The walkaway mayor walks away again.

Mayor Gavin Newsom finally sat down with CBS 5 political reporter Hank Plante.

Watch ’til the end when Newsom rips off his microphone and goes “off the record”.

Really?

In public, the Newsom administration puts on a really good game face. But in private, there are all kinds of awkward silences and a lack of basic civility. And now the window is open and the public is seeing what many leading city people have seen for the past couple of years.

"If you guys asked nicer questions, I would show up for work."

CBS 5 – Reporter Joe Vazquez tries to pin down the man-child mayor to ask him about his new disappearing act, but the mayor just walks away.

Now where I have I seen this before?

Gavin and Tom in happy daze.

Gavin Newsom is no education mayor.

But by continually stealing credit for other people’s ideas, he is trying to position himself as strong on education.

This time, he’s stealing credit as a guest blogger on Huffington Post.

In San Francisco, we have a robust rainy day fund. We drew down on our reserves to make sure not a single teacher in San Francisco was laid off…

It’s true that the city has this rainy day fund.  But the mayor of San Francisco has no control over the schools or the education system. The fund wasn’t even Gavin’s idea.

In fact, this “robust rainy day fund” was the idea of then Supervisor Tom Ammiano, a former public school teacher, and today a state assemblyman.

I guess the man-child mayor thinks that if he associates himself with something positive, or says something often enough, people will believe him.

Well, just because you say something doesn’t mean it’s true.

Time to go back to bartending?

Sources inside San Francisco City Hall and close to the Newsom campaign say it’s just a matter of time before Gavin Newsom quits his bid for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2010 California governor’s race.

Citing poor results in polls both statewide and locally and little fundraising traction, supporters and detractors alike say the Newsom campaign is a ship about to sink.

They point to over-the-summer stories of key long-time aides jumping ship and the fact that Gary South, his paid statewide campaign consultant, is failing to build team chemistry between remaining loyalists, as well as inspiring new people to join the team.

Additionally, sources close to Alex Tourk (the former best friend and campaign manager of Gavin Newsom) cited that renewed and damaging sex scandal allegations were privately presented to the Newsom campaign team.

Tourk allies, upset over Newsom’s attempt to rewrite history in recent interviews with national publications, told the Newsom for California campaign through intermediaries that more details of Newsom’s past would be leaked to national media.

Differences in strategy on how to continually message and spin Newsom’s sordid past was one major reason given as to why Eric Jaye, Gavin’s former long-time political advisor and consultant, left the struggling gubernatorial campaign.

As to the timing of his announcement to quit the governor’s race, sources close to Jaye say that Newsom will wait until the birth of his child and cite that major life event as the excuse for withdrawing from the race.

These anonymous sources say that there will be an “I am quitting the governor’s race so I can spend more time with my family” press release, sometime this fall around Halloween.

At least Gavin has a fall-back job — he can finally be mayor of San Francisco.

More likely, he’ll run for a less competitive statewide office or just go back to being a bartender at Plumpjack.

More flash than fashion sense?

Los Angeles Times – The LA Times just printed a Gavin Newsom profile piece that ain’t no fluff.

Angelinos now know the Newsom that San Francisco knows – an absentee mayor lacking substance who governs by press releases.

“Once he’s said it and it’s printed in the newspapers, it’s done in his mind,” said Jim Ross, a political consultant who ran Newsom’s 2003 campaign for mayor. “Then it’s on to the next big announcement.”

Would-be allies say they rarely hear from the mayor. Department heads complain about a lack of guidance. Newsom perpetually wars with the 11-member Board of Supervisors, raising the question of how he would deal with Sacramento’s querulous 120-member Legislature.

Homelessness remains a problem; the city’s official tally shows that more than 6,500 people lack permanent shelter, a slight rise over the last four years after a big decline. Portions of Market Street, the city’s grand boulevard, reek of urine. Muni, the city’s public transit system, is a constant source of complaint. Bayview-Hunter’s Point, the historically poor, black neighborhood, appears as isolated and desperate as ever. Affordable housing is, for many, an oxymoron.

And some of Newsom’s biggest backers – in civic groups and policy circles, among political activists and campaign donors – have in the last few years become some of the mayor’s sharpest critics.

In a series of interviews, they expressed disappointment and accused Newsom, in words oft-repeated, of focusing more on self-aggrandizement and personal publicity than solving the city’s problems.

Of course the man-child mayor denied all of these criticisms in the Times’ story, because afterall, Gavin Newsom lives on Fantasy Island.

Dear Gavin... You got to be real! Love, Cheryl

The Chronicle — It’s about time Mayor Gavin Newsom’s hometown daily newspaper started fact-checking his campaign statements.

His campaign speeches and pronouncements are so littered with exaggerations that it’s not very hard to separate reality from fantasy.

After Calbuzz and others called out the Chronicle for overlooking the obvious, the daily newspaper finally “got real” about Gavin’s extravagant claims.

Here’s a summary of their fact-checks on Gavin:

On universal healthcare:

Newsom has won praise from President Obama for the plan, but the mayor rarely mentions that then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano was its key catalyst; the mayor originally opposed employer mandates that are a major component.”

On education:

The mayor has no official role in the public schools except to appoint people to vacant school board seats. While he has been more involved in schools than previous mayors, he can’t claim credit for rising test scores and other academic achievements.”

On the environment:

San Francisco’s green credentials are strong, and Newsom has earned plaudits for championing them. But the specifics of some of his claims are hard to verify from third-party sources.”

