Cue up the violin strings. A sad tragedy is being played out in California. The Sacramento Bee has a story about how the Lieutenant Governor of that state, Gavin Newsom, must endure the unendurable as described in the article's headline: "Gavin Newsom breaks boredom in Sacramento with his own TV show."
Yes, even though the Current TV ratings are in the toilet and might not even be carried on cable in the future, it's show business! Unfortunately, along with the "glamor" of showbiz, poor Newsom must endure the utter boredom of his, "ugh," Lt. Governor's job which requires him to suffer the torture of spending one day per week in "dull" Sacramento.
Newsom himself describes the pain of spending a day per week in the Sacramento work camp gulag:
SAN FRANCISCO – Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose cable talk show premiered this month, was in the studio between segments Thursday, catching up with Chip Conley, his next guest and old friend.
"How often are you up in Sacramento?" the hotelier asked.
"Like one day a week, tops," Newsom said. "There's no reason."
It can be slow at the Capitol.
"It's just so dull," Newsom said. "Sadly, I just, ugh, God."
Stop the presses! There has now been a clarification from Newsom. It appears that he spends more time in Sacramento than he himself described above:
Lieutenant governors have few official duties. But Newsom – who later said he spends perhaps two days a week in Sacramento, not one – keeps busy outside the office, most recently across the street from AT&T Park in San Francisco, in a small studio at Current TV.
My hat is off to workaholic Newsom who actually spends "perhaps two days a week" in Sacramento instead of merely one...tops. And now we return to the subject that truly interests him, his Current TV career:
Political observers consider the hourlong program an opportunity for the politically ambitious Democrat to demonstrate his considerable policy knowledge to viewers who may know him only for his support of gay marriage or his positions on issues specific to San Francisco, where he was previously mayor.
Pardon me for being Democrat Party pooper but wouldn't the Current TV host also have to demonstrate a slight interest in performing the duties of the office to which he was elected? And come to think of it, is it even legal in California for an elected official to be a TV host on the side? Or is it legal if his main job is a Current TV host with the Lt. Governor bit being merely a side gig as seems to be the case here?
