November 16, 2007
Newsom Has the Unmitigated Gall to Defend Hawaiian Vacation!
Mayor Gavin Newsom had the gall -- the gall! -- to defend his Hawaiian sojourn , saying "I was gone Friday and Saturday...and one of the most remarkable things that’s happened in the last century is the ability to communicate with people in real time and engage in a dialogue and discussion and coordination and collaboration, without necessarily being physically in the same room." And you know what? Good for you, Mayor man.
No, really, this whole Gavin Goes to Hawaii mêlée...isn't. So what? He went to Hawaii after a big ol' election. What difference would have ideally occurred if he was physically present within the 7-by-7 mile confine of San Francisco last Friday and Saturday? Sure, even we freaked out about his absence, but looking back it was a knee-jerk reaction. Sort of in the way that you want your daddy after having a scary, scary nightmare, only to realize he's on a business trip--that's all it was.
And he's right: technology is available for him to be in two places at the same time. (Ah, the genius that is the telephone.) Whatever. Oil-spill devastation aside, no harm done on your part, Gav.
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Yep.
So, did he actually "communicate with people in real time"? Because all he seems to be saying is that he could have.
I think people were more torqued off that he was vacationing while the birds and sea creatures were suffering. If he was attending some sort of junket-cum-economic forum or the like (something related to what he does to earn his paycheck), it would have been easier to swallow.
Matty, our sources tell us he sent a text message saying "OMG!! This sux!"
When I read Newsom's comments, I was stunned by his lack of awareness for how his presence could have helped. As a wildlife volunteer, the total disarray that occurred following the spill was unfathomable to me.
In conjunction with other Bay Area mayors, he could have built a kick-ass coalition, not only to put pressure where pressure was needed and, but to provide leadership throughout the weekend as efforts floundered. How different it would have been had Newsom, Dellums and others provided a solid, vocal and constant presence and assurance for those of us who felt desperate over this crisis and the confused, inadequate response. That's what true leaders would have done.
Not to mention (as KatyG said) how unpalatable the idea is that Newsom was on Hawaiian sands with dead and oiled animals washing up on OUR sands (and rocks). If you haven't seen oiled birds, it could be one of the most wretched sights I've seen in my work with animals.
No rationalization Gav can offer on this one can redeem him in my eyes. It shows such a lack of consciousness. "I had the worst weekend." Yeah, tell that to the oiled, suffering grebes I saw flailed on the rocks with not enough hands to rescue them.
Oh please, how can any of us enjoy ourselves when there's suffering going on all over the world every minute of every day? I don't know, but we do.
Every time a kitten dies, Gavin has to cancel a vacation?
Peskin's just pissed 'cause he can only afford to vacation in Martinez.
Peskin can't even afford to make it as far as Martinez.....
By that logic, why do we need a residency requirement for elected officials then?
He should have spun this better.
"I was in Hawaii helping the officials prepare for the oil that would be coming from SF"
Disagree completely. This was not a small snaffu. This was a state emergency. It was a big deal. The representative of the city should have been here, standing by his people, offering a solution or at least showing some initiative when it came to dealing with this.
"Big" election my ass. Gavo didn't need to lift a finger this entire year, and didn't, save a few select opportune photo-ops, surely to be referenced in his run for gov'nah. Hey, I just won a basically unopposed election. Whew, that was hard. So hard.
He should have postponed his vacation until the matter was at least on its way to being handled. It's not like it would have been a financial burden for him.
The issue is not whether Gavin was indispensable during the crisis. The issue is his lack of leadership in a time of crisis. As an SF citizen I did not expect him to go out and scrub birds himself, but I do expect him to show leadership and be the face of the city in such situations.
Thank god he didn't break his leg while skiing.
So he does this mean he has a Sidekick?
I wanna text him!
*swoon*
Kidding. Mostly.
lame, brock, just lame.
frigging BEVAN DUFTY was scouring his rolodex, trying to call up anybody he knew in the governor's office over the weekend, because NOTHING was getting done.
gee, ya think maybe that would have gone a little better if the mayor was involved?
newsom could have called arnold directly.
or feinstein, or boxer.
or pelosi.
but he didn't.
because you KNOW he would have said so if he did.
the only person who reportedly spoke with the boy king ... was his chief of staff, phil ginsburg.
which means, he probably didn't talk to him either.
100% missed opportunity to get things moving FOUR DAYS before they did.
With all due respect, I don't think anything would have changed for the better whether or not he was here. People have such a strong and frightening need to place blame (and to do it instantly), and he's too easy a target for this mess. The spill is bigger than SF's merry band of politicians. (But don't tell them I said that.)
I admit his timing was unusual, unfortunate, bad PR. Ultimately, and though few will admit it, people are just upset that he wasn't out there on the beach, wearing a vest, showboating. (Said people would have freaked at images of Newsom co-opting Green-like behavior, I'm sure.) We can't claim to loathe politics-as-usual and then get upset it's, well, unusual. Understandably, people dislike him but I just don't think his not being here is as serious an issue as we're being led to believe. It's distracting.
Of course, I could be wrong.
I agree, if y'all hate him so much, why are you so upset when he's not around?
The fact that Gavin was on vacation was a good thing. Unless you're blind,deaf and dumb, how can you argue that one more politician of any rank jumping into the finger-pointing,second-guessing fray would have been a positive thing? I'm guessing Gav has about as much experience with oil spills and their subsequent cleanup as I do. Let it go.
brock:
first, i think i detailed what could have been done - not PR, but a seriously upgraded version of what poor Dufty was trying to do. nothing like that happened, all we had was dufty dialing, and that's on newsom, period.
but also, since you're more interested in meaningless PR, you know what else makes no difference? how long it takes the Coast Guard to issue a press release.
who cares how long it took the Coast Guard to make an announcement?
and yet ... gavin had no problem going apeshit all over them for that.
because ... appearances matter greatly.
and this mayor supposedly is aware of that.
supposedly.
it is totally, totally inappropriate for newsom to go on vacation at that point. would you expect the president to go to Crawford the morning after Katrina?
As if this was the first time party boy was ever missing in action. Tell me when is Gavin around. His office was spewing press releases like mad.
At least Dufty had the sense to pour on the outrage so we could get a bit of attention around here.
Of course he should have been here doing his best to help. This spill is a very big deal, at least for natives, I wonder where all these clueless commentators are from.
We'd be more willing to let it slide if he weren't always out of town, doing business that is barely, tenuously related to the operation of a city with, last time I checked, an emerging rash of unaddressed problems.
It's not that much would have been different had he been here (though one expects that those who go down in history as great mayors/leaders are the ones who want to be there), it's that Gavin Newsom just doesn't take his job that seriously, beyond basic politcal stagecraft. He just doesn't.