The Oregon governor’s dodging of Cover Oregon questions reveals a contempt for Oregonians that has been present for years.

Beneath John Kitzhaber’s trademark blue jeans is some very thin skin. 

Oregonians seldom if ever have been granted a glimpse of the petulant side of the governor. That is until his fanboys and the media became unable to hide it when his OrBamaCare plan blew up; until his apparent incompetence and alleged criminality in the Cover Oregon roll out became uncovered. 

People are rightly upset over Governor Chris Christie’s administration halting traffic on a New Jersey bridge which messed with peoples’ lives. It was an act of political corruption. John Kitzhaber and the Democrats have been doing stuff like that for decades. The result? The media marvel at their ability to lead.

Kitzhaber’s proposals have always been treated as received wisdom to the Willamette Valley media no matter how radical and idiotic the plan.

The Kitzhaber blue print goes something like this: The governor borrows or gives birth to a cockamamie idea, gives a speech at some confab such as the Aspen Institute where several people nod and wag their tails, and poof: Oregon has Outcome Based Education and rationed medicaid complete with taxpayer paid sex change operations. Need to find money for the reviled hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-a-mile light rail? Fix it so that dedicated road repair gas tax funds are used. Did those pesky voters approve property rights initiatives? Get your law fare friends to undermine it while you don’t put up a fight. How about putting a school czar in charge of education and booting out the duly elected superintendent? No problem. Create an overwhelming sense of inevitability for your proposals, be overtly mocking and contemptuous of those who disagree, and watch the gullible follow. That’s the way it works in a one party state covered by a one party media. 

But with the collapse of Kitzhaber’s political holy grail, OrBamaCare, his Teflon Wranglers are showing signs of wear and his bedimmed halo casts his mullet in muddled shadow. Even the devout genuflect less before the licked cowboy boots of St. John. 

Recently, the country has been regaled with tales of Governor Kitzhaber bolting from an interview with KATU which he’d already been dodging for weeks. The reporter had the temerity to ask about problems with the Cover Oregon website. See the story here.

The same reporter had another interview with the Governor cancelled at the last minute. KATU’s Hillary Lake wanted to ask about Kitzhaber’s representations about when he knew there was trouble with Cover Oregon and why he ignored dozens of monthly reports showing red flags with the program and the new allegations of criminal fraud with the program. See the story here.

But this contempt for political foes, of which this reporter now reluctantly becomes, is par for the course for the thin skinned governor. At least Lake didn’t have one of Kitzhaber’s goons confront her at her home, or punch her in the nose, or physically prevent her from asking a question of the governor. But those things have happened to others.

• Just last week, while Kitzhaber testified at a hearing on an anti gun bill, his security detail hovered over and stared down a citizen who objected to out-of-state anti gun activist Mark Kelly testifying in favor of the bill (more on that in a nearby post with must-see video from Laughing at Liberals). 
• When Citizen Journalist Daylight Disinfectant tried to ask Governor Kitzhaber a question about firing the head of Cover Oregon well before anyone had thought to ask, he was verbally stiff armed by the Kitzhaber security detail. See that story here.  
• Soon after, a member of Governor Kitzhaber’s security detail attempted to intimidate Daylight Disinfectant by confronting him as he arrived at his home. When he queried of the armed officer whether some law had been broken and received a negative answer, the reporter took his leave.
• When Kitzhaber went to a public event, the governor’s security detail attempted to block the governor from any questions by Citizen Journalists Daylight Disinfectant and Laughing at Liberals. Find both examples (with video) here.
• During his latest run for Governor, Kitzhaber’s buddies punched out Citizen Journalist Daylight Disinfectant for refusing to stop recording at what was advertised as an open (and televised) campaign event. See the story here.

You may take issue with the in-your-face impertinence the Citizen Journalists, but impertinence is not against the law. Just ask CBS’s 60 Minutes. 

Now the mainstream media –and by extension, you–know exactly in what contempt the Governor of Oregon holds you. He was hoping you wouldn’t notice. It is up to you, therefore, to get to the root problem of the corruption in Cover Oregon.