On taxes and budget:

The no-new-taxes claim is technically true – for now – but just about everybody in the city will be dipping into their pockets more to pay for city services.”

Here’s my personal shout out to Gavin Newsom — watch what you say because now even your own lazy hometown daily newspaper is starting to pay attention to your speechifying in Fresno, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, or wherever else you might be, when you’re not governing San Francisco.

Deleted, not forgotten.

Late yesterday while drinking a burning hot café macchiato, I opened up the San Francisco Chronicle.

On page A11, Phil Bronstein tore Mayor Gavin Newsom a new one in his most excellent Opinon piece entitled, “Where is our next generation of leaders?”

Gavin Newsom is our shining hope? Really? Beyond his own self-generated image of brilliant wonkiness and charm, where’s the list of Gavin’s young contemporaries who might actually fill out those size 14 public service shoes in interesting and effective ways with help from the pros?

I couldn’t wait to get home, get the story link from SFGATE, and post a story right here in this very spot. Because in the very same piece, Bronstein went on to compare Newsom with Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone:

In Twitter, Stone has created a profound new platform that inspires people, unlike Newsom, whose own platform is like cotton candy and who leases space on Twitter to spin it.

But I could not link to this awesome quote. Why?

Because the San Francisco Chronicle deleted the story from their website, SFGATE.

Don’t believe me?  Here is the Google search result:

Now you see it, now you don't.

This cool blog posted part of the story before it was deleted. So I’m not going crazy. It was online and public, and then it vanished.

I guess Gavin Newsom’s PR machine will go any length to bury a story they don’t like — it’s no secret that Newsom’s shills regularly berate Chronicle reporters and editors.

I guess that sinking ship called the San Francisco Chronicle has no integrity left.

Sigh.

The cover-up is always worse than the crime.

Two peas, one pod.

Calbuzz is calling out Gavin Newsom’s hometown newspaper.

Why?

Because the San Francisco Chronicle rarely, if ever, fact checks the mayor’s claims.

Calbuzz writers have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the mayor’s hometown newspaper to help California’s voters — and the state’s press corps — make an informed judgment of how Newsom’s extravagant claims stack up against the true facts.

From universal health insurance to financial aid for schools, from balanced budgets to economic development and job creation, from homelessness to immigration, to hear him tell it, there’s seemingly no area of public policy where the Superman Mayor has not made San Francisco a veritable paradise on earth.

And over at Streetsblog SF, Chris Carlsson isn’t waiting, but makes a similar observation about Newsom.

Newsom is a vacuous politician with no rudder or internal gyroscope grounded in any values other than what will get him on to the next stop of his political ambition.

Have you noticed a consistent theme here? Gavin Newsom is full of “bold” pronouncements and extravagant claims, but falls short on delivery.

Our current Governor is already known for his own extravagant claims.

Can California really afford to replace Arnold’s platform shoes with Gavin’s hair gel?

I think not.

"So, veto the law and help your rich landlord friends."

Well, it’s Friday afternoon.

And that can only mean one thing at City Hall in San Francisco.

Friday is Gavin’s favorite time to press release bad news and announce vetos that make him look bad.

You know, so he can avoid reporters and their pesky questions.

Newsom handed his veto letter to the clerk of the board at precisely 4:51 p.m. Friday, prompting tenant advocates to say they’ll push for a veto override at the board and might even take the issue to the ballot.

Newsom vetoed potential legislation that would have given renters some needed relief in this massive recession.  I’m no expert on these matters, but millionaire landlords like Gavin Newsom have a long track record in San Francisco for screwing over their tenants, and converting their apartments into condos, etc.

According to BeyondChron, Newsom was a landlord before he was mayor when he served on the Board of Supervisors, and the City’s conflict-of-interest rules prevented him from taking a stand on many pro-tenant ballot measures.  How convenient.

T.G.I.F.

"I heart my $500k public relations hacks."

BeyondChron – It’s been a joke for years that Gavin Newsom governs by press release.

Now that Newsom is running for Governor, his City-funded media operation has become obscene.

The Gavin Newsom PR machine costs San Francisco taxpayers $500,000 a year.

Director of Communications Nathan Ballard makes $141,700 a year, while his deputy Brian Purchia gets $105,742. The Mayor has three additional press people who each get paid $80,626.

San Francisco Budget Analyst Harvey Rose has recommended that the last three PR positions be cut – as well as two unfilled press positions. Newsom has opposed this suggestion.

Five press secretaries? Their only job is to spin Gavin’s record and make him look like a good candidate for Governor. Even the City of San Francisco’s budget analyst recommended that Gavin reduce his press office staff.

San Francisco taxpayers are also paying for Gavin Newsom’s security for campaign events and personal travel.

The Chronicle reports that all of it is under a budget cloud of mystery since Gavin and his police chief refuse to release details on how much taxpayer dollars are used to provide security, even when Gavin attends out of town campaign events.

The cost of guarding the mayor first piqued our curiosity when we reported last summer that a police escort had driven Newsom’s high-security Chevy Tahoe all the way to Montana for his wedding.

If Gavin wasn’t running for Governor, supposedly he’d spend more time in San Francisco acting like a Mayor. And that means his security detail wouldn’t have to travel all over the state and the country on his fundraising trips - all on the taxpayer dime.

Gavin Newsom should reimburse the city for the costs associated with his security detail traveling with him to campaign events, and he should cut his press operation as the budget analyst recommends.  This would save more important front-line jobs that directly serve constituents - instead of serving his own ego.