Willamette Week on Mannix's ties to Parks

If I were Kevin Mannix this morning, I'd be breathing a sigh of relief. The big, bad exposé by Willamette Week is out, and it really sheds no new light on the relationship between Oregon's almost-governor and his biggest financial contributor.

The story by the Oregonian 10 days ago was much more damaging, I thought, even if overblown.

Basically what we learned in WW is that Loren Parks is an old, strange guy -- "Of course, by the time a man reaches the age of 79, he's probably entitled to hold eccentric or even kooky views," he WW story says, "but even by contemporary standards, Loren Parks is pretty unconventional" -- with a boatload of money and a proclivity for "helping" the sexually dysfunctional. I won't go into detail here -- all you ever wanted to know about plethysmograph (and more) can be found in the WW story -- but much of this is old news.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the story was written by Carlton Smith, who worked at WW more than 20 years ago. He is now an author living in South Pasadena, Calif., but I can't help wondering if WW asked him to write it without mentioning WW because of Parks' distrust of Oregon media.

Nonetheless, the story does little if any damage to Mannix and his governmental aspirations.