden from his website telling him that while I've always supported him I am very unhappy about this and expected better of him. I encourage others who feel the same way to write to him as well. You can reach him here:
ReplyDeletehttp://wyden.senate.gov/contact/