Romney Ties Perry to Brown

03 November 2011 |permalink | email article

The Republican presidential candidates have finally figured out a way to try and link Gov. Jerry Brown to the 2012 nomination battle. Mitt Romney, for example, is out with a new Web video tying Texas Gov. Rick Perry to California Gov. Jerry Brown who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, 1980 and 1992.

The thirty-second spot, which features Perry and Brown, suggests Perry’s policies on illegal immigration served as “An Inspiration to Liberal California.” Where did liberals in California get all their bad ideas? the ad’s text asks, before slamming Perry for being the “first to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.” Both California and Texas both adopted laws approving state tuition rates for undocumented immigrant students in 2001. For my two cents, the ad’s a reach too far – a harmless dud.

Super Committee Republicans

Democrats on the committee are pressed to accept unpopular and wrong-headed proposals like raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 over several years, but Republicans are under savage pressure to cut loose Grover Norquist, the champion anti-tax crusader.

The exchange between Norquist and retired Republican Sen. Alan Simpson who testified before the committee is priceless. “If Grover Norquist is now the most powerful man in America, he should run for the president. Simpson went on: “He said, ‘My hero is Ronald Reagan.‘ I said,’ Well, he raised taxes 11 times in his eight years.’ And he said,’ I know. I didn’t like that at all.’ I said, ‘Well, he did it Why do you suppose? He said, I don’t know ‘I said, ‘He probably did it to make the country run, another sick idea.’”

California Politics

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has a right to be skeptical of the slow pace of reform in the troubled county jail system. The supervisors approved an outside oversight committee and ordered Sheriff Lee Baca to give them periodic updates. The most stunning comment came from Baca who said his top department commanders knew of the inmate abuse two years ago but shielded him from the reports. Incredibly, Baca said he did not think any commanders should be disciplined.
The question remains: who kept him in the dark?

What They Said

On Sean Hannity’s Fox News Monday extreme right-wing commentator Ann Coulter said that liberals are “too dense” to see the “many wonderful qualities” about Herman Cain, because “all they see is a conservative black man. That’s why our blacks are so much better than their blacks.”

Perry, hitting the Silicon Valley, who’s raised at least $1.2 million from the Golden State so far, referred to his bizarre New Hampshire address last week as “a pretty typical speech for me,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci reported. 

 

104