All of us in the conservative/libertarian media routinely blast liberal/progressive politicians when they get things wrong, and boy howdy pols like California’s Gavin Newsom sure do give us a lot to work with. But there’s a flip side to that. Once in a while one of these pols gets something right, and we should observe that and toss them some kudos when they do.
Case in point: California Governor Gavin Newsom, the same guy who wrecked San Francisco before moving on to wreck California, has taken Elon Musk’s side in the tech mogul’s ongoing fight with the California Coastal Commission over Musk’s SpaceX launches.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is backing Elon Musk in the billionaire’s dispute with a California agency that rejected a plan to increase SpaceX’s rocket launches off the Pacific coast.
“I’m with Elon,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in an interview late Thursday, after campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground state of North Carolina. “I didn’t like that.”
I have to give Newsom some credit here. The California Coastal Commission’s rejection of Musk’s request to increase the frequency of SpaceX launches was based on naked partisan politics.
Musk sued the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging it “engaged in naked political discrimination” when commissioners cited his support for former President Donald Trump in rejecting a Department of Defense proposal to expand the number of SpaceX launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
“Look, I’m not helping the legal case,” Newsom acknowledged. He added, “You can’t bring up that explicit level of politics.”
Newsom indicated he broadly agreed with the lawsuit and that the independent agency should have confined its debate to the merits of the permit rather than engage in a discussion of Musk’s political activities.
He’s correct; the Commission should base its decision on the merits of the application alone. Petty bureaucrats, granted, are known for exactly this kind of naked partisanship, and this case may have to work its way through several layers of courts before it’s decided, but it seems that Elon Musk might be the guy with the time and resources to push it through.
Previously on RedState:
Why Did the California Coastal Commission Deny SpaceX Permission to Launch? ‘Orange Man Bad’
SpaceX Files Blistering Lawsuit Against California Coastal Commission Alleging Political Retaliation
Newsom has been true to form in his frequent clashes with Elon Musk on other issues.
Newsom has sparred with Musk on X over everything from the state’s protections for transgender and gay students in schools to a bill the governor signed banning political deepfakes. Musk responded to a measure outlawing AI-generated content before the November election by referring to Newsom as an evil comic character. “The Joker is in charge,” Musk wrote on X, repeating the insult in an interview.
There’s a big difference between tossing someone like Gavin Newsom some reluctant kudos for being the blind hog that finds an acorn, and supporting him in any other way – including with our votes. Newsom may be taking the right side here in this particular instance – for now, at least – but that in no way diminishes the damage his “progressive” policies have done to San Francisco or the once-and-former Golden State.
He’s been a disaster for California, and while we are now wrapped up in the presidential contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, we should be forewarned that Newsom almost certainly has his eyes on the Oval Office, in which office he would be just as big a disaster as he has been in California.
But in this one instance, he got it right. The California Coastal Commission’s rejection of Musk’s application on blatantly political grounds is wrong, and can’t be allowed to stand.
