We're so excited! We've never actually known someone we've written about in the Political Junkie column before! Usual Suspects is reporting that 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goolett Place is abuzzzzzzzz with the word that GavNew's going to appoint Phil Ting to Mabel Teng's former assessor/recorder position. Phil's the current executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, but we actually know Phil because he and your Junkie were in a Mandarin Chinese class together at a jointly-shared institute of higher education! Your Junkie was hung over through a large number of those classes but nonetheless remembers that Phil was always very attentive and had good pronunciation. (Who knew he had all that real estate experience?) Could Newsom be appointing Phil (who we've always thought of as progressive) to try and forestall Sandoval in the November 2006 assessor's election? Is Newsom trying to get Phil out of the way for the District 4 run that Phil was going to make? Is Newsom trying to get Building Inspection Commission Phil out of trouble with the land use crowd? Or is Newsom trying to make sure that Chris Daly doesn't appoint public-power Phil to the PUC board when Newsom goes on vacation? So many things to think about! Especially since everyone else in our Chinese class just went to medical school or something. If the rumors are true -- congratulations, Phil! We can't think of a nicer person to sign San Franciscans' marriage licenses. ...

Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity to go all Drudge on this one. Hot on the heels of settling his civil suit, Gerardo Sandoval seems to be telling anyone who'll listen that he wants Mabel Teng's old job at the City Assessor's office. Friend of SFist Alex Clemens at the Usual Suspects (he and Pat Murphy can fight over who scooped whom amongst themselves) sent the following report and analysis: Sandoval is alerting people to......

When we heard that Geoff Callan and Mike Shaw's project, "Pursuit of Equality," a documentary about San Francisco's 'Winter of Love,' was premiering at the San Francisco International, we were happy, as we've been waiting for months since the film's trailer went online (under the working title "Rush to the Civil Altar"). When we got the press release about the red carpet treatment for the film's stars, we figured there would be the added......

Bono makes appearance at Glide Memorial on Sunday, singing "Stand By Me" and talked of meeting the pope and offering him his "fly" shades. San Jose State cheerleaders get into a somewhat violent altercation with fan who thought their routines bordered on the lascivious. It looks like the electioneering communication reform bill will become law in time for the next campaign period. Everyone's been assured that bloggers will be exempt. Nancy Pelosi gave Tom......

Breaking news: Mabel Teng has resigned as the San Francisco assessor. After a sunny start as the face of gay marriage, Teng was facing increasing scrutiny over her, um, unorthodox hiring procedures in the assessor/recorder's office, at the same time as she was going through a divorce and moving her twin daughters to college. As the Chron report says, "her heart was no longer in the job." Teng had been initially sort-of cleared of any official wrongdoing in the probe (though everyone agrees that it all looked very suspiciously nepotistic (is that a word?)), and she wasn't up for reelection until 2006, but it sounds like she just kind of needed a break. We wonder who Gavvy-Gav will nominate for the position, with its odd mix of boring (property assessment), exciting (same-sex marriage licenses!), and felonious (that FBI probe of Doris Ward!). How much you wanna bet it goes to Willie Brown? ...

What happened to the warm California welcome? An Ohio tourist who "just happened" to be driving around Oakland last night accidentally drove into a sideshow, where he first reported that about 100 people jumped on his car, dragged him out, and kicked him repeatedly in the head (though now he says maybe only one person broke his window and hit him). Sideshows -- so crazy! A man from Louisiana has pled guilty to hacking into 20 Microsoft WebTV units and causing them to call 911. Insert Microsoft tech support really does suck joke here. And that panel investigating Mabel Teng's hiring practices as the San Francisco asssessor/recorder has completed its review, and found that the evidence was inconclusive about whether she had done anything wrong. While the panel found some sketchiness in her hiring decisions in hiring known supporters, it's still unclear whether she actually broke the law by hiring them only because of their support for her campaign. ...

Passing along news about public figures in an attempt to distract ourselves from the pain of everyday existence: your Political Junkie gossip roundup for the day! Our soon-to-be-former first lady Kimberly made it official and filed for divorce in San Francisco Superior, asking, among other things, for her legal name of Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle back. Both parties are represented by the same lawyer, Max Gutierrez, from the law firm of Morgan Lewis and Bockius. Maybe Gavin and Eminem can compare Rot In Pieces Kim tattoos after this is all done. Now that Gavin's free to date again, two other ambitious ladies are now suddenly available -- both Mabel Teng and Fiona Ma have announced their divorces as well. Sorry, gals, he's Matt's now! And finally, it was a teary-eyed swearing-in for our new Board of Supes for Ammiano and Elsbernd (along with a Sandoval diatribe about the need to recycle batteries). Ruth Dewson, she of the hats on Fillmore Street, disparaged the man tears: "I'm so sick and tired of grown men crying." Ammiano brought the smack right back, responding, "Get a life. I have one," and citing his partner, Tim Curbo, who died of AIDS five days before Ammiano's first election in 1994. Oooooh, death. Score that one for Ammiano. Your dirt is always welcome here!...

At the beginning of the year, our earnest Boy Wonder of a Mayor said that in the spirit of sharing the pain of the inevitable budget cuts, he would cut his own salary 15% percent. The total amount of his cut? $25,000 -- taking his salary down from the $168,867 being Mayor pays. Sure living on a salary around $140,000 isn't that difficult. And sure it's easy to give up money when you're already rich.......

Some follow-ups on stories we read about earlier this week and last:...

...so we can be confused by the punchlines of the cartoons! What pleasures does the Guardian hold? Well, we're not going to lie to you, it's kind of a snoozefest this week. An angry letter from Mabel Teng defending her record! Cover article: will stem-cell research allow us to make human clone robots? (answer: maybe; think about Prop 71). Annalee Newitz on Alexander Graham Bell, the sex columnist rants at some dude who thought she......

brief summary of Mabel Teng's career and the current nepotism/cronyism charges....

roundup of the Bay Area weeklies...

At first we were alone – we were petrified .... kept thinking we would never live without you by our side.... and then Esseffist found out about the SF women politicians’ karaoke night!...