Inside Jerry Brown's Brain, The Illegal Tapes
It's rare that you get to hear what's in the brain of a powerful politician because his phone conversations were taped.
Listening to Jerry Brown opine, berate and spin reporters about their age, his age, what they should and should not be reporting on, and his superiority to other gubernatorial candidates and figures like Hillary Clinton reminds you exactly why telephone conversations should be confidential. Here are the transcripts of the tapes, in pdf or scribd, produced by the Attorney General's office in response to Consumer Watchdog's Public Records Act request.
This is some pretty embarrassing stuff for the attorney general and former governor who wants to be governor again. His tone, arrogance, and obsession with his own image as it's seen in the media are anything but gubernatorial.
A sample. Brown on Hillary: "She doesn't have the scope. She didn't work with Mother Theresa. She didn't spend six months working in Zen Buddhism. She didn't take Linda Rondstandt
to Africa. She didn't have her own astronaut."
Brown had to release the transcripts because his own communications director taped the phone conversations with reporters surreptitiously and, I believe, illegally.
The whole affair only came to light when my colleague and mentor at Consumer Watchdog Harvey Rosenfield complained that Brown had rewritten the official title and summary of a proposed ballot measure to exclude any reference to insurance premium increases after the measure's sponsor, Mercury Insurance (a donor) pressured Brown's office.
Brown's team went apoplectic over the charge, and, as the transcript show, leaned heavily on editors for the San Francisco Chronicle to keep the story out of the paper or rewrite it. Brown's press flack e-mailed the editor a transcript of a conversation between top attorney general officials and the Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci. That led Marinucci to question whether Scott Gerber, Brown's communications director, had been taping conversations with reporters. Indeed he had, which gets us back to Brown's demeanor on the transcripts.
The public should judge for itself the appropriateness of what Jerry Brown says.
A few public policy issues must be dealt with as well:
First, Brown shouldn't be allowed to investigate his own office's actions in this matter. He issued a white wash report yesterday blaming only the rogue P-R flack Gerber (fired last week) for the surreptitious taping and claiming the conduct was not illegal because the conversations were "on the record." That just doesn't comport with a reasonable reading of California Penal Code 632. A person talking to a reporter may not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, but the reporter had a reasonable expectation that her comments wouldn't be recorded.
Also, in one of the e-mails released with the transcripts, Brown's top deputy is informed that Gerber wants to tape the conversation with Marinucci. Chief Deputy Jim Humes claimed not to remember reading the e-mail. That just doesn't appear credible. Another independent law enforcement agency needs to investigate and depose key participants, including asking whether anyone outside the Atty. Gen.'s office, like top political aides to Brown, saw these transcripts.
Then there's the issue that Brown is clearly running for governor in April if you read the transcript of the conversation with Associated Press reporter Beth Fouhy. He even says he has "two jobs." Yet Brown hadn't opened up a committee to run for governor. The Fair Political Practices Commission needs to look at this because it appears that Brown was campaigning for office and should have opened up a gubernatorial committee in April, when the conversation with Fouhy took place. If Brown spent or raised money for the office, he should have created a committee, and the interview suggests he was doing both.
Lastly, there's the original matter of Mercury Insurance Company's anti-consumer ballot initiative. Brown rewrote the official title and summary for the measure that will allow insurance companies to lower or raise rates based on whether a motorist has had continuous insurance coverage. The measure has not changed on this point, yet Brown struck from the second summary, which appears at the head of the initiative and on the ballot, any reference to premium increases. