I think people were saving up their scandals waiting for Professor Bogdanski to start his blog sabbatical, including perhaps the one involving Multnomah County chair Jeff Cogen and county health department manager Sonia Manhas, who had a workplace affair that recently ended. It's a story with all the elements of the genre: rising political star, attractive employee, out-of-town trips, flirtatious e-mails, and so on. The crescendo of disclosures led the Oregonian to call on Monday for Mr. Cogen to resign.
Much as I'd instinctively like to join the chorus to "throw the rascal out," I've been searching through all of the smoke looking for the fire, and I haven't found it. The suspicion that their relationship brought Ms. Manhas preferential treatment doesn't so far have any facts behind it. Her push to work two days a week in his office was an idea that Mr. Cogen said he liked, but so far as has been reported, did nothing to bring about. The only county money he expended on their affair, at least as reported so far, is $50 on a hotel room upgrade in Atlanta. (At that modest rate, one Rudy Crew is worth dozens of Jeff Cogens.) Notably absent from the smokestorm is any allegation that Mr. Cogen and Ms. Manhas broke a law or a county policy.
Mr. Cogen and Ms. Manhas have brought shame on themselves and embarrassment to his wife, her husband, and their children. But merely being the object of derision is not, even in politically correct Portland, a firing offense. I'd like to see Mr. Cogen stay in his job and let the voters judge him in the next election based on his performance in the boardroom. I do predict that he won't be going to many out-of-state conferences between now and then.