There’s an old old saying that goes, “there’s nought so strange as folk,” and I agree. But there is an even stranger sub-class of “folk.” We know them as politicians, and today The Drudge Report posted a link to a San Francisco Chronicle article which claims that San Francisco’s Mayor, Gavin Newsom, had an affair with the wife of one of his aides:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s re-election campaign manager resigned Wednesday after confronting the mayor about an affair Newsom had with his wife while she worked in the mayor’s office, City Hall sources said.

Alex Tourk, 39, who served as Newsom’s deputy chief of staff before becoming his campaign manager in September, confronted the mayor after his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, told him of the affair as part of a rehabilitation program she had been undergoing for substance abuse, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of Wednesday’s meeting.

I don’t find this strange. I live in the Washington D.C. area and I can tell you this kind of stuff is more typical of politicians than perhaps even rock stars. Big egos and power are a heady mix to some.

What is interesting about this whole situation is that Newsom’s aide, Alex Tourk, quit and has refused to comment on this allegation. So has Tourk’s wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, who, the SF Chronicle reveals, now hosts a weekly radio show for Benefit Magazine in San Francisco.

So I decided to visit the Benefit Magazine site and see if I could read more about the magazine and the radio show. What did I see when I arrived? Well, the first thing was that the issue posted currently to that site is the Sept/Oct 2006 issue. Second, it was an issue with Newsom’s handsome profile right on the front and a byline of “Why Gavin Gives” on the cover. Why indeed!

Linked to the front page of the site is a puff piece on Newsom discussing his charitable giving and his desire to help the community. I won’t comment on that or try to find fault with that as I agree that impacting your community is what politicians ought to do.

What I do wonder about is the timing of the article with the hiring of Ruby Rippey-Tourke and the posting of that piece and the article cover to their website. It may be nothing other than bad timing, or a media organization showing some favoritism to a particular politician, which is not something I find unusual. It’s just the interesting connect between Ruby Rippey-Tourke’s new job with Benefits Mag, their article on the Mayor discussing his “Homeless Connect” program, and the fact that Alex, Ruby’s husband, who did not know of the affair at that time, was still a principle aide in the Mayor’s office.
It is an interesting coincidence. And, there is some additional irony here because, if you read the article posted to the Benefit Mag site, you’ll find this quote:

“I have great respect for him,” says Newsom’s Deputy Chief of Staff Alex Tourk. “It’s one thing to talk about the world the way it should be. It’s quite another to roll up your sleeves and actually [do something about it]. Anyone who questions his sincerity simply doesn’t know him.” [Emphasis mine]

Ah politics…