"In other Spokane news, check out this piece I wrote for The Advocate last month about Spokane’s ex-mayor Jim West. It apparently ticked off a number of folks who live in Spokane…"

Talk about your shameless self-promotion!!!! So unlike you, Savage.

Ankeny's demise is tragic. Every time I've been in Spokaloo in the past decade, I've stayed at the Ridpath -- if only to venture up to the brassy nightspot for a chicken pot pie, a schooner and to absorb the Inside Empire doing "uptown." Scary shit, I tell you -- but not half as scary as the afterdark stylings along meth-ridden Sprague Avenue should one venture only a few blocks from the hotel's faux plushness...

But the other tragedy here, I think, is your article, Dan. Not for your opinon on closeted old fags -- I respect that -- but rather for the omission of how this particular closeted old fag was outed. As I recall, didn't the newspaper cross some major ethical boundaries here by using undercover federal agents to entrap West? In my book, the press colluding with cops is some scary Kafkaesque shit.

I'm wondering, Dan, if you can change hats for a moment -- from your pillbox pink Bouvier number to your fedora with the press card firmly afixed in front. What are your thoughts not on West's closetedness from a fellow fag's perspective, but on his outing from a journalist's?

Sorry, Dogday, but when you know someone is doing something very, very wrong, you do what it takes to catch him. The press knew what he was doing. They just needed the evidence.

That's like saying it's not okay for the press to collude with law enforcement to catch a serial murderer or rapist. It's not exactly Orwellian: they're not telling Jim West how to think, they're trying to nail him for something terribly wrong he's doing.

sorry, gomez, but I can't say I disagree with you more. Your ends justify the means argument sounds almost like the Bush adminstration's stance on domestic spying -- or any stand it's taken on the "war on terror" for that matter. Serial killer (what?!) or not, there are clear lines between the press and governement -- and for good reason. When you allow those lines to become fuzzy, you're checks and balances are all but fucked.

And btw, tell me exactly what it was that you think West was doing that was "terribly wrong" here? Gushing his feelings in a few gay chat-rooms? Setting up dates while on company time? Last I heard, all of the most lurid allegations of child rape, etc., were never proven, investigated by the feds, and dropped. In risk of sounding like an apologist for West, when all the smoke has cleared, his transgressions here to me seemed much more personal ones than public.

Sure, we can easily throw stones that as a state political leader, West's self-loathing usurped opportunities to advance causes for homosexuals. But last I understood, not much else has been proven -- other than that he was an old closeted fag

Gomez: You're an idiot.

Do whatever it takes to catch him, huh? Fuck constitutional rights. Fuck due process. Fuck innocent until proven guilty.

No, on second thought, FUCK YOU.

I have no sympathy for Jim West and the negative role in which he opposed gay issues. Had he simply be neutral, whole new game.

He is a perfect gay life locked in the deep, very deep, younger gays cannnot coneive how deep, CLOSET. In that space you are not only convinced you can't be gay, you internalize every flaw assigned to gays. You fear family ties, church ties, and even violence and death.

It is interesting the the FBI of all agencies said there was no evidence of wrong doing.

I am convinced this had nothing to do with jouranlism and evrything to do with the Cowles family which has run Spokane for a century. Not just the mega power center of the Spokesman Review, but business and social hierarchy. West did something as mayor that challenged their absolute control of the city.

West has cancer, battling it for four years.

I think we should all shut up and let the guy die in peace.

The next generation and the next will never pay the heinous price extracted by the deep dark closet of his generation.

By the way, had he been the standard for his era, hairdresser or kitchen help - no one would have given a shit. Not even Dan Savager.

Oh, please. While we're letting West "die in peace" shall we completely overlook the rest of the story the Spokesman-Review published, which consisted of highly credible allegations that West both knew about and personally participated in the sexual abuse of teenage boys in the 1970s, all while serving as a sworn law enforcement officer? You remember these - the allegations which could not be investigated further simply because the statute of limitations in Washington prevented it?

The guy's a creep in so many ways I've lost count. He may die in peace, but I'm certain he'll have much to account for when he meets his maker.

It's been a decade and a half since I lived in Spokane, and I was teenager back then. But I can't believe that it's as bad as Dan makes it out to be. Yeah, there are a lot of fundies, and everyone is white. But I remember a lot of cowboy poets and hippies and interesting folks. It didn't have the sheer volume of cultural activites that Seattle does, but there was interesting stuff going on if you knew where to look. Has it changed that much?

Jeff above --
You know, every homophobe always says older gay med prey on younger guys.

Seems to me, that I was just unlucky. When I was a teener, I would have swooned to meet an older guy, It was my fantasy.

As to the old, old stories - I think if they had solid evidence and good wittnesses - those accusations would hve been more efffective.

I am not sure I belive them, again, homophobes think we are all perverts with kids. Having been out about twenty years, I have never known a gay may who liked kids.

Go figure.

If you went to Spokane looking for Seattle, New York or L.A., well, you made a wrong turn.

If you went there looking for a medium sized place close to skiing and the lake, with a symphony and ballet and a few good restaurants and bars, well maybe you might have had a better time.

It ain't everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine, but some folks actually like it there. If you don't like it I highly encourage you to avoid it.

About West: You stir controversy... Never!