I'm not touching that last sentence. :-P
In any event, it's truly a shame what happened to West. He had been a distinguished State Senate (Majority sometimes) leader. He succeeded another less-than-stellar Mayor and was potentially a future statewide officeholder, but just simply lost his mind. He really should've had the common courtesy to have resigned when it all "came out" (pun unintended) and spared the city the $$ it cost to run an election anyone with one brain cell could tell the outcome of.
Concur. Ask anybody involved in state politics, and West would have and did earn high praise in his career. But he really screwed the pooch on this one. Too bad.
You make it sound like he was some kind of victim.
"...truly a shame what happened to West." You've got to be kidding me! He did this to himself. We won't even go into his close personal relationship with members of a child molesting ring in Spokane during the 70's and 80's that included Catholic clergy, Boy Scout leaders and policemen. He lived with one of the offenders, but of course knew nothing of the vile horrors that the young boys(several who later committed suicide) had to endure. The guy is a POS who's got a special place waiting for him where the temp. is always over 750 degrees. The Spokesman-Review newspaper has done an outstanding job on investigating this pervert's history.
This doesn't just "happen". A person makes choices every hour of every day (if your'e on the outside). J W made some incorrect choices over a period of time. He used the prestige and privilege of his office to obtain ...... ......
I'll say no more, other than to comment that he was, apparently, very curious to see what half-Scandinavian pups woud look like.
He should have had the decency to resign. It's important to remember, West was investigated and recalled because he misused his public office for sexual favors, not because of any purely private activity.