Comments

2
@1 That was an old photo from another event. Neither Murray nor O'Brien were at today's announcement and the photo has been updated.
3
Harrell's comments on 'abuse' and '30 years' are confused and disturbing. I have no idea where he stands--and that is terribly worrisome.
4
He is a huge jerk. He won't give up his job so Burgess will take over. The entire Council sucks as do the 2 dummies running for Mayor. It was embarrassing to watch the debate last night. They are both very lacking in substance.
5
@4:

Why DO you live here?
6
@2: Typically the caption would be then: "..., as shown here in an earlier photo."
7
I swear I don't know Seattle anymore.....
8
Or we could wish Bruce luck in his new position.
9
Where's the inauguration party?
10
The Ed Murray scandal must be a litmus for every city politician. Harrell certainly scores as a failure given his earlier despicable comments which protected and enabled Murray's public thrashing of the victims. If the voters in the second district do not remove Harrell in the next election then they themselves will be viewed as enablers of Murray's continued ugly behavior.
12
Wow, how many nasty things in that statement?

Ethical leadership, Bruce, not just strong.

If you really were confident in July it never happened, what odds would you give on a wager now? When do you reflect on your bad judgement?

If you just didn't care if it happened, because 33 years ago, then your character is bad.

Look, it would have taken courage to face up to it, you might have gotten hurt, lots of people chicken out too. Now at what point do you realize what you did?

(Hi Trumpist concern trolls, how about you go criticize Trump's record, we got this ourselves on Harrell.)
13
@4 ... I hear you. It's becoming pretty pathetic.

I refuse to live in the city but.... I will bid and work on City construction projects there. It's good to be in business with them because they waste money, their careless spending and money wasting makes me a nice profit. They bloat every project they do all at the Seattle tax payers expense.
Planning to keep on doing business in Seattle but I would never live there. It's turned to a cesspool of homeless, heroin, garbage and taxes.
And with either of the mayoral candidates at the helm the future doesn't look much brighter.
14
Shocking that it has finally come to this. Invoking the never before used mayoral succession clause. How the pioneers who built this city would turn in their--

Oh, wait. Seattle has had mayors resign under a cloud like NINE TIMES!? The first one was 20 years after the city was founded, for major embezzlement? Oh man. One mayor just decided one day to fuck off and not say anything? Everyone was like, damn, where the mayor at? He gone, man. Nobody know where. Here, you mayor now. Raise your hand, dog.

This will go down as one of the more dignified mayoral implosions, by Seattle standards.

15
This is the city's biggest governance crisis in years if not decades... where were Kshama Sawant and Mike O’Brien? They seem to shy away from the nuts-and-bolts of basic city management whenever it doesn't also involve a hot microphone and captive audience.
16
Just a tangential comment: "Corporate Seal of The City of Seattle" seems prophetic.
17
This comment thread is a toxic cesspool. I'm glad you all don't live in the city.
18
@15: Excellent observation.
19
@17 what's wrong with it, exactly? too much brutal truth? not enough unicorns, butterflies and rainbows?
20
@13: how brave of you to refuse Seattle residence. I'm sure dori monson will be handing out medals for that - you should let him know of your heroism.

so what IS wrong with this city, exactly? we elected a creep, we didn't know at the time, and now he's been pressured into resigning. other cities have done worse. the nation has done way worse - just 10 months ago.
21
Shy away "city management"? You mean photo op. Didn't show up for a photo op. So what?

The irony? The same haters spend most of their time yelling at Sawant and O'Brien for showing up at too many photo ops.

If there were any truth to the idea that the most leftist council members like Sawant and O'Brien were not doing anything, incompetent and ineffective, then the haters would be thrilled. They would be failing to enact $15 minimum wage and or passing a new ordinance limiting homeless camp sweeps or placing restrictions on rent increases. Take Trump: his goals disgust me, but his comic inability to pass any legislation or even write an effective executive order, or even run his own white house, never ceases to warm the cockles of my icy cold stone of a heart.

Either they suck and are incompetent, and so Sawant and O'Brien and (Herbold and Johnson) aren't going to shove any of their leftivist crap down Seattle's unwilling throat, or they are extremely effective and have a record of changing the face of the city government.

Which is it, guys?
22
Betsy Devos is trying to protect rapists at colleges. It's not surprising that in a patriarchal society like ours people need to try to protect rapists and molesters who just so happen to be men. I'm not the slightest bit surprised people say "Innocent before proven guilty" because too many people still believe it's too easy to frame someone for something that happened in private with no cameras around to show what really happened.
23
Any chance they'd appoint Nikkita to the vacant council seat?

(...just posted that to watch tensor's head explode...)
24
#14:

One of them. Corliss Stone, left office and moved to San Francisco after "allegedly" embezzling funds from his business.

In 1897, two resigned in succession...the second of these, W.D. Wood, quit three months after taking office to join the Klondike Gold Rush(I believe he ended up stuck on a boat that was iced in in the Yukon River after taking "the rich man's route" by water and past Nome)

Another mayor, Hiram Gill, was actually recalled by the voters in 1911, a year into his term.

Another, Ole Hanson, resigned in 1919 to move to California(it's NEVER a good sign when the mayor decides to leave town).

Mayor Dore was relieved of office due to ill health in 1938(and died five days later).

Arthur B. Langlie resigned in 1941 after being elected governor

James d'Orma Braman resigned to take a federal appointment in 1969.

.

25
@21 I didn't say Sawant and O'Brien don't do anything. I said (in essence) they're transparently motivated by self-promotion.

That said, if you *do* think being elsewhere makes a council member more effective at moving laws through the city council or influencing the agenda of the soon-to-be mayor or addressing the very valid fears that many have Seattleites have about this political limbo... cool!
26
...and in the spirit of Sawant's statement two days ago, I commend the commenters in @15 and @25 for their courage and leadership in highlighting this issue.
27
I find this terribly funny. Why? I was raked over the coals for suggesting everything that has come out about Murray as some homo hating imbecile. Yet here it is, all true.
28
Wait....what's this about Tim Burgess taking over as Mayor of Seattle because now Bruce Harrell, despite being sworn in, is bowing out....?
I swear, *sigh*...again....(see my comment @7).
29
#27: You were raked over the coals because it people had every reason to believe that you wanted to use Murray's individual acts-acts all of us agree are vile and indefensible-against the entire LGBTQ community. You have always come off as one of those "them f_____s are all after our kids" types.

Are you willing to admit that the story here is simply that Murray HIMSELF is a monster-that his sexual orientation with adults has nothing to do with his crimes?
30
Sorry, the "it" in the first sentence there should have been edited out.

Please wait...

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