Bottled Watergate?

Katherine Mangu-Ward | February 24, 2009

Forget unpaid taxes and illegal nannies, there's a new ridiculous scandal in town: Possession of...bottled water?:

This week, the City Insider spotted an almost empty case of bottled water in the back of [San Francisco] Mayor Gavin Newsom's hybrid sport utility vehicle as it was parked in front of City Hall. At least one full bottle of Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water remained under the plastic covering.

Newsom has no one but himself to blame for this one, though. He issued a bottled water fatwa in 2007:

This from the mayor who in June 2007 issued an executive order directing city government to no longer purchase bottled water, saying the containers clog landfills while the city owns a pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada that produces some of the country's best-rated tap water.

Newsom wasn't short on real scandals to begin with, but will Bottled Watergate bring him down?

Comments

spambot|2.24.09 @ 2:59PM|#

The rules don't apply to rulers, haven't you been paying attention???

|2.24.09 @ 3:04PM|#

"I'm saying that when the mayor does it, it's not an eco-crime."

Reinmoose|2.24.09 @ 3:05PM|#

What if he purchased it himself and not the city government?

Naga Sadow|2.24.09 @ 3:11PM|#

Reinmoose,

I believe that in San Francisco when it concerns the enviroment talk AND action are required.

|2.24.09 @ 3:11PM|#

Rein,

That won't matter to the sandalistas.

NeonCat|2.24.09 @ 3:12PM|#

If only he could claim he only used bottled water for bongs because he doesn't like the way chlorine and fluoride makes the smoke taste.

Mike Laursen|2.24.09 @ 3:20PM|#

I believe that in San Francisco when it concerns the enviroment talk AND action are required.

Going by the folks I know in San Francisco, environmental performance art pieces and trendy, high-visibility action is required.

Mike Laursen|2.24.09 @ 3:21PM|#

Newsom wasn't short on real scandals to begin with, but will Bottled Watergate bring him down?

I like Newsom, but I still find myself hoping that this brings him down.

|2.24.09 @ 3:21PM|#

Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Eric S.|2.24.09 @ 3:22PM|#

Did anyone read the article. Says the water belonged to his security detail.

|2.24.09 @ 3:38PM|#

Ho-Hum.

Al Gore is responsible for 5-20 times as much CO2 emissions as I am.

The rules don't apply to rulers, haven't you been paying attention???

QFT!

|2.24.09 @ 3:40PM|#

Says the water belonged to his security detail.

Show of hands: who believes that?

And, if true, wouldn't this mean that it was bought by the city in violation of his directive?

Abdul|2.24.09 @ 3:45PM|#

When SWAT teams raid his water cooler and shoot his pet fish, he'll get the message.

|2.24.09 @ 4:09PM|#

Off with his head!

Orange Line Special|2.24.09 @ 4:10PM|#

Here's what should bring Gavin Newsom down: his support not just for illegal activity, but for violent criminals. Not only that, but on his watch San Francisco developed a scheme that lets banks profit from money that was earned illegally and that enables other forms of illegal activity.

It's all a sleazy web of illegality, and even the local paper took notice of part of it. I am absolutely positive that Reason will come out against massive illegality and GovernmentCorruption. Everyone else wait for it, I'm sure Reason will be coming out against that any moment now.

|2.24.09 @ 4:10PM|#

Plus, he should have towed the lion on his own initiatives.

|2.24.09 @ 4:23PM|#

"towed the lion "

Silentz, the porn thread is down below.

|2.24.09 @ 4:24PM|#

LoneDumbass, could you obsess over something else? We'll take anything. Hentai. Gossip Girl. Anything.

|2.24.09 @ 4:47PM|#

LoneDumbass, could you obsess over something else? We'll take anything. Hentai. Gossip Girl. Anything.

TentacleRape?

Anyways, ho hum. Let me know if we find a politician who isn't a complete hypocrite. Suspect I won't have to be sitting and anxiously awaiting that kind of revelation.

Other Matt|2.24.09 @ 4:51PM|#

Why do I have this mental picture of him holding a bottle of water and..."Whether you like it or not!!"

The Angry Optimist|2.24.09 @ 4:51PM|#

The really goofy thing is (and yes, I clicked on Chris Kelly's link this time) is that Chris Kelly calls San Francisco's ID issuances "xenophobia" because it's a municipal identification card...that won't be issued to other municipalities.

