An Olympic hot potato!

He looks good and talks a good line, but underneath he’s just another opportunistic politician putting personal goals first.

No, not a current senator who wants to be president.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is the man, and he’s in the middle of another controversy. This time, it’s because of reports that the city plans to impose severe restrictions on protesters during the Olympic torch run through the city.

Initially, officials were so closed mouthed they’d only indicate the route was flexible. Apparently, they plan to revise it during the run, turning corners to deliberately avoid protesters on certain blocks. They also hope to keep demonstrators confined to “First Amendment areas.”

Newsom is no stranger to controversy, and he does have aspirations – senator, governor, president. The world has been his oyster so far. Talk about Teflon – nothing sticks.

Now, his problem is international in scope because China is set to host the 2008 Olympic Games, and San Francisco is the only stop in North America for the Olympic torch run that began last week in Greece. It gets complicated because it involves the Olympics, China, the little country of Tibet and human rights.

Tibet has been forcibly occupied by China for 57 years. During that time, China has done all it could to wipe out the culture and traditions of Tibet, including the deliberate, widespread destruction of monasteries, the killing of priests, forced intermarriage with Chinese and ruling the country with an iron, communist hand.

The Chinese regard Tibet as part of China and would like nothing better than that the exiled Dalai Lama stop preaching and disappear. But he doesn’t. He travels the world with his message of peace and the message that Tibet must be free of China’s despotic rule.

When it became known the torch run would be in San Francisco April 9, people wanted to know the details.

There was silence, then vagueness from City Hall. Even now, just a few days from the event, there are no specific details as to exactly what streets, what turns – it’s all shrouded in San Francisco fog, except for the announcement the route will not go through Chinatown.

Complicating the matter is that demonstrators will be out in force. The Free Tibet supporters will be there along with those angry about Burma, Falun Gong and China’s overall human rights record. There already have been rallies in the city.

The Save Darfur Coalition will bring a huge contingent from across the country. It will protest Chinese support for Sudanese atrocities in Darfur and plan more than 1,000 demonstrators along the route.

The more the dissenters made their plans known, the more City Hall fog. Then it was announced that protesters could express themselves, but only from certain designated areas, not interfering with the run.

Political caution grew because of the nearly month-long protests and demonstrations in Tibet that began March 10, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China. Government reaction with police and troops against the people and monks continues with violence, arrests, injuries and deaths. Government censorship of news reports has only exacerbated the problem.

Sympathetic demonstrations have swept several cities in Europe and Asia, and while the EU has voted to support the Olympics, Germany and France have not ruled out a boycott of the event.

It hasn’t helped that China has hinted at restrictions on Olympic TV coverage.

President Bush plans to attend the games, but last week he called China with concerns about the repression of the Tibet uprising. At a news conference in Washington on Friday, the president, along with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, urged China to meet with the Dalai Lama to resolve the conflicts.

Also on Friday, Mayor Newsom met with the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. at City Hall. No details were released, but we’re told it dealt with the Olympic relay. The two men have met before.

China and San Francisco fear local disruptions. In Greece last week, three men unfurling a flag on the field interrupted the opening events. Police took them into custody.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in, saying China hasn’t “lived up to it’s commitments to improve the humans rights situation in China and Tibet.” She said she was against awarding the Olympics to China.

Poor Newsom. He said he didn’t want the relay to become political!

Supervisor Chris Daly has a resolution criticizing China’s human rights record and asking for an Olympics boycott if violence in Tibet continues. The board of supervisors hears it April 1.

Another board resolution welcomes the Olympic torch to the city along with a Human Rights Torch and the Tibetan Freedom Torch.

Another calls on the mayor and the police department to release details of the exact torch run route. The ACLU is demanding the route details be made public saying protesters have a right to know.

But all that’s known is where it begins and ends, and – that some events have been cut back. The rest is secret. San Francisco Chronicle reporters Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross say that the Chinese government asked that the route be shortened from 8 miles to 6. Beyond that, lips are sealed.

With world dissent growing, Newsom will be hard pressed to defend restricting people wanting to exercise free speech during a public event.

If it weren’t so serious, it would be funny. San Francisco, the city that fancies itself open and progressive, shows what’s just below the surface: crass selfishness, political opportunism, repressive politics and ego.

Remember the name: Newsom. Democrats love him. But now, it’s human rights versus sports.

There are growing calls for a U.S. boycott. We did it once. Would we have the courage again? Should we?

Or are the real issues trade, money and keeping China happy?