It's difficult to say if the Columbia Gorge Medical Center was a legitimate effort or just a simpering campaign prop. That, unfortunately, is neither here nor there.
What it is is... this:
This is the front of what seems to be a closed facility in a picture taken this morning and provided to me by a source that will remain nameless.
Unfortunately, this going concern has, well, done went.
There wasn't a campaign stop or even that Russell didn't mention his undocumented "ownership" of this "clinic," or that he was going to open a second clinic at 192nd "in September."
It was a new approach to tackling the health care problems facing us. And it appears, like his failed congressional and state representative race, it was a failed approach.
Unfortunately, Russell found it necessary to tell the world in both published reports and campaign stops that his wife was a "physician." He also advertised her as a "doctor." According to the state, what she is, is, in reality, an advanced registered nurse practitioner.
But that does not make her a doctor or physician, and now they are both under investigation for misrepresenting her credentials.
It's sad, in a way. I've been around politics here locally for almost 25 years now, and I've never seen anyone want to be elected to something so badly that they would lies and exaggerate about issues like this, and a fake degree and the like to get elected.
My concern, however, isn't for Russell. Whatever difficulties he's facing now are of his own making. But his wife and his 3 small children? That's another issue.
On Jon Russell Watch, where the falsity of his many of his claims are documented (as they are on this blog, come to think of it) I was left an anonymous comment the other day that said this:
I understand this guy has sold his house in Washougal. Doesn't that city require it's leaders to live within the city limits? Also, his wife's clinic in Washougal is closing it's doors and neither of them are connected, in any way, to the Health Clinic in Grass Valley- 192nd Ave. John now works across the river as a part-time rent-a-cop. Wow! And this guy wanted to run for Congress??
What is it with this guy??
I honestly don't know. But it speaks to very difficult fiscal times for his family, and tremendous stressors that could have a bad end.
The problem here is that it didn't have to turn out this way. But no power, including political, is worth lying for, over and over and over, to achieve.
Maybe one day, Russell will learn that lesson and become the honorable man of integrity that he projected himself to be... but never came close to measuring up to.
Cross posted at Jon Russell Watch.
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This post comes very close to reveling in the guy's misery... You went right to the line.
ReplyDeleteIt took a lot of self-control.
ReplyDeleteBut considering the efforts of Russell and his Winged Monkeys during the last election and their "if the facts aren't on your side, attack the other side's lawyer" approach, I thought it was rather muted.
While Russell and his cohorts brought pain to my family... even going so far as to attempt to have me removed from a Board of Directors on a non-profit I'm on in another state... I don't revel in his pattern of failure.
Relatively speaking, he's young... and I would like to think all of this has taught him a lesson.
I'd LIKE to think that. But I'd be wrong.
Politics, as your know, is a messy, slimy business. I'm hardly in a position to clean it up personally, but based on my inside-baseball knowledge, I am in a position to bring these issues to the attention of others.
With Russell, it didn't have to be this way. The lesson to be gained here is that lying, particularly about those things that make no difference, is not the kind of karmic thing people generally, and those who want to lead us specifically, should engage in.
In Russell's case, having a degree (or not) along with having a wife who was a doctor (or not) was an example of just such a scenario.
Who cares if he's got a degree? Something over 20 members of Congress, as I recall, don't have a degree... and they're called "Representative." just like the Ph.D's and D.J.'s that do.
What difference does it make if his wife is a doctor or not? SHE'S not the one we're looking at electing.
Why lie? Particularly when you don't have to? That speaks to another, entirely non-political issue.
It's bad enough that our government, from the top on down, chooses to lie. Lying is part and parcel of what got us into this.
But lying, or one's ability to lie shouldn't be a resume' block to be checked to get elected.
If Russell.. or Herrera, for that matter... relied on the truth... neither of these two blogs would exist.
If Jon is experiencing such trouble currently, he can recover, as many of us have had to in the past.
ReplyDeleteBut, if he stays on the current path he showed during the campaign, he never will. He will end up disgraced and ridiculed as is David Hedrick.
Both are young and have a lot of years to over come this current path.
Whether they will or not depends on them.
As I once told Jon, politically, he is his own worst enemy.
And please do not forget Jon's current lovely piece in the snoozemedia:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.columbian.com/news/2011/feb/03/technology-network-grows-in-east-county/