Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The New Face Or Body Of Politics

Okay, so Hillary won in New Hampshire. Who cares? In Oregon, Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist's name is sure to be mentioned when Arlington holds its annual town meeting Wednesday. Some of the mayor's roughly 500 constituents will want to know her views on the issues affecting the Eastern Oregon community; others will want to talk about her underwear. I don't think anyone is going to wonder about Hillary's!

The mayor's lingerie is a hot topic up there, with some residents upset that she posted pictures of herself wearing only a black bra and panties on her MySpace page. She was on one of the town's fire engines. Kontur-Gronquist's MySpace page is blocked to all but her friends, but the pictures were at one time available to all users. The mayor said she did nothing wrong and those who are offended need to get over it.

"That's my personal life," she said. "It has nothing to do with my mayor's position." Kontur-Gronquist, who is also the fire department's executive secretary, said the photos were taken before she was elected mayor three years ago, and she saw no reason to remove them from the Internet after taking office. "I'm not going to change who I am," she said. "There's a lot of officials that have a personal life, and you have people in this community who have nothing better to do than scrape up stuff like this." Some residents said they were starting a recall petition, saying the photos are inappropriate and send the wrong message to kids.

Some say the photos of a scantily clad mayor reflect badly on Arlington.Councilman Jeff Bufton said he's heard a lot of negative comments about the pictures but declined to say whether the council plans to address the topic. In fact, I think ol' Jeffy boy is trying to get on Carmen's friends list. Hey, when you're in the political area, you've got to use the internet. Let's just hope Ms. Clinton doesn't get any ideas or I'll be the one crying!