Randy Cassingham's Blog

The gal sure did show a major lack of knowledge regarding MySpace, of course, and seriously poor political judgment.

If, as seems to be the case, she did this (1) while working at the fire department (and thus with legitimate access), (2) did so on her own time, and (3) entirely at her own expense -- so what?

The charges she mismanaged a golf course and violated open-meeting laws -- those are more important, especially the latter (since poor management isn't itself against the law, while ignoring meeting requirements is).

BTW, while I don't care for President Bush myself, what's he got to do with this story? We're talking a small-town mayor clear across the country, not some senior Administration official with strong influence in the Oval Office. (I even read a similar blast in a discussion forum in which people were discussing the results of a *sporting* event, one not at all controversial or involving allegations of anything. Sigh.)

His point regarding the president is that nowadays, in our society sex is seen as something bad and a reason to impeach someone from public office but blatantly ignoring the constitution and sending thousands of young people to pointless deaths is perfectly acceptable.

The point is that the citizens of this country are a bunch of misguided idiots and we get what we deserve.

I lived in the Washington DC Area for over 20 years. My house was blocks away from the DC Maryland line so naturally our neighborhood was full of politicians, professional lobbyists, and lots of government workers. And not just Federal government, but state and local employees as well. That said, I've observed time and time again that if someone is a schnook in his or her public life, they are pretty much the same thing in their personal lives as well and vice versa.

Very few people have what it takes to be more than one person for in public and another in private. I've known people (and politicians) who do play to whatever audience is handy but that sort of thing tends to break down over time. Or maybe the folks who can do that convincingly wind up working in the black world. Espionage, security, law enforcement and intelligence work employs a lot of people. In fact, I suspect there are more spooks than any other kind of government employee but demographic profiles don't contain that information. Politics probably gets what's left over.

Now for Mayor Kontur-Gronquist posing in boy cut panties, six pack abs, and push-up bra in a municipal fire truck. Everything about that inept "portrait" (because it IS a portrait) makes a bold but unintentionally amusing statement about her fantasy life. It doesn't matter that it may have happened several years ago. What we see is a wannabe superhero with a spray-on tan posing in her underwear. I suspect she naively expected it to speak powerfully to her leadership ability, resident sex symbol and advertisement about the benefits of a Gold's Gym membership. Instead, we think she should have consulted a competent political advisor. He'd have advised her against posting this disastrous low budget beefcake/cheesecake photo. After he peed his pants laughing.

As for who paid for the pictures and were public funds tapped for the bill: it doesn't matter. Mayor Kontur-Gronquist probably paid for these amateur photos out of her own pocket. What matters is that she's posing with something that belongs to the city. That plops the whole thing into a bad and possibly illegal judgment call UNLESS she consulted with the city legal advisor AND had written permission before she did it. It doesn't really matter when the photo was taken.

In essence, she appropriated public resources and took something that didn't belong to her. Now as mayor, she represented the city in a way that at least part of the electorate finds objectionable and embarrassing. And she made that image available to anyone in the world with internet access. She was not merely representing herself in that picture, the fire truck prop made it a public statement made with public resources.

Mayor Kontur-Gronquist should never have posted the photo on the web to start with, but she definitely should have yanked this off her web page before she even ran for mayor. These are some big mistakes, but she would probably have reduced the repercussions if she'd responded with humility and humor, admitted to making a ridiculous mistake and rode things out. Her "creative" defenses make her seem venal and stupid. It's like Larry Craig trying to recall his guilty plea and rewrite the history of what really happened in that airport toilet. We the public know better and all the verbal puffery in the world just convinces us otherwise.

Many public figures who've been caught in an embarrassing or compromising position declare he or she should be judged solely on performance as a public servant. However, when it comes to public office holders, poor judgment in one area invariably ripples out into other areas, plus the lapses in judgment continue getting worse. If Mayor Kontur-Gronquist can't see how her conduct was inappropriate here, then there's no way she's going to be able to navigate the complexities of leadership required for city government.