Brown evidently okayed calling Whitman a “whore”

From the L.A. Times blog (via Hot Air), based on an audio tape of the phone conversation:

With evident frustration, Brown discussed the pressure he was under to refuse to reduce public safety pensions or lose law enforcement endorsements to Whitman. Months earlier, Whitman had agreed to exempt public safety officials from key parts of her pension reform plan.

“Do we want to put an ad out? … That I have been warned if I crack down on pensions, I will be—that they’ll go to Whitman, and that’s where they’ll go because they know Whitman will give ‘em, will cut them a deal, but I won’t,” Brown said.

At that point, what appears to be a second voice interjects: “What about saying she’s a whore?”

“Well, I’m going to use that,” Brown responds. “It proves you’ve cut a secret deal to protect the pensions.”

- end of initial entry -

Paul K. writes:

I have lost interest in whether Meg Whitman wins her gubernatorial race. California, with its lunatic-left state legislature, is pretty much a lost cause. For all the criticism he now takes from the right, Schwarzenegger did try to rein spending, without success. I don’t know how it will be any different with Whitman. It seems to me it is strategically better to leave the state in the hands of the dysfunctional Democrats as it circles the drain. As governor, Whitman would only serve as a scapegoat.

LA replies:

I tend to agree. Whitman is one of those mannish, career-woman, pro-abortion RINO types. I posted the item because I found it shocking that Brown participated in such a phone conversation and appeared to assent to the idea of calling her a whore. Other than that, I’ve had no interest in that race.

Paul K. writes:

Brown was calling Whitman a whore because he believes that she will strike a deal with the police to protect their pensions in return for their support. If so, she is a whore in the political sense, which is not gender specific.

I have a friend who retired from the LAPD about seven years ago with a pension of $60,000 and full medical coverage. Like everyone else it seems, he maximized his pension by claiming disability for hearing loss, which he said was due to the radio in the squad car (though he is also a recreational shooter), and heart problems, which he claimed were due to the necessity of eating fast food when working the night shift (though he has a family history of heart problems). He now lives in Montana where his pension is twice the average income. This kind of largesse is unsustainable. If Whitman is promising to maintain these sorts of payouts as the price of winning office, she’s not going to solve the problem.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 10, 2010 08:13 AM | Send