Mayor is another gop self-hating, attack queer, and a child molester to boot

Embattled Mayor of Spokane, James West said Monday he will take a leave of absence for a ``few weeks'' to prepare to defend himself against a newspaper's allegations of child molestation.

A newspaper on Thursday published a series of reports that West had been accused of abusing boys while he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

West, a former Republican state Senate leader and staunch opponent of gay rights, denied those allegations, but subsequently acknowledged that he had visited a gay online chat room and had relations with adult men.

Earlier Monday, city officials seized West's City Hall computers for an investigation into whether he improperly used them to visit gay chat rooms.

West has acknowledged offering autographed sports memorabilia and a possible City Hall internship to someone he thought was an 18-year-old man in a chat room. The man was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review as part of a journalism sting operation.

West also disputed a story in Sunday's newspaper that quoted a city councilwoman as saying he told her that he had masturbated in his office. West said he was at home, not in his office, when the simulated online sex occurred, the newspaper reported.

this is an embarrasment.  taking a few weeks leave is not enough even if only one of these things are true.

any republican who is a closeted gay, who attacks gays on policy grounds should resign or be outed and embarrased.

that includes david drier, ken mehlman, karl rove, and scott mclellan