When my husband and I were talking about Mayor Gavin Newsom’s public relations problems the other day, I told him that I would not be surprised if he announced a drinking or drug problem as an excuse for his, as Newsom puts it, “personal lapse of judgment.” Surprise, surprise, the mayor announced yesterday afternoon that he has a drinking problem and will seek counseling through the Delancey Street program. 

That should play nicely in San Francisco where Delancey Street is a deservedly popular non-profit program.  But unless they’ve radically changed their program in the past few years, Delancey Street is a live-in rehabilitation program for people coming out of prison.  They go cold turkey off their addictive substance and receive peer counseling as part of their time at Delancey Street.  I’m guessing that pretty boy Newsom isn’t going to be doing peer counseling with the murderers and drug dealers that are rehabilitating themselves in that program.  But, boy, doesn’t it make a great press release?

Oops…see, we’re not supposed to criticize someone who has announced an addiction problem.  Or at least that is what the mayor is counting on.  The Chronicle did “man-on-the-street” series of interviews for today’s paper that seemed to show that Newsom’s announcement was helping soften people’s reaction to the disclosure that the mayor cuckolded his deputy chief of staff, a personal friend and political advisor.

You can read the whole article here, but here is a flavor of what Bay Area residents are thinking: 

"Just because he’s a mayor doesn’t mean he can’t be an alcoholic. So are a lot of us. Everybody needs help sometimes."

"I might not be in any position to judge his actions. The question would be, did he do anything while in office. But he seems like a good guy."

"It doesn’t matter how you get there, so long as you get help. He risks a lot by coming forward. It’s a good move. Regardless of how he goes into treatment, it shouldn’t be looked down on. He’s brave."

(BRAVE??  The man is the walking antithesis of brave!  Read Matier & Ross for an interesting look at how long the mayor and his people have tried to keep this quiet.)

And the best comment, one of which Bill Clinton should feel very, very proud:

"All of these things are personal issues. As long as it doesn’t affect his job performance, who cares what he does?"

Isn’t it a great day in America??

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.