What Pissed You Off This Year?

Before you elevate the past 365 days to the "wasn't it all just grand?" world of selective memory, WW wants to remind you 2005 wasn't all peach schnapps and cream.

Think about it: the barnacle that is the Iraq War, the havoc of Katrina, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; the comeback of fondue, Judith Miller, Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me," Vioxx, and a president whose usefulness, by the end of the year, was reduced to that of whipping boy on The Daily Show.

Closer to home, a highlight for the Oregon Legislature was news that one of its then-members is a meth head who sleeps with the janitor. Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski slouched toward irrelevancy, the PGE mess just spirals more out of control, and we're beginning to wonder if Mayor Tom Potter realizes that at the end of "visioning'' there needs to be some vision. Oh well, at least Blazers coach Nate McMillan seems like a dandy fellow!

But enough of our gripes. Before we put a stake in the year, we wanted to hear from locals what they most wanted to forget heading into 2006.

We put the question to a professional clown and a guy who cleans up death scenes; to the backup goalie for the champion University of Portland women's soccer team and a retiring Oregon statehouse reporter for the Associated Press; to Oregon's House Speaker and Multnomah County's chairwoman; and to an Iraq War vet and a pair of Hurricane Katrina survivors.

They all are, in their own way, pissed. Do they have a right to be?

Read on!

What pissed you off most in the past year?

Chris Bailey , a 29-year-old Oregon National Guardsman who served a year in Iraq and returned home in March to a crumbling, four-year marriage:

"Obviously, betrayal."

Josiah Bullock , a 20-year-old jazz drummer, and his 19-year-old fiancée Blisse Artigues , who were relocated to the Portland area by FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and now live in a Beaverton hotel room with their 14-month-old daughter, Sherrill:

"The media. When the hurricane hit, the news kept saying, this isn't going to go away, these are our people. It's three months later and people are still needing help, but it's falling by the wayside."

Dingo Dismal , a clown who ran a makeshift bike shop at the "Clown House" in Northeast Portland before it was forced to close by the city:

"An anonymous complaint this summer got the city to shut down our free bike shop. The inspector found that all of the bikes we were fixing up and giving away or selling for cheap were in violation of city code. We didn't lose our place, we just got our livelihood shut down, because it turns out that it's illegal to have bikes on your lawn that aren't working perfectly."

Ervin Charbonneau , a 65-year-old Dow Columbia crime-scene cleanup technician whose job for the past 16 years has been to dispose of blood and body parts left behind from murders, suicides and natural deaths:

"Probably just seeing lives being destroyed uselessly."

Karen Minnis , the Oregon House Speaker who kept the chamber safe from higher taxes and civil unions for gays:

"Domestic violence."

Multnomah County Chairwoman Diane Linn , up for re-election in 2006 but still smarting from the backlash of her vote to legalize gay marriages in the county in 2004:

"People like a woman who said, 'I can't believe you did what you did, and I'm going to pray for your soul, and I believe you're going to burn in hell.' It's the gentleman that grabbed me by the arm and said, 'Don't ever do that to us again.' And I said 'Do what?' He said, 'Allow those people to be married.'"

AP reporter Chuck Beggs , who retired at age 62 after a long and distinguished career covering the Oregon Legislature:

"The Legislature. It was very aggravating to see them taking seven months to do four months of work—and even then, they didn't accomplish much. There's an intransigence on both sides that's fueled by the desire to stake out positions that will satisfy interests that will give them money to get re-elected."

Ruth Gilliam , a junior at the University of Portland who rode the bench while her teammates won the NCAA women's soccer championship:

"It was frustrating to sprain my ankle halfway through the season."

^Chris Bailey

You're talking about your marriage?

Yeah. I don't think I've ever been so pissed off, where I was walking around grabbing lawn chairs and smashing them against the wall. I'm not the type of person that does that at all.

And so you came back and...?

And I asked her to move out. The problem was, she told me this was happening when I came home on leave halfway through my tour. And, uh, I don't get picked up from the airport. It was bad.

So what happened, and do you blame the war for your marriage ending?

No, I could never do that. If my marriage was healthy before I left, it would have stayed healthy. Other people returned and their marriages were stronger. When I went back to Iraq, I loved it because I'd been there long enough to know how it worked. I literally felt at home, and I never felt that when I had been home. Everything that I thought was concrete was actually unknown. The environment, the conflict, the people, everything in Iraq was ambiguous. I spent seven months learning about it. During those seven months, the one thing that was concrete was back here in Oregon. After my wife told me she was seeing someone else, I realized this environment was just as ambiguous.

