Al Gore’s Current TV has hired Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco who defied the law by authorizing same-sex marriages in his city. Never mind the fact that Newsom is now the lieutenant governor of California, and that it would be at least a conflict of interest for an incumbent politician to also hold court in the media; as Newsom once said of himself, “In the public sector, politicians are risk-averse. They’re afraid of trying something new because they might see a bad headline the next day. That’s a problem.”
Newsom is a typical liberal politician; he doesn’t feel bound by the rules when it comes to his own interests. Fresh out of college, Newsom was funded by the Getty family, who were friends of Newsom’s family. They reportedly funded Newsom’s wedding to his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former lingerie model, who was also a lawyer and correspondent for Court TV. But after they divorced in 2005, Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife.
This makes Newsom a personal relationship fellow traveler with Al Gore. Gore famously allegedly groped a massage therapist while married to Tipper; after 40 years of marriage, which reportedly included Gore’s numerous affairs, his own values seem obvious. Between Newsom and new hire Eliot Spitzer, Current TV will certainly have a lineup of folks with odd personal histories.
Mr. Gore, after hiring Newsom said of him, “he touches many worlds — business, politics, entertainment and activism.” Unfortunate choice of words.