Brown and Whitman’s Closing Arguments Show Brown’s Mo’
The California gubernatorial contenders went up with two very different ads on Monday that illustrate the trend of the race and who has the momentum.
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R), who has sunk recently in polls, is up with a classic closing argument spot that features her telling her story directly to the camera. It is remarkably positive and doesn’t mention her opponent, former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) by name. It also completely ignores the current dynamic of the race.
“These are scary times,” Whitman says. “And I know that cleaning up Sacramento won’t be easy. Our problems are tough. But so am I. If you want more of the same from Sacramento, then vote for my opponent. But if you want to get California moving again, I’m ready. Are you?”
Brown, meanwhile, is going up with an ad that keeps the pressure on Whitman. The ad, much like his ad last week, uses Whitman’s own words against her. It uses a clip of Whitman saying, “Thirty years ago, anything was possible in this state.” Then the following text appears on the screen: “Who was Governor 30 years ago? Jerry Brown.”
Wolf’s pick: Condi, the Cleveland Browns and the N-word
Editor’s warning: This report about former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s book about growing up in the segregated South contains language you may find offensive, including the N-word. Rice explained she had to use the word in an interview with CNN to accurately portray what happened at a football game in 1964. Should you continue reading, we must warn you that we have left her quote intact and have included the word in the story.
Washington (CNN) - It’s not every day that you hear the former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, say the N-word. But she did during a taped interview with me that will air today in The Situation Room (5-7 p.m. ET).
We had a lengthy discussion about her new book, “Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family.” It’s the very powerful and moving story of her growing up in the segregated South - a story that’s still hard to believe because it took place not all that long ago in the United States.
Eventually, I brought up her love of NFL football. Over the years, in conversations with me, she’s made no secret of her dream of one day becoming the NFL commissioner.
I asked her to explain why - to this very day - she’s a Cleveland Browns fan.
It’s simple, she said. A lot of the NFL teams still didn’t have black players in the early 1960s. The Browns had the great running back Jim Brown. In the book, she writes: “Though Washington, D.C., was geographically the closest to us, my father hated the Redskins for their racist policies. They couldn’t be our team.”
The Redskins were the last NFL team to have a black player.
A year after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, she and her mother went to an NFL game in Birmingham between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings. It was the first time they could even enter the once all-white stadium.
In the interview with me, she recalled that she and her mom got all dressed up with new suits. They were so excited, especially when former Olympic gold medal winner Bob Hayes, playing for the Cowboys, scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff.
She then warned me that in telling what happened next, she would “have to use the word.” She recalled that a white man sitting behind them said something along the lines of: “Oooh-wee. Look at the nigger run!”
Trending: Whitman accepts Brown’s apology
(CNN) - Heading into the final weeks of the election, Meg Whitman may be letting bygones become bygones.
“Californians deserve better than the traditional politics of slurs and personal attacks… But I accept [Jerry Brown's] apology,” the Republican California gubernatorial candidate said of her opponent on Thursday in an interview on CNN’s The Situation Room.
Brown issued an apology after an unknown staffer on his campaign was heard in a recorded phone conversation referring to Whitman as a “whore,” implying that she had sold out to special interests.
The incident has dominated the tight race of late, culminating in a heated exchange between the two candidates during a debate earlier this week.
But Whitman told CNN Lead Political Anchor Wolf Blitzer that she wants to talk about “the issues, and which candidate is going to be better equipped to jump start the economy,” instead.
Whitman also expressed relief that another scandal that has dogged her campaign seems to have subsided, saying, “I think the good news is the Gloria Allred circus has pretty much left town.”
Allred created a firestorm when she, along with Whitman’s former housekeeper, Nicky Diaz-Santillan, accused the Republican candidate of knowingly employing Diaz-Santillan even though she is here illegally, then firing the housekeeper for “political reasons involving Ms. Whitman’s decision to run for governor.”
Whitman has provided a detailed defense of the housekeeper’s employment, maintaining that she fired Diaz-Santillan when she learned of her illegal status.
“We went to an employment agency to hire our housekeeper. We had three forms of identification. She was a great employee. Came to us, you know, nine years later and admitted that she was illegal, and we did what we had to do which was let her go,” Whitman said.
Whitman has said that employers should be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants, and staunchly opposes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Brown jumped on the allegations, saying they exposed his opponent’s hypocrisy, while Whitman accused Brown’s campaign of orchestrating the scandal for political gain.
“Californians understand that that was a political stunt. I did nothing wrong,” Whitman said.
Brown’s strategery
The two candidates for governor of California continue to compete in attempts to destroy their own campaigns:
“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.”
The tape was released to The Times by the Los Angeles police union.
Brown campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford, confirming the tape’s authenticity, said that Brown was responding to the notion of accusing Whitman of cutting a deal to gain endorsements, not to the use of the word “whore.” The campaign was trying to determine the identity of the second speaker, he added.
UPDATE: Brown’s campaign manager’s statement:
"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."
Shameless: Kathy Griffin Insists Calling Scott Brown’s Daughters ‘Prostitutes’ Was a Fantastic Career Move
Liberal "comedian" Kathy Griffin thinks there is no line of rudeness she can’t cross, including calling the daughters of Sen. Scott Brown "prostitutes." On Monday’s Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News, Griffin proclaimed "But yes, whenever a statement is issued against me, I`m in heaven. I feel my next special is half written for me. And then I get to read statements allowed in my live shows which you can go to KathyGriffin.net and see the many, many cities I`ve picked up for my current tour."
Not even Rep. Barney Frank could make her feel bad about it:
BEHAR: So you’re really feeling bad about it all? Okay, I mean, when Barney Frank turns on you, one of your gays, you have to start to wonder.
GRIFFIN: Hey, the gays, look, there is — that’s — there is a reason that that flag has colors. There’s many levels and colors. There’s not just — I mean, I make the joke about the gays, but there’s many, many kinds of gay people like there are many, many kinds of straight people. And you know, he’s one of my gays. He just doesn’t know it because he doesn`t know, you know, who I am, as usual.
Behar had the same conversation with liberal "comedian" Margaret Cho on August 25, but Cho had no idea who Scott Brown was. So Behar told her (incorrectly) that Scott Brown posed for Playgirl magazine — when it was really Cosmopolitan.
BEHAR: And he also introduced his daughters in one speech that he gave saying they’re available and he posed for them in bikinis. They were in bikinis. People felt that they were easy targets and available. But she got into trouble because he didn’t like that she called them prostitutes.
CHO: Yes, well, I don’t know. I think she can say whatever she wants. And part of her appeal and her glory is that she does. She doesn`t really care.
BEHAR: She doesn’t care, the more you criticize, the more she loves it.
This logic of Griffin’s doesn’t always work — CNN did bump her off their New Year’s Eve program as she incessantly tried to embarrass Anderson Cooper.