You seem like you're pretty well-adjusted about the war and your role in it. But what haunts you?

I had to pick up the dead body of someone I knew. See him with no head and no legs and no arms. There's stuff like that you don't want to think about, don't want to talk about.

How do you deal with that?

You block it for a while. At one point, it's gonna come up, and you deal with it, and from then on you accept it as part of your experiences. That's what I've done. I never cried about anything that happened over there until I wrote it as part of my journal four months ago. It was the first time ever I cried about anything in Iraq. I didn't know if it was something I was capable of, crying about something like that—really, I'm a pretty hard person sometimes. I didn't know if that was something that was part of my character, something I needed to do. But when it happened, I knew. There are things I don't want to think about. I don't want to think about how I saw my friend's head being carried around by another one of my friends, while we're picking up body parts, how the flies wouldn't leave the body parts when you picked them up, putting all the body parts in a bag, it was almost like we were putting him back together again. But that's the reality.

You supported the war when you were deployed. Did your year in Iraq change your views?

It shifted my views. I'm optimistic about the end result because of the Iraqi people. I got to know a lot of them. What really matters is humanity. The longer I was there, the more my focus shifted to the Iraqi people, because they are good people. They want what's best for themselves, for their families. In the end, that's what can actually justify us being there. Regardless of what happens 10 years from now, we'll know our actions there were for the Iraqi people. I don't know about the U.S. government officially, but for me and my actions, that's what it was.

What do you tell yourself to justify the numbers of Iraqi casualties?

I guess I probably try not to think about it. I know [the Iraqis] understand the sacrifice. It's their war, too. They want us to leave, but they want us to stay until the situation is better.

You're referring to blocking the civil-unions bill, Senate Bill 1000. You supported a bill on reciprocal-benefits for same-sex couples. But why wouldn't you at least let SB 1000 come to a vote?

I was clear from the beginning. We had a reciprocal-benefits bill that I felt like we should move. The people had just voted and pretty well said where they were on that issue. We were at the end of a session, it was time to move forward on some decisions, and I could see that issue tying up the whole process. I didn't do anything unethical, I did everything within the House rules. SB 1000 was one bill out of 4,000 bills.

What do you like the least about politics?

Probably being misunderstood or being misquoted or having my motives questioned.

Give me an example where you've been misunderstood.

That I've subverted the process, I've taken the democratic process away, the implication that somehow I am a mean-spirited, heavy-handed, in-your-face Speaker of the House.

What's the truth?

The truth is that I was collaborative, and I took risks. I put two Democrats as subcommittee chairs on the Judiciary Committee. I extended all the branches to Democrats.

What's the biggest mistake you've made as a politician?

I think we all make mistakes. A mistake would be if we didn't learn from them. And grow from them. But you know everybody makes mistakes.

I know. That's why I'm asking you, what's one that sticks out?

I think it's trusting people, some people. Misreading people. I think there were mistakes, but you learn from them and you go forward.

What was the issue?

I could get into a lot of things, but this is what I always say: You learn from them, you get better, and you go forward. That's what you do. Every day in life. In particular in the legislative process, you learn, you get better and you go forward. And if you don't do that, if you hold grudges, you allow that to freeze you.... I think the biggest disappointment was having people at my leadership table that undermined me.

Can you be more specific?

I can't and I won't. It's not productive. But it's those kinds of things. You can't do anything about people's character. You work with them, you trust them, and sometimes you are disappointed. But that's life.

Have you always been a Republican ?

No, I used to be an independent.

What shifted you?

Some of the economic things, originally, and some of the social issues. My view of the world is that if you give somebody a job, if you create a climate that they can go to work, make a decent living, that is the best way to get people on their feet and put a roof over their head, food on the table. I think this climate of "business is a bad thing" will have a very bad effect on this state. We can't constantly look at them as if they're evil.

Do you ever wake up and say, how did I become perhaps the state's most powerful politician?

Yeah, I do. As a girl growing up, there were six kids in my family, we didn't have any money, my parents didn't even vote. I mean we were just trying to survive. And then I married John. My whole focus was just to help him. I had three little kids. I didn't look to my future and think, "Ah, I want to be a state legislator." I never even would've thought about being a legislator, but I got hooked on being able to help people. As a legislative assistant [to her husband, John, when he was in the Senate], when somebody called me up and said, "I'm having trouble with this department," you know what gave me a rush? Giving that agency a call and finding a solution. That caught my attention. And I was asked to run a few times before I finally said yes, but I didn't look forward and think 20 years and think I'm going to do that someday.

