Apparently I'm not the only person who thought of him as Uncle Neil.
Such sniping aside, the news that Neil Goldschmidt has resigned from (as b!X put it in the above link) "practically everything" reminds me of G.K. Chesterton's book The Man Who Knew Too Much. The lead character is a member of British society's fringe, holding no office or position but knowing most of the people who do. (Rather, in fact, like an elderly English version of Isaac Laquedem.) He mentions to a friend that the Prime Minister is an alcoholic, the Chancellor of X is a philanderer, and so on, running down the faults, sins, and vices of most of the Cabinet. His friend, who is not an insider, asks how the lead character can respect people with such massive flaws and who have done such bad things. The lead character answers that he respects them for having such flaws, living with the knowledge that at any time without warning the newspaper might expose their secrets, and still being able to carry out their daily tasks.
I've never been a political supporter of Mr. Goldschmidt. And the conduct he admitted to on Thursday stinks. But in some odd way I admire his being able to function in public and private life for the last 30 years, all the while knowing that some day the local newspaper might expose him as Oregon's answer to the late Michael Kennedy. One irony is that the newspaper that outed him is Willamette Week, which was founded by his political aide Ron Buel around 1974 mainly to be Uncle Neil's political voice in his anticipated campaign against Frank Ivancie, and was always a staunch pro-Goldschmidt voice.