If you’ve been following the mayor’s decision to de-fund the Bike Master Plan, you may have heard some whispers that he made those cuts for political reasons, as a way to ding Commissioner Sam Adams.

It’s an interesting theory, but one that doesn’t have much basis in reality—if the mayor wanted to screw Adams, there are plenty of other ways he could have done it, and clipping $100,000 from a plan probably doesn’t top the list. Especially when you consider the backfire.

Potter’s decision and his unwillingness to budge have allowed Adams to swing in as a hero to the bike community—one of the most vocal and important political blocs in the city. At yesterday’s Master Plan Ride, Adams swept down from city hall (being careful not to jay-walk—ha!), and delivered a message to the 100 or so bikers gathered around, encouraging them through a megaphone to contact the other commissioners in the building. (After all, an amendment to the budget only needs three votes, and the likelihood of that is pretty much sealed up.)

I half expected Adams to yell into the megaphone, “I can hear you—but most importantly, the people up in city hall can hear you!” It could have been his Bush-on-the-rubble moment. Alas.

At any rate, Potter’s digging in on the mere $100,000 appears as if it’ll only help Adams, since Adams is going to get his way anyway. Currently, the commissioners staffers and the mayor’s office are trying to work out a compromise, so there’s still a way it could shake out in the nice, Portlandesque way we’ve all come to expect.