Jerry Brown Compares Meg Whitman To A NAZI: 'Goebbels Invented This Kind Of Propaganda'

Taking a page out of the playbook normally reserved for Glenn Beck, Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee for California Governor (and a former governor himself), recently compared his opponent, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, to a Nazi.

And not just any Nazi -- chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

The comments came during a conversation between San Francisco KCBS radio reporter Doug Sovern and Brown after the two bumped into each other on a bike trail in Oakland.

Here is the report from Sovern's blog.

Brown boasted about his legendary frugality. "I've only spent $200,000 so far. I have 20 million in the bank. I'm saving up for her." It's true -- his stay-on-the-sidelines, bare-bones primary run cost him almost nothing, at least in California political terms. But he also fretted about the impact of all those eBay dollars in Whitman's very deep pockets. "You know, by the time she's done with me, two months from now, I'll be a child-molesting..." He let the line trail off. "She'll have people believing whatever she wants about me.

"It's like Goebbels," referring to Hitler's notorious minister of propaganda. "Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda. He took control of the whole world. She wants to be president. That's her ambition, the first woman president. That's what this is all about."

The conversation continued: "She looks like an athlete. You think she's an athlete?" Brown asked. "[S]he could probably outrun me."

Meg Whitman's campaign later reacted to the Goebbels statement:

"Jerry Brown's statements comparing our campaign to a propagator of the Holocaust is deeply offensive and entirely unacceptable," said Jillian Hasner, Whitman's campaign manager.

Brown's campaign spokesman, Sterling Clifford, addressed the reported comments on Thursday:

"I wouldn't vouch for the accuracy of it, but I also don't want to dispute the accuracy of it," he told The Associated Press. "It was jogging talk taken out of context."