Rep. David Wu's staff confronted him over concerns about his mental health

[Rheo]

Oregon Live:

WASHINGTON -- Three days before the Nov. 2 election, Oregon Rep. David Wu’s most loyal and senior staffers were so alarmed by his erratic behavior that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment.

Their concern had been spiking for weeks in tandem with Wu’s increasingly unpredictable performance on the campaign trail and in private. He was loud and sometimes angry, some of them told The Oregonian. He said kooky things to staff and -- more worrisome with a tough election fast approaching -- around potential voters and donors.

Most of all, they were worried for Wu, a 55-year-old single father of two young children.

Earlier and gentler efforts had failed, so the tight-knit group of high-level staff took other steps, including quiet inquiries about the availability of beds in hospitals in Portland and Washington, D.C., multiple sources familiar with the effort told The Oregonian.

Several staff members confronted Wu for the final time on Oct. 30. Wu’s psychiatrist was brought into that meeting as well, joining the group at the Portland campaign headquarters by speaker phone. The meeting was held after four consecutive days of troubling behavior that led the staff to agree that Wu needed a higher level of medical care, according to people intimately familiar with the events of that period.

"This is way beyond acceptable levels and the charade needs to end NOW," wrote Lisa Grove, a senior and long-serving campaign pollster, in an e-mail to colleagues that day. "No enabling by any potential enablers, he needs help and you need to be protected. Nothing else matters right now. Nothing else."

Wu, however, remained defiant, sources said. He left the meeting, and said he was going to a movie.

For some staffers, the beginning of the end was Wednesday, Oct. 27, when Wu delivered a belligerent and rambling 19-minute monologue to Washington County Democrats that some in the audience said was inappropriate for the friendly crowd. His behavior left staff members aghast.

Wu had shown signs of erratic behavior before. In 2007, he accused the Bush White House of acting like fake Klingons. In 2003, he appeared to go catatonic before a crucial vote on Medicare.

[Al_Simmons]

And the SOB won reelection. Oregon morons.

[pollyannaish]

Yikes!

 

Edited to add: I think this may be one of the major reasons I could not go into politics. It would be very hard for me to basically cover for that kind of behavior.

[AceRimmer]

Yikes!

 

Edited to add: I think this may be one of the major reasons I could not go into politics. It would be very hard for me to basically cover for that kind of behavior.

 

How interesting that we, and especially his own constituents, are only finding out about this now. Might have been useful information for the voters before the election.