Um, what? Chris, did the Mexican gardener fuck your wife or something?

|2.24.09 @ 4:56PM|#

Why is there an issue? He prohibited the government from purchasing wasteful bottled water, yet he reserves the right to purchase such products for personal use.

The Angry Optimist|2.24.09 @ 4:57PM|#

Here's how you know you're dealing with a bona-fide Full Retard. The following words or concepts are on Chris Kelly's front page:

"release your birth certificate, Obama" (still, Chris, really?)
"Kochtopus"
"cosmotarian"
"Latinos are inherently criminal"

|2.24.09 @ 5:00PM|#

Here's how you know you're dealing with a bona-fide Full Retard.

What, you didn't find handles like "LoneWacko" and "Orange Line Special" to already be a dead giveaway? The claims of pwning Jesse?

The Angry Optimist|2.24.09 @ 5:06PM|#

One would think that, after six+ years of OLS/LW/Chris Kelly doing nothing more than showing up here, pimping his blog and thereby chewing up time and energy that reason would ban him, but apparently it's OK to constantly flog your blog here, as if you're important.

And besides, Epi, it's fun to poke at the Megalomonical Retard who thinks that we're going to follow his lead and do the stuff that's at his "Assignment Desk".

Ahh, Chris, you'll get back at the gardener someday. Say, "Hola!" to Senora Kelly for me...she is, how do you say, muy caliente in the sack.

Paul|2.24.09 @ 5:07PM|#

Mayor Gavin Newsom's hybrid sport utility vehicle

Hybrid... because nothing says "I love the environment" more than a trunk full of nickel metal hydride batteries...

Orange Line Special|2.24.09 @ 5:20PM|#

Just for the record, of the phrases identified as being on my site above, only the second and third are ones I wrote. The first is from AndrewSullivan. The last doesn't appear on the page.

The Angry Optimist|2.24.09 @ 5:26PM|#

I should not have put quotes around that last one, although that implication was the clear intent of your noting the rates of criminality. Unless you have an alternate explanation, Chris?

|2.24.09 @ 6:08PM|#

TAO, I don't get how "cosmotarian" is a retarded concept. It's a useful term for libertarians who have a certain set of priorities which differs from that of other libertarians.

Meyer|2.24.09 @ 6:36PM|#

Um, what? Chris, did the Mexican gardener fuck your wife or something?

No, it was the MexicanGardener. Try and keep up.

|2.24.09 @ 6:36PM|#

Why is there an issue? He prohibited the government from purchasing wasteful bottled water, yet he reserves the right to purchase such products for personal use.

That's what I was thinking too.

I don't see how it's hypocritical to ban public monies being wasted on bottled water while choosing to waste your own money.

I think some people just are reaching for something to attack this guy because of his political leanings more than anything else.

If Mayor Newsome did in fact buy the water with his own money then good for him. I wish more public servants would look after the public monies in that way.

Paul|2.24.09 @ 7:47PM|#

If Mayor Newsome did in fact buy the water with his own money then good for him. I wish more public servants would look after the public monies in that way.

[snark]

The people of the City of San Francisco pay his salary. Therefore what he spends in his 'off-time' is public monies.

[/snark]

MJ|2.24.09 @ 9:07PM|#

Newsome's objection to the city buying bottled water was not the cost but the trash factor.

Why should he not be called out for using a product personally he was os sanctimonious about publicly?

Colin|2.24.09 @ 9:13PM|#

No animal shall drink bottled water. in excess.

Mike Laursen|2.25.09 @ 12:51AM|#

Why is there an issue? He prohibited the government from purchasing wasteful bottled water, yet he reserves the right to purchase such products for personal use.

It's got nothing to do with whether he did it on the job or off. He is a liberal icon and he committed the sin of politically-incorrect water consumption. It's analogous to Catholics finding out that Mother Teresa was in the habit of rinsing off her false teeth in the baptismal font.

|2.25.09 @ 1:11AM|#

I hate to say it, but the liberals are right - people who drink bottled water are morons.

VM|2.25.09 @ 8:23AM|#

hay: "." (if that is your real name)

go to Ohio and with some bottled water, and you'll see how they respond.

Dee|2.25.09 @ 11:21AM|#

Newsom is such a Cocksucker.. What more can you say. Him and Gore should tour around ina private jet, drinking bottled water and giving lectures on global warming. They can pick up Babs on their way out.