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One of the famous definitions of insanity is repeating the same mistake over and over again while expecting a different result. Whether that’s a perfect definition is open to debate, but one thing is certain: it’s as accurate a description of the California electorate at this moment in 2010 as you could get. How else to explain that Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer are still leading Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina by 5.4% and 3.3% (RCP averages) in a state where unemployment is 12.4% (not including the underemployed and the astronomical number that have already given up), and from which...

For a guy known to hold some pretty strange views, this might be the most bizarre perspective on welfare policy I have ever seen. Here is Jerry Brown from his Pacifica Radio show in 1995 (full transcript here): The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs. Jobs for every American is doomed to failure because of modern automation and production. We ought to recognize it and create an income-maintenance system so every single American has the dignity and the wherewithal for shelter, basic...

Californians do not face an easy choice in the race for governor - as was clear in Tuesday night's debate at Dominican University in San Rafael. Republican Meg Whitman so parses her positions that at times she seems to stand for nothing. She has had to over-compensate for her spotty voting record by throwing more than $140 million into her campaign - while she incongruously argues that she can cut the size of state government. Her budget plan is a joke that over-promises welfare cuts, advocates big tax cuts despite chronic budget shortfalls and then impossibly offers extra funds for...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The president of the National Organization for Women says California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown should fire the campaign aide who referred to his opponent as a "whore" for making political trade-offs. NOW President Terry O'Neill also criticized Brown on Wednesday for saying during a debate the previous night that the private banter is the kind of thing that typically happens in a campaign.

Candidates Jerry Brown (D) and Meg Whitman (R) met on a stage at Dominican University in San Rafael in the final debate of the California gubernatorial campaign, moderated by former NBC News Host Tom Brokaw. The debate was more open than most, as Brokaw sometimes allowed the two to speak without his interruption. One only hopes that other moderators might follow his example, and allow something approaching true debates between candidates. (more)

Remember when Jerry Brown tried to give Jane Fonda a job with the state of California? The California GOP wants you to. In an e-mail sent Wednesday, the state party points out an Oct. 13, 1981, Los Angeles Times story about Brown’s defense of a spate of controversial 1979 appointments he made in part to generate left-wing support for his nascent primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter. This year, Brown, a Democrat, is running for his old job as governor against former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican. Brown held the governorship from 1975 until 1983—and the GOP’s reminder, 29...

Gubernatorial rivals Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman slugged it out toe to toe Tuesday, a far cry from their last debate when Brown hammered Whitman mercilessly on her hiring and firing an illegal immigrant housekeeper. Whitman was clearly the more aggressive during their third and last debate at Dominican University in Marin County, taking advantage of the Brown campaign's embarrassment about an accidentally recorded phone message in which someone close to Brown, in his presence, called Whitman a "whore" in obtaining a police union endorsement. Brown apologized again, but then may have stumbled by declaring that calling someone a whore...

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- Coming into their final debate of the California governor's race, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman had a chance to persuade a statewide audience they could turn around the economically troubled state. Instead, their third face-to-face exchange resorted to many of the personal attacks that have dominated the last few weeks of the campaign. Neither candidate presented any new ideas in a contest that is virtually tied just three weeks before Election Day and in which a fifth of voters remain undecided. A poll released two weeks ago found about half the respondents were dissatisfied...

Who won the final Brown-Whitman debate? * Whitman by a landslide * Brown by a mile * Brown narrowly * Whitman narrowly *Too close to call Poll is here

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown apologized to Republican Meg Whitman this evening for a recording in which an unidentified associate of Brown's refers to Whitman as a "whore." "I apologize, Ms. Whitman," he said. Whitman wasn't having it. "It's the people of California who deserve better than slurs and personal attacks, . . .

California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown debated tonight at Dominican University in San Rafael. The moderator was Tom Brokaw who raised the 'whore' comment with Brown.Video of the exchange at Bay Area NBCTransription by Kristinn.BROKAW: Mr. Brown you did attempt to reach out to the police union. The telephone message was left on. It's now a notorious part of this campaign. In which somebody in your campaign referred to Ms. Whitman as a "whore." A campaign spokesman then described that as "salty language" and apologized after a fashion. We've heard no outrage from you about the use of...

The two major candidates for California governor head into their final televised showdown tonight with a "woman" problem dogging their campaigns - Republican Meg Whitman for her treatment of her undocumented maid, and Democrat Jerry Brown for a staffer's use of a sexist slur in referring to his opponent. Tonight's debate at Dominican University in San Rafael will be moderated by veteran television journalist and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.

Jerry Brown announced he has received the endorsement of the National Organization for Women, less than 24 hours after the emergence of a recorded message in which Brown can be heard in a conversation with advisors in which someone calls Whitman a "whore." Coincidence? You be the judge. Read the rest at the LA Times ----------------------------------------------------------------------Coincidence?!? No, its not a freakin' coincidence that NOW. endorsed endorsed the Democrat in an election. It is a liberal organization, its the natural thing for them to do. Its like snow endorsing winter, or the "pro-choice" group NARAL endorsing wire hangers over those...

<p>People with knowledge of what happened inside the room say the voice heard calling Meg Whitman a "whore" is none other than Jerry Brown's wife.</p>

There aren't a lot of walls around Carly Fiorina. While politicos have marveled at the missteps of Meg Whitman's $140 million Titanic of a campaign, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO has made herself accessible to journalists in her bid to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer. She hasn't over-parsed her positions. She didn't try to retool her take on the issues after she won the GOP primary. There's a real what-you-see-is-what-you-get feel to Fiorina. Fiorina is new to politics and has a spotty voting record. Those are points against her. But as the first woman to head a Fortune top 20 corporation, she...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/184583/saturday-night-live-ask-gloria-allred Video is after 30 second commercial

Smelling blood after a Jerry Brown associate used the word “whore” in connection with Meg Whitman’s campaign strategy, Republican sources have provided a 15-year-old video of the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful dismissing mammograms in an old interview. The trip to the vault comes as Brown’s camp has been on defense after The Los Angeles Times reported on a conversation between him and an associate, inadvertently left on a police union official’s voice mail, in which he discussed Whitman and the unions and suggested she’ll cut a deal over pensions. Another person is heard on the recording saying, “What about calling her...

In the last few days Democrat Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign has been doing damage control after someone close to him was heard calling his Republican rival Meg Whitman a "whore." In the immediate aftermath, it was assumed that it was one of Brown's assistants who uttered the derogatory phrase. However, new sources reveal that it may have been someone much closer to Brown: his wife. According to anonymous sources close to Brown, it was his wife Anne who called Whitman a "whore." When asked about the quote, the source inadvertently said that it was Brown's wife when stating, "The person...

JERRY BROWN CALLS MEG WHITMAN A WHORE