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March 27, 2007

Republicans Should Be Angry with Sizemore

The Oregon Legislature is taking steps to water down the "double-majority" law that requires voter turn-out to surpass 50% before any property tax increases the voters pass can be enacted (except in a General election). Though I support the "double-majority," I have engaged in arguments with opponents enough times to realize it is a pointless debate. I can't convince you and you can't convince me. And frankly, the debate of the issue isn't why I'm writing this post. I'm writing it because I was fascinated by what Lynn Lundquist had to say about it (Lundquist was the House speaker when Measure 50 was passed out to voters). His statement makes it very clear why Republicans should be very angry with Sizemore for engaging in the activity that brought him down.

"I can tell you that Sizemore was king then," Lundquist said. "I made the decision that we were going to go along with what Mr. Sizemore wanted, as far as this item was concerned, in what we passed out as Measure 50. It wasn't that we agreed with him. The fact was that we were being pragmatic."

My enduring anger with Sizemore stems from many things all mixed together – disgust about his lying, his having pulled me (and many other women) into a situation I was too naïve and inexperienced to appropriately handle, and his repeated finger-pointing at me and refusal to take blame for his own decisions. But probably the thing that most angered me for a long time was the lost opportunity. Sizemore for a good deal of time had at his fingertips an incredible opportunity to make great strides forward for the conservative movement. He had the beginnings of a broad grassroots organization, money, talent, name recognition, and power. And he completely blew it because he could not play straight.

Republicans ought to keep that in mind. Many of them, particularly Ted Piccolo and his readers over at NW Republican have pointed at me as the bad guy in this whole mess. In fact, I have no doubt that some blogger out there will again claim that I have a never-ending chip on my shoulder and ought to just get over it because I am writing this post. But I remind all conservatives out there who are angry with me that I was never the "king." I did not lure Sizemore down the path of money laundering, falsifying tax returns, circumventing campaign finance law, and pocket lining. He did that all on his own. And the result was that the conservative movement that Republicans claim to care so much about took a very hard hit. The golden opportunity slipped away. And now many of the small gains made – including the double-majority – are being lost.

Posted by Becky at March 27, 2007 12:03 PM