FRIEND OF THE BRIDES: Profile of SF mayor, from the Washington Post

Before Gavin Newsom opened the doors of City Hall to same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses, the young mayor with the movie star smile made a few discreet cell phone calls to his elders.

Almost to a person, Newsom says, his kitchen cabinet of old-line liberal Bay Area Democrats like Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein warned the new mayor that he was committing political hara-kiri.

"Few folks said this is great politics," Newsom recalls. "Quite the contrary. Everyone was warning me: It's the right thing to do, but you don't need to do it. Why do you want to do it? Why? It was surprising how many people said that." ...

Newsom's popularity in San Francisco has only soared. "His actions put him in the pantheon of civil rights trailblazers." This is Ross Mirkarimi, a veteran Green Party strategist, talking. Just a few months ago, Mirkarimi was working round-the-clock for Newsom's mayoral opponent. Now, it's only love. "He's done something marvelous and he's made us proud," Mirkarimi says. ...

"The mayor has just surprised us all," says Tom Ammiano, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Ammiano says he thinks Newsom's circle has been hyping, a bit, the political courage it took to grant gay marriages licenses in a city filled with same-sex couples.

"It was actually rather astute," says Ammiano, himself a gay man and gay rights crusader. "He benefits politically. This buys him a lot of goodwill. He preempts a progressive cause. He puts himself in a national spotlight."

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posted by Eve at 5:45 PM | link

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