A 'Spiritual But Not Religious' Democrat Speaks

Our "spiritual" governor:

Kulongoski is a Liar and the Oregon State Bar Couldn't Care Less

By Steve Duin

December 28, 2007, 3:31PM

Lars Larson called me this afternoon with the news: The Oregon State Bar has decided to take no action on coimplaints that the governor of Oregon "failed to tell the truth about when he knew of an illegal sexual relationship" between Neil Goldschmidt and a 14-year-old girl.

Larson and James Johnson of Newberg filed separate complaints regarding Ted Kulongoski's truthfulness. The Bar announced its decision to keep its head firmly buried in the sand in a Dec. 28 letter, released in the infamous media lull between Christmas and the New Year's holidays.

The Bar's investigation was so cursory and superficial that its general counsel never interviewed either Fred Leonhardt or Kulogonski in person.

Leonhardt has long argued that he informed Kulongoski of Goldschmidt's sexual abuse/statuatory rape on at least two different occasions, and passed a lie detector test to that effect during a state agency's investigation into the ethics and standards of Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto.

Chris L. Mullmann, an assistant general counsel with the Bar, reasoned that Leonhardt and Kulongoski have "differing recollections of events that occurred more than a decade ago," but argues that both "are credible in their recollections."

That's a fascinating conclusion: Leonhardt and Kulongoski have both proclaimed the other a liar and Mullmann finds both conclusions reasonable.

Never mind that various other aspects of Leonhardt's story have been confirmed by a half dozen witnesses. Kulongoski, meanwhile, has lied about the duration of his friendship with Leonhardt, as I reported in a Nov. 20 column.

Unlike the governor, Leonhardt's truthfulness has been documented by a polygraph machine and confirmed by the polygraph operator. Yet Mullmann blithely and cavalierly dismisses that fact, noting that "the court issued an exhaustive and unanimous opinion concluding that polygraph evidence is not admissible in any civil or criminal trial or any other legal proceeding which is subject to rules of evidence. For that reason, I give little weight to the polygraph evidence."

How convenient. I wonder if this is a good time to remind everyone that Mary Oberst, Kulongoski's wife, was on the bar staff from June 1985 through February 2004.

Just when you think the Bar's argument can't get any worse, Mullmann notes the following:

Governor Kulongoski contends that if he had known of the illicit relationship, he never would have appointed Governor Goldschmidt to head the Oregon Department of Education. Governor Kulongoski also contends that under those circumstances, he would not have been urging Governor Goldschmidt to remain in office. These contensions support Governor Kulongoski's recollection of events.

That is unbelievable. That's the laughable Kari Chisholm defense, named in honor of the Democratic errand boy who runs the Blue Oregon Glee C

Fred Leonhardt of OR 11:45AM October 26, 2009