Have you thought about running for higher office?

Not this time. We're looking at this term. This is going to be a raucous race. I expect we're going to be fully engaged.

Do you think people get so upset with you because they perceive you as a kindly grandmother they can roll?

I think women have experienced that since time immemorial. It's just a fact of life. Is it fair? It's just kind of different. But I'm not going to whine about that. I don't consider myself a feminist, but I have just a little bit run into that. That's just a fact of life. So I can sit around and whine about it or I can just keep going, and I choose to keep going. That's part of being a leader.

—Nigel Jaquiss

^Diane Linn

But you feel comfortable with your decision?

Yes.

Then why be pissed off about people you know are wrong?

Because people need to open their eyes, to see who is living among us, and to understand how important it is to the children of those families to be honored, and the parents to be able to celebrate with their kids, and people to be able to celebrate the choice that they want. Now, on the positive end, I can't tell you the number of times that someone has stopped me...about a year ago, this lesbian couple, with this tiny guy, blond, probably 3 years old, stopped me. They looked at him and said, "This is the woman that helped us get married." And he looked up at me with big, bright blue eyes and said, "You can come to our house whenever you want."

You've said in some ways you feel like a gay person, that you know what it's like because of what you've gone through. For gay people, coming out of the closet is the most horrific, terrible and liberating experience. What gives you the right to compare yourself to a gay person?

I've told many gay and lesbian people that you can thank me for what I did, but you live it every day. Because I have been deeply associated with that community, I can now see what it's like when I'll have somebody say, "I'm done with you. I'm done."

Have you lost friendships over this?

Yes.

Have you lost ties to family members?

There are members of my father's side of the family that can't understand, and think that I've somehow been swept up in the gay agenda.

Have you?

I'm not on anybody's agenda. I don't think that's the point at all. I think it's, should this couple be treated the same way that couple is treated?

I'm surprised you didn't say you were most pissed off about the way Commissioners Serena Cruz, Maria Rojo de Steffey and Lisa Naito have banded against you after you apologized about the process leading up to the gay-marriage decision.

Well, that's been disappointing, too, because we stood together on that decision. But I felt that it was important that I take responsibility for not including more people. My colleagues claim that I broke ranks with them on the apology, but you know what? This is what leadership looks like, folks. This is what it looks like when you exercise it.

You talk about leadership, but you've got three people on a five-member board who oppose you at every turn. Where's the leadership there?

What I ask you to do is hold me accountable on what I actually accomplished. Leadership doesn't mean that we all have great relationships and have fun together. What I've been doing is getting stuff done. What matters is getting money from taxpayers who agreed to pay into the schools, to keep the school doors open, to allow kids to be able to be in music and drama and sports, to have after-school programs. We turned the mental-health system completely around. We opened jail beds. And the list goes on. Leadership is getting the job done. No matter how uncomfortable it makes people. Everybody needs to be held accountable individually.

But now you don't want to extend the three-year county income tax once it expires. So what can you tell voters is your plan to get the job done for social services, for county schools, for jails?

It's time for the city to step up. And I'm going to support the mayor in his efforts to look for the next solution for school funding. Even if I wanted to renege on my promise on the tax, it's a losing proposition. It's not going to keep kids in school if we go back to the ballot with something where people are going to say, "You said it was a three-year, temporary tax. Were you lying?"

What's your plan for replacing the county income tax for schools outside of Portland, for social services, to keep jail beds open?

I'm going to balance this next budget. I've done it, and I'm going to do it again. We're finding different ways to do business. We're working it through. It hasn't been easy, but we've done it over and over again.

There's no way that could account for the expiring tax.

You should ask the state legislators what are they going to do. We did our part. We did exactly what we said we'd do. Nobody is complaining subsequently about my leadership. Nobody is saying she didn't deal with schools.

When you say we should be asking that question to legislators, one counter to that is that a leader would find a way to solve it with them.

I've done that every session for the last six sessions in a row.

Well, it didn't work.

We've got to keep doing it. We're all held accountable to that. Nobody has worked harder on this issue. I've been on every committee. I know that school budget as well as anybody. You're pushing me to try to meet a standard after three years of sending $90 million to the school districts of Multnomah County. All I'm asking is, we all better stand up together. What is everybody else doing?

