The Columbian snivels over striking out on the ballpark scam.

Forgotten long since, two short years ago, this rag threw a fit over the very idea that taxpayer dollars should be used to pay for a millionaire's baseball facility:

But back to luring the baseball team over to this side of the river. That would require a stadium with at least 8,000 seats, which would cost about $40 million. As we’ve editorialized before, there appears to be no way any of that money could — or even should — be provided by taxpayers. That hurdle hasn’t discouraged Leavitt, though. “There’s still a lot of interest in bringing Beavers baseball or Triple-A baseball to Clark County. Private interests are working on a financing plan,” he said. To which we respond: Great! Work away! Which is a nice way of saying don’t come begging to cash-strapped city or county governments.

There's never been an explanation as to what caused the rag to flip  from that position to this:.

So, along comes Brancaccio, who blabs about how unacceptable Stuart's "dead horse" plan is.  He goes on to comment below the article:  

Lou Brancaccio Top Commenter University of Florida 

When you read the entire editorial Friday you will see we still favor baseball coming here and we still support an entertainment tax to make that happen. What we strongly oppose is this new idea of giving the money to the cities and then cutting them off after five years. Many politicians have trouble stopping spending once they start.

Yeah, Lou.  Like on the CRC, you mean?

They went bat-shit crazy over the idea of a barely-above amateur baseball team moving here, squarely dropping the turd of almost complete tax-payer financing through the moronic concept of charging EVERYONE going to ANY "entertainment" venue a tax... a tax, in  most cases, LARGER THEN THE TAX THAT WOULD BE PAID BY THOSE EITHER USING, OR ACTUALLY ATTENDING, AN EVENT OR GAME AT THE BALLPARK IN QUESTION... paid for by hundreds of thousands who would never set foot in such a facility... and all without asking us or putting this to a vote.

Amazing how much they fear the will of the people.  If they could have made a case, just think... the fish-wrapper wouldn't have been spewing their crocodile tears this morning.

Opposition was massive... and instant.  And, after an all-too-long, drawn out death scene, it finally died... only to (thankfully) be resurrected in Hillsboro, who, conveniently unmentioned by the democratian, will get this thing built WITHOUT raising taxes and WITHOUT slapping a 5% ticket tax on tickets not only in Hillsboro, but throughout the entirety of Washington County... which was the bizarre effort being made here.

Hillsboro seems to be blessed with much more visionary and generally more intelligent elected leadership, because the question the rag SHOULD be asking, but will never ask, is this:  Why couldn't those in charge around here put a deal together like this?

How is it that Hillsboro is getting 50% more seats in a stadium (4500 versus 3000, which was the original rip off planhere) for $7 to $10 million LESS then we were?

These are obvious questions.  And they have not been asked... because, like so many other questions that need to be asked that aren't (So, Mr. Jacks, in your alcohol-fueled state as a legislator, did you actually molest female staff in Olympia?  So, Commissioners/Mayor/city councilmen/women, are you aware that the entire CRC is a scam designed by special interests in Portland as a sop to get you hicks to buy into the CRC, and there's nothing wrong with the bridge we have now?) this newspaper would never DREAM of getting us all the facts when the favored special interests would be the ones to suffer because of it.

 No, instead, we get garbage like this:

Jeers: To the lost opportunity to bring a minor-league professional baseball team to Clark County. This week the city of Hillsboro, Ore., inked a deal with the Yakima Bears, the same team that tried hard to relocate to a spot on the Clark College campus. As part of the deal, Hillsboro will sell bonds to finance a new stadium estimated to cost $13 million to $15 million. The various proposals aired in Clark County to build a stadium and bring the Bears to town all had something for everyone to criticize. But in the end, they’ll be playing ball in Hillsboro and we’ll be stuck with the perpetually lackluster Seattle Mariners on TV.

So, here's our choices: perpetually lackluster, barely-above amateur baseball in Hillsboro, or the perpetually lackluster Seattle Mariners on TV?

To me, the question is easy: to area taxpayers, which one is/was cheaper?

I'm thrilled to watch the Mariners lose on cable when I'm not paying for it by going to a movie.

Idiots.