By Steven T. Jones
Sup. Chris Daly may have crossed a line by suggesting during a budget hearing that Mayor Gavin Newsom uses cocaine, but the mayor isn’t entitled to his overblown righteous indignation. Why? Because he’s the one who left open this question earlier this year when he responded to revelations of his sexual improprieties and alcohol abuse with the blanket dismissal “that everything you’ve heard and read is true and I’m deeply sorry about that.” Then he refused to answer any questions on either issue, with only a couple exceptions weeks later involving friendly journalists (including CBS’s Hank Plante, who asked about cocaine and Newsom didn’t directly answer, something Daly rightly called an “artful dodge”). Newsom is now simply reaping what he has sown. He has proven himself to be untrustworthy and willing to say or do anything to get out of a jam — or to simply avoid answering questions not to his liking — so it’s hard to put too much stock in statements like, “I am associated with something that I don’t do, never have, not even in the realm of reason should someone even accuse me of this.”