How do you feel about those people who say the worst possible thing would be for Diane Linn to be re-elected?

It's absurd. The people we serve at the county deserve someone who has experience as we go through an economic stress. There's no substance behind these attacks. And frankly, they don't bother me. It's the old saying, if you haven't pissed anybody off, you're really not doing anything.

—Byron Beck and Henry Stern

^Chuck Beggs

What else makes you angry?

I think money's corrupting the political system very badly at the state level as well as the national level.

What are you going to do about it?

Common Cause [Oregon] asked me to be on their board. I'm going to help them with campaign finance reform limits. We're one of the handful of states that don't have any. It's become a war of the purse. That's influencing everything and causing a lot of the gridlock.

In all the time you covered state politics, who was the most compelling politician you covered?

It had to be [Republican Gov.] Tom McCall. He was the most charismatic leader I've run into in Oregon politics by far, a very good communicator. He could seize other people's ideas and make them his own and run with them with the public so that he could capitalize on them, like the bottle bill.

Would he be as effective today?

No, because he'd be even more out of step with his own party. He got a lot more support for his ideas from the other party than he did from his own. The Republican Party today is far more conservative than it was then socially, and the Democratic Party is not nearly as liberal as it was then.

As a reporter, did you enjoy the increasing partisanship because it made for more news?

Sure, it was more interesting. On the other hand, there were times it became more boring because not much got done.

Did you ever say, "I'm tired of this"?

I don't think I ever got bored with my work, but sure, there's times I got tired of it. People would say, well, you've seen it all. No, you haven't seen it all, because every session is different. There were times when I thought maybe I've been doing this long enough and maybe I don't have as fresh an outlook. But I never disliked going to the job.

What's the biggest mistake you ever made as a reporter?

An incident a long, long time ago. They're dead now, so I guess I can talk about it. McCall had a son who lived here in town. There were drug problems and all that, but that's beside the point. When I was covering the Capitol, one of the editors told me he was told by somebody that happened to talk to his son that McCall had cancer. So I went to Tom's press secretary, Ron Schmidt, and he denied it. Well, Tom did have prostate cancer. I wish I'd pursued it. Because of Tom's troubled son, that made the report a little suspicious. On the other hand, why would he tell somebody something like that? And so I probably could've broken that story if I'd pursued it with other people. But I'm pretty sure Ron lied to me.

Do you think we in the press spend too much time looking at public figures' private lives?

No.

Why are their private lives relevant?

Their private lives are relevant if they're affecting their job. Even Clinton, you can't claim it wasn't affecting the job. It was in the Oval Office, for heaven's sake.

You covered Neil Goldschmidt when he was governor. Did you ever hear about the 14-year-old girl he abused when he was Portland's mayor?

You mean, why did we miss it, us folks down here? I don't know because I didn't know about the girl. I hadn't even really heard rumors about any dalliances with him down here when he was governor, let alone what had gone on in the past.

What kind of governor was Goldschmidt?

I think he was effective. He was very charismatic. He attracted bright, progressive people. He probably could've got some more initiatives under his belt if he'd had a second term.

—Nigel Jaquiss

^Ruth Gilliam

For most of your three years on the Pilots, you've ridden the bench behind starting goalkeeper Cory Alexander. Isn't that frustrating?

It's frustrating not getting playing time, but I don't let it affect what I do. In practice and in games, I feel like me and Cory are a team. When she does well, I feel like I've done well, because I pushed her there. The people who don't start aren't like, oh man, we're like a separate category. It's a team thing. It's frustrating, but I love it here so much, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

What did reporters miss in all the attention on the title run?

We have a unique mix of personalities, many strong personalities, and we are able to laugh at ourselves, which is what we find ourselves doing a lot when we're together. Another thing that the press missed is all the work we do in practice to get the way we are in games. Nobody shows us running hills or going out on our own to get some extra shots. All that work builds character, and is part of our drive to win. There are so many details that go into winning a national championship that no reporter could ever get the full story.

What are you going to work on for next year?

I think more strength training, more lifting. I want a stronger overall core of being built. That will make me more explosive. As a goalkeeper, you don't have to make 120-yard runs like our outside backs, but we have to get to balls lightning-fast.

So you won't regret coming here even if you remain Cory's backup next year?

Playing time is such a small part of my experience at UP, I won't regret a second of it.

—Zach Dundas