These Are Our Choices?

"Bill Clinton was an excellent president," Jerry Brown, California's attorney general, said Monday at a news conference. "It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I'm sorry." It wasn't probably the relative tastelessness of the joke that got him to apologize, but the percentage points he sits behind Megbay Whitman. Three points, currently. While many might consider this a dead heat, others might point to the fact that Ms. Whitman continues to lead the race for governor of the Golden State as she has since it began. She's got the moxie and the money to do just about whatever she wants, including buying herself a stay in the governor's mansion for a few years.

So why would Jerry come out slinging mud at a Democratic icon like ol' Bill? It all goes back to 1992 when the two were vying for their party's nomination for president. Their mildly heated exchange from eighteen years ago has been scooped up by Whitman's campaign to show how "even Bill Clinton" has issues with the once and future Governor Moonbeam. And so, we assume that a clever politician like Jerry would simply ignore the noise and rise above this easily dismissed skeleton from his closet. As my wife says, "Never make an assumption. It makes an ass out of you and umption."

On Sunday, here's what Jerry had to say: "I mean, Clinton's a nice guy, but whoever said he always told the truth?" Brown then mocked Clinton: "I did not have taxes with this state." He went on to say, "Hey, be sure and tip your waitress. I'll be here all week. Try the veal."

Okay, that last bit was mine, but one has to wonder when the former governor's son, governor, mayor, attorney general, and so on will stop cracking wise about the former president and start focusing his energy on the campaign that's taking place in this millennium. Isn't there something he might like to say about California in 2010? Or how he might go about solving some of the problems we face, and how we might recover from the savage economic beating we have taken over the past decade? It's on his web site, after all, so why not put aside old issues and focus on the challenges of the future? Leave the character assassination to us bloggers. Thank you.