Mekun:  The media hardly "ignored" the Kitzhaber/Hayes story.  It was "front page" for months.  You state "they refused to fire Kitzhaber"....by "they" I presume you mean the Oregon legislature.  Apparently you don't know that Oregon is the only state which does NOT have an impeachment process.  "They" did not have the power to remove Kitzhaber.  The only way he could have been removed was through the "recall" procedure.  The vote in 2014 was roughly 49% to 44% over Dennis Richardson.  Those were tight numbers, just as were the numbers in 2014 when he barely beat Chris Dudley.  These numbers show that Democrats in Oregon don't just vote "the Party line."  I'd guess that, had Dudley been the candidate in 2014, we'd have a Republican governor.  

I have long been a Kitzhaber fan.  However, with the Hayes fiasco he lost my respect and support.  Gary Crum