Many casualties in Newsom-Peskin war of words {the Battle of San Francisco }

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/11/8 | Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross

[SmithL]

Pretty soon they'll need a scoreboard down at San Francisco City Hall to keep track of the "gotcha" shots flying between Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The game opened with Peskin taking a swipe at Newsom for jetting off to Hawaii with gal pal Jennifer Siebel the day after the big Cosco Busan oil spill.

Newsom responded by pulling out of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce trip to China that included Peskin and Rose Pak, the chamber boss with whom Newsom was also feuding.

Peskin returned the favor by busting Newsom for using $650,000 in Muni money to hire and promote his own staffers, at a time the mayor was ordering everyone else to tighten their belts.

Next thing you know, here comes a 5-month-old memo from Port Director Monique Moyer, describing Peskin's tipsy late-night phone calls to port staffers threatening their careers.

So now, Peskin and other supervisors - angry at the mayor's out-of-the-blue firing of Public Utilities Commission boss Susan Leal - are threatening to toss two of Newsom's favorites, Ryan Brooks and Dick Sklar, off the PUC.

Camp Newsom has responded with an intense lobbying drive, with calls coming all the way from Washington, D.C. Most of the effort is aimed at Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, the swing vote in the fight.

Sandoval declined to identify the callers, other than to say they included some of Sklar's pretty prominent friends and supporters.

As a result, Sandoval - who is running for a judgeship this fall - finds himself caught between Sklar's well-connected supporters, backers of Brooks (who is African American) and the gay community and public-power advocates, who have a lot of clout in this town, and are fond of Leal and want revenge.

[SmithL]

Scroll down for this gem:

Return of the Don: Now that it's clear state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata will be termed out at the end of the year, one of the big questions is what's next on the Don's agenda.

From the sounds of things - running for mayor of Oakland.

[alloysteel]

Newsom has a sexual preference for the female gender?

Who knew?

Of course, this is San Francisco, so “girls” could turn out to be, in fact, male, while “boys” are virtually indistinguishable from females.

[bamahead]

What else does this city expect? Look at who they elect.

Wasn’t Sandoval the communist who incited illegals against Savage over some comments he made, and also threatened a legally binding city resolution to oust Savage from SF altogether? Now he’s running for a judgeship?

[NormsRevenge]

one of the big questions is what’s next on the Don’s agenda.
From the sounds of things - running for mayor of Oakland.

—

where’s the ‘aw geez’ guy?

he’ll be doing it from a prison cell if we’re lucky. he’d be safer there than on the streets of oakland... well, certain parts anyway..

[buwaya]

Newsom is not, in fact, gay. Unlikely as it seems.

I have this very good private sources. He does genuinely like the ladies.

[buwaya]

Newsom is not, in fact, gay. Unlikely as it seems.

I have this very good private sources. He does genuinely like the ladies.

[buwaya]

Peskin is plain scum, and more than a little off his rocker.

Newsom is as liberal as they come, at least as presented, but he is mostly out for number one. Which in SF is a good thing, as he knows when the BS has to stop and he knows that reality must sneak in around the hyperbole.

And the vast majority of SF’s population tacitly understand that as well, which is why he is so popular. Yes, this place suffers from a chronic hypocrisy, and Newsom is the hypocrite-in-chief. But better hypocrisy than lunacy. Under the circumstances he is about the best mayor SF can hope for given the present population of the city.

[Zeppo]

This is a precious example of "Government of, by, and for the Government".

Absent in this discussion is any real consideration for the public that these "Public Servants" (hah!) are supposed to be serving. Instead it's a combination of a knock-down, drag-out personality cult deathmatch and the looters' fight for scraps that typifies every kleptocracy from the AFL-CIO to Zimbabwe...