Gavin Newsom is a bust, both metaphorically and literally.
The California governor, who's trying to take his overspending and underperforming record national, is now in the middle of a bimbroglio over an expensive bronze bust of him displayed at San Francisco City Hall. Someday, I'll tell you the derivation of that contracted word that both describes Governor Hair Gel's political heft and his life as an unintentional chaos agent.
The bust is one of the stories contained in Jedd McFatter and Susan Crabtree's book about the California rogue's gallery of leaders entitled, "Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con-Artists, and Traitors That Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All."
They claim that Newsom fundraised to help buy the bust of himself. Newsom, whose reputation as an F-5 level blowhard forced the dictionary to expand room for its definition of self-aggrandizement, was told by his political team that he should look embarrassed by this resurgent revelation while denying it at the same time.
As the entirely believable story (first reported at the Chronicle's SF Gate) goes on, we learn that the funds to the city included money from companies in which Newsom had a stake. Those funds were directed to Baghdad by the Bay's notoriously corrupt "behested payments" racket — think USAID programs on a city/county/state level. That money was put into the "mayoral bust for San Francisco City Hall" line item that funded the $97,000 bronze bust of Newsom installed in 2015.
The "behested payments" are frequently used for self-dealing local pols. For example, Susan Dyer Reynolds writes about when California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his wife, a state legislator with direct control of the legislative budget, were both in the Assembly, they used the power to "behest" contributions to their favorite programs, such as their political benefactors or themselves.
Newsom's stories about the bust have changed over the years, to which this Fox News Digital story alludes:
Newsom told SFGate the bust was the brainchild of his supporters and that it would be paid for with private funds. According to the outlet, Newsom said he did not even know who the supporters and fundraisers were.
The outlet also reported that Newsom sat for the bust with artist Bruce Wolfe multiple times. The work was finished in 2018, according to the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Newsom's "rapid response" team immediately seized upon the story to declare it false, but a closer reading of the response reveals that they only take issue with the characterization that the donations were secret or used taxpayer money.
His team rhubarbed and harrumphed to Fox News Digital about the book:
This publication should come with a free tinfoil hat, a lifetime subscription to InfoWars, and a VIP dinner with Elvis Presley and Bigfoot. The authors seem allergic to basic facts — especially the kind you can confirm with a 10-second Google search, like how many children the Governor has.
Which reminds me, has Newsom had Alex Jones on his new I Want To Be President and I'm Inviting People to Espouse Ideas I Would Never Do to Get Fox News to Give Me Airtime podcast?
Newsom hopes to keep his horrible California record under the radar until he can secure a spot on the roster of 2028 presidential candidates. And no wonder; look at this partial list.
I'd change the subject, too.
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