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12:25 - Budget and Finance Committee
This entire meeting is a continuing attempt to hire back the public health positions that were cut, without running afoul of the controller's shocking announcement that San Francisco is one bad day away from insolvency.
Mr. Mayor, any comment?
NEWSOM: "No."
BENJAMIN: "Why are you holding that ice pick?"
NEWSOM: "No ... comment."
(Pause)
BENJAMIN: "You know, if Jack Nicholson were younger, you'd be the role of his lifetime."
NEWSOM: "Yeah, but Christian Bale is younger."
BENJAMIN: "Our next meeting is our last meeting. It's ...
2 p.m. - full Board of Supervisors
And to be honest, this meeting's got nothing. It's all procedural issues, meeting various legal requirements, approving lawsuit settlements, and finishing up old business before the holiday. The only drama will be around things that have already been well discussed - -like the attempt to keep the public health workers employed. This meeting's a classic case of "you snooze, you miss nothing, and you come out ahead on sleep."
NEWSOM: "And yet they want me to show up to these things."
BENJAMIN: "Isn't that what you get paid for? Nobody forced you to run for anything.
NEWSOM: "You have no idea the pressure I was under. If anybody liked you, you might understand."
BENJAMIN: "That's it. Just let the hostility out."
NEWSOM: "It's not hostility: That's what you people don't get. I'm living in a fishbowl 24/7, constantly accosted by people who make money by digging up scandals, and they all want to see me fail. If I engage them, I'm assaulted; if I ignore them, I'm mocked. How do you experts of the press think I should react to that? Because there are only two reactions to a prolonged no-win situation: anger and despair.
Frankly, I think anger is healthier. Lashing out at the people who make you miserable is an affirmation of life! It's proof that however much you vultures circle me, I'm not dead yet. Fighting the system -- even the one I head -- means I'm not a cog in it! I have as much right as Gregor Samsa, Joseph K, and anyone else in one of Kafka's nightmares to be angry. And if you think being surrounded by the 21st-century press isn't exactly what Kafka had in mind, then you don't know media or literature. But that's not hostility: That's gasping for air."
BENJAMIN: "Actually, I think you're right. Your life has become 21st-century San Francisco's answer to Kafka. Going to Hawaii and not taking the system with you was probably a profoundly healthy thing to do. I just wish you'd acknowledge that the system was every bit as toxic when you were on top, because that would show wisdom instead of resentment."
NEWSOM: "I've just made a parachute out of all the napkins and take-out bags in your apartment, and I think I can use it to float down the street. The next time I see you, you'd better be composting. Don't think I won't come into your house and check."
BENJAMIN: "I'm confident of it."
Photo of Gavin Newsom | Brainchildvn
