Current mood:

pissed

Bad bedfellows
As some of you other Bay Area folks may have heard, San Francisco's Mayor, Gavin Newsom, has just been revealed to have had a brief affair with the wife of his former campaign manager and deputy chief of staff, while she was volunteering in the Mayor's office. Newsom has a long reputation as an -- er -- busy fellow (when he's not deflecting rumors of being gay), and is seen with a different girl at most events. His divorce from FoxTV legal reporter (and former Victoria's Secret lingerie model) Kimberly Guilfoyle raised many an eyebrow, as the couple was seen as having a sort of Kennedy-esque image; perhaps the Kennedy philandering is the commonalty.

The fallout from this latest incident, revealed on the San Francisco Chronicle's website this evening, has been immediate and vituperative. On their website, readers have been weighing in with their opinions about the revelations, and disapproval is outweighing tolerance by a large margin. Newsom has been golden so far, with sky-high approval ratings, despite having relatively few solid accomplishments to point to. His gay marriage action -- which backfired when the court got ahold of it -- won him some fans for the statement it made, but cost him a larger audience; now many Democrats for whom he has fund-raised (such as Barack Obama) refuse to be photographed with him, or even shake his hand. And his Care, Not Cash campaign to reduce the number of homeless people on San Francisco's streets, has alienated many of the City's more liberal folks. But still -- the "Camelot glow" was there. Until tonight.

Personally, I don't care that Newsom has slept with a slew of different women since his divorce; he's young, handsome, charming, powerful -- his appeal is obvious, and his options were wide open. Nor is he the first of our Mayors to have a busy social life, or even to combine business and pleasure. His predecessor, Willie Brown, has the morals of an alley cat and worked more than one of his "girlfriends" into plum city jobs. What makes this situation different is that Newsom betrayed his trusted lieutenant with his wife. Sex is a private matter, but betrayal of an employee with their spouse says volumes about a person's character. I won't go so far as to ask Newsom to resign, but I think that he should consider this to be the end of his credibility. I'm disappointed to have supported him and defended him so far. And I fear that this is going to do our city even more harm.