You and your salty language, Jerry Brown. The Meg Whitman campaign may be finding a way to distract from the housekeeper controversy thanks to an inadvertent voicemail left with the Los Angeles Police Protective League. The gubernatorial candidate left a message in hopes of garnering an endorsement from the union that represents LAPD and didn't realize he had not hung up. Brown's subsequent conversation was then taped -- and released.
In part, here's what was heard:
Brown: "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 Associate: "What about saying she's a whore?"
Brown: "Well, I'm going to use that. It proves you've cut a secret deal to protect the pensions."
Brown's campaign confirmed the authenticity of the audio to the LA Times,
which was given the voicemail in full by the union. "This was a jumbled and often inaudible recording of a private conversation. At times our language was salty. We apologize to Ms. Whitman and anyone who may have been offended," Brown's campaign manager Steven Glazer said in a brief statement.
"The use of the term 'whore' is an insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California," said Whitman spokesperson Sarah Pompei in reaction. "This is an appalling and unforgivable smear against Meg Whitman. At the very least Mr. Brown tacitly approved this despicable slur and he himself may have used the term at least once on this recording."
A Brown's spokesperson added that the candidate was not agreeing with the use of the term whore, but rather "to the notion of accusing Whitman of cutting a deal to gain endorsements," said the Times.
Whitman has promised to leave public safety pensions out of her pension reform plan, which is making her popular among unions. That's putting Brown under pressure as it could man he'd lose many of the big name endorsements if he can't guarantee something similar.
