The
Clifford
Comment

Commentary -- 9/8/06

Vicki Walker Is NOT
"Our Children's Champion."

Walker can't remember the "technicality" that prevented Democrats from approving Jessica's Law during the regular legislative session.

Wednesday night, In Eugene, former Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey and state Senator Vicki Walker had their first public forum in the 2006 state senate race. One question for Walker inquired about a "technicality" referred to the day Jessica's Law was finally passed during the 2006 special legislative session.

Prior to the vote, Senator Kate Brown briefly explained that the Democrats hadn't been able to vote for Jessica's Law earlier because of a technicality. Following the vote Vicki Walker gave a long and passionate speech about how it felt to live through her childhood being sexually molested by her neighbor, grandfather, father and uncles until the age of 18.

At Wednesday's forum she was asked was that technicality was.

Walker said, "gee" she couldn't remember. But, that people needed to understand that there are processes to go through before a bill can be passed. There have to be hearings and she said that they received the bill only a few weeks before the end of the session.

Torrey's retort was to ask just how long ir could take to pass such a popular bill.

His point is more than well taken. Walker's answer only raised more questions.

The Oregon Conservative still wants to know what that "technicality" was that just couldn't be ironed out during the regular session. The Oregon Conservative would also like to know why Mrs. Walker didn't give her impassioned speech during the regular session in an effort to coerce her close friend Kate Brown, and other Democrats, into passing Jessica's Law in a timely manner.

If it was really necessary to hold hearings on such a popular bill then why weren't those hearing held? How many people did they expect to oppose the bill. Who did they think would oppose it?

The Oregon Conservative believes that the truth is that Vicki Walker didn't feel protecting Oregon's children was the priority. SB1000 and same-sex issues was the focus and little else matter. Many other important bills went down without getting the attention they deserved as well while Kate Brown had Democrats putting all their time and energy into passing so-called civil rights for same-sexers.

It is ironic that Walker is using protection of children as her campaign theme. Her actions proved the opposite. Her ads constantly refer to her applauded public criticism of Neil Goldschmidt who carried on a molestation affair with his 14 year-old baby sitter. She gained legitimacy through that criticism as a Democrat who wasn't going to go along with child molestation just because her party was being weak on the issue.

But, she showed her true colors when being a good liberal Democrat meant doing nothing to get Jessica's Law passed during the regular session.

Walker's goals were the same as her best legislative friend's, Kate Brown; to get SB1000 shoved down everyone's throat even if it meant not attending to a sundry of other bills, especially if the bills were wanted by Republicans. Republicans like Senator Jason Atkinson had hawked heavily for Jessica's Law. It was a key issue in his gubernatorial campaign.

Walker instead used her personal experiences of claimed suffering to cover the political derriere of her friend Kate Brown after Oregon had become a national embarrassment for not having passed Jessica's Law.

It is most likely that Brown and Walker would not have passed Jessica's Law even during the special session if Bill O'Reilly had not made it an issue nationally and if Senator Jason Atkinson along with Bruce Starr had not run a Jessica's Law campaign in the weeks prior to the special session.

The Oregon Conservative doubts there ever was a "technicality" less much one that would amount to a decent excuse for waiting on such an important bill.

Democrats had no intention of passing Jessica's Law without being forced to do it. That didn't upset Senator Walker.