The proverbial clock may not be ticking, but the pressure surely is building on Spokane, Wash., mayor, the conservative, anti-gay Republican Jim “RightBi-Guy” West, to resign in the face of charges of sexual misconduct and abuse of his office.

Reporter Mike Prager writes in today’s Spokane Spokesman-Review (“Council to Call on West to Quit”):

The Spokane City Council is expected to call for the resignation of Mayor Jim West when it meets next Tuesday.

All seven council members are now part of a growing chorus of community leaders who want West to step down over sexual misconduct allegations.

Council President Dennis Hession on Tuesday said the city “is now at a point where the mayor’s continued presence is an impediment to the normal progress of the city.”

At least six council members say they will support the nonbinding resolution calling for West’s resignation when it comes up for a vote Tuesday, and the seventh is reportedly leaning in favor of it.

Prager reports, however, that Councilman Brad Stark doesn’t believe even a unanimous resolution will lead West to resign. “As a result,” according to Prager, “several council members are talking about a charter amendment giving the council possible impeachment authority.” Such an amendment would require the approval of Spokane voters, at least one of whom, the Spokesman-Review reports, has filed a recall petition.

The best part of Prager’s article comes at the end, when he writes: “[Councilman Bob] Apple said the Republican Party ought to find West another job so he can resign. ‘I think they have an obligation,’ Apple said. ‘He’s a product of the Republican Party.’”

Oh, is he ever.

(For more about the West scandal, see the Spokesman-Review’s collection of past and ongoing coverage here.)

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