http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=55770&tsp=1

Newsom vs. Obama, round two

Apparently not content to leave his stinging comments about President Obama in the New York Times alone, Mayor Gavin Newsom this morning appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to continue his pointed critique of the president's unwillingness so far to advance gay rights.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?blogid=55&entry_id=55663
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/%20-%2034972907

As we told you, Maureen Dowd's column appeared Wednesday, and Newsom and other mayors met with Obama today at the White House to talk about job creation. "It was a week ago," Newsom said on the TV show of his City Hall interview with Dowd. "The timing was curious...It was unfortunate timing, but I stand by what I said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/opinion/20dowd.html

Did he ever. Newsom, displeased with Obama's seeming ambivalence toward same-sex marriage and ending the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, said the president should have taken a page from the mayor's own playbook and tackled the issue early in his term.

"You're better off doing it in the beginning and moving on," said the mayor, who sanctioned same-sex marriages shortly after taking office in 2004. "To the extent this continues to linger in front of him and not behind him, I think it only serves to feed into some of the negativity and cynicism that some progressives are feeling about the president as it relates to Iraq, Guantanamo, the health care debate...

"I'm not trying to pile on, I'm just trying to express some of that frustration and anxiety that exists, not just in Massachusetts but in the progressive community itself."

And there's more!

"It's frustrating to watch someone of his incredible capacity struggle right now...It's the old rule in politics - don't over-promise and under-deliver."

Tony Winnicker, Newsom's spokesman, said the White House meeting between the nation's mayors and Obama and cabinet staff including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went well. Winnicker said same-sex marriage was never discussed, and that the focus of the discussion was jobs.

"The president gave very candid remarks to the mayors about the need to focus on jobs and to sort of do a better job telling the country what has been accomplished in the administration's first year," Winnicker said. "The mayor and the president agreed on almost every issue."

More D.C. news: With the help of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Newsom has secured another $92 million in federal funding for clean-up of the Hunters Point Shipyard, bringing the total to $714.2 million in federal money since 1991.

Also, the mayor has another YouTube video - from D.C.! - for your viewing pleasure. He talks about his quest to secure an extension of Jobs Now. Newsom is due to fly back tonight and land at SFO after midnight.

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