Former governor admits sex with teen
Secret weighs on a public life
How can such behavior be erased when the damage to others and to myself lives on? I have sat in places of worship each year at Yom Kippur, the day of atonement in my religious tradition (Judaism), reading in silence, searching for personal peace. And I have found that the answer to that question is that it cannot be erased. The pain and damage that I have caused have been with me constantly. I have known all along that my private apologies and actions, deep and true though they were, would never be enough. I apologize now, publicly and completely.
- Neil Goldschmidt
When I lived in Portland, Neil Goldscmidt was the Golden Child, the man who had been Mayor at age 32, Secretary of Transportation under Jimmy Carter, and eventually Governor of Oregon. It seemed that everything the man touched turned to gold. He knew everyone one who was anything in Oregon, and he used his connections to solidify his financial future. Even so, his career has hardly been a straight line, his streaking up the political food chain interrupted on occasion by surprising and difficult-to-explain detours.
Of course, he had his weaknesses. Rumors of infidelity followed him through the years, rumors he never really bent over backwards to deny. Nonetheless, he was about the nicest guy you could find in Oregon politics. Think Bill Clinton before anyone outside of Oregon knew who he was, and you'd have Neil Goldschmidt. Now he has owned up to something that will tarnish his legacy, as well as the high esteem many Oregonians have held him in until now.
Former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt admitted Thursday that he had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl when he was 35 and mayor of Portland, and said he is resigning all his public and private positions to "rebuild my life."
In an extraordinary and emotional 50-minute interview with The Oregonian, Goldschmidt confessed he has lived for 30 years with the "enormous guilt and shame" of what he said was a nine-month relationship....
"I'm just living with this personal hell," said Goldschmidt, 63, occasionally choking back tears. "The lie has gone on too long."
Goldschmidt, who was married at the time of the affair, said he agreed to a financial settlement with the woman, who is now 42. He did so after being contacted by the woman's lawyer in 1994.
Legally, nothing can be done to Goldschmidt, given that the statute of limitations has long since expired. The fact that he will have to live out his years knowing he will be remembered first and foremost as a child molester will have to suffice as adequate punishment. The sad thing is that this reality will erase all of the good that Goldschmidt accomplished during his many years of distinguished public service.
A wise man once told me to try to live my life in a way that would allow my eulogy to be a celebration of all that I had accomplished, and not an apology to those I had hurt. It's a lesson Neil Goldschmidt would have done well to heed.
