And the idiot would be…?
I keep trying to take the high road. I keep trying not to get sucked back into the muck that is the Goldschmidt/Giusto ‘who knew what when?’ story - I don’t know that the truth will ever totally come out, and I do know the damage was already done decades ago.
But I happened to catch Nick Budnick’s piece in yesterday’s Tribune yesterday while waiting for breakfast - and nearly lost my lunch when I read what Margie Goldschmidt had to say in her deposition:
At the same time, Margie Goldschmidt tries to portray her former husband as not the only one at fault, describing the girl as a predator in the relationship.
She noted that she is a high school teacher, and “I teach 14-year-olds. I know exactly the kind of behavior that can go on and particularly if the girl has been abused, which she was.
“They become — they become predators themselves, and this is not in any way to fault her — not — but I do understand what happened,” she said. “They become predators. And she was a predator, and Neil was an idiot.”
I just couldn’t believe what I was reading and I couldn’t leave well enough alone - so I went in search of Goldschmidt’s interview transcript. And I read all 43 pages of her idiotic ramblings - pages where she excuses Bernie’s potential forgetfulness (”he’s just got a male brain”) or states that she still has a good relationship with her ex or wonders repeatedly why there’s still such a fuss about what happened long ago, given that the statute of limitations has expired. And oh, no - Neil’s not a pedophile and lots of men get “enticed” by 13, 14 year old girls, don’t you know. Even though it’s wrong and she has daughters herself.
Now, my french toast is still doing flip flops in my stomach hours later, and I still feel ill.
Somebody, please tell me that Margie’s retired from teaching. Or at least that she’s not teaching high school students in Portland Public Schools.
I damn well know I don’t want my own daughter having her as a role model, thankyouverymuch. And I sure don’t want my teenage son to learn that having a ‘male brain’ or uncontrollable urges gets you a free pass from doing what’s right - no matter what the statute of limitations might tell you.
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The whole thing’s pretty sick, really, mostly because it is just a small a window into a very large and seedy underbelly of Oregon politics. Holy crap, they’re all still sleeping with each other (literally and figuratively), and that goes for their sycophants at the Oregonian, too, who originally hushed the story, then went to press with a headline about Goldschmidt’s “affair.”
I’m glad Tribune has the guts to call it what it was: rape.
Now, once we finally clear the stage of the rump of the Goldschmidt gang, we’re left with… the Bus Project gang. Any wagers on the first big sex scandal to come out of that crew?
At least she called him an idiot, but it still gave my stomach barrel rolls. I can’t imagine defending someone like that under any circumstances. To call the girl a “predator” in any context is cowardly at the least. Ugh, I need mind-soap now to cleanse me of these images.
Calling him an “idiot” excuses his moral and ethical transgression. You see, he’s not ethically bankrupt, he’s just a well-intentioned, lovable old “idiot.”
The sick thing is how much Neil already traded in his power for money, and how much power his network of cronies still wields in this town.
I had the same take on the ‘idiot’ comment - much in the way Margie cuts Bernie slack ’cause he’s got a ‘male brain.’ She gives the men in her life free passes ’cause they just can’t help being the way they are - it’s just a chromosome thing, don’t you know.
Um, no - it’s sexism, plain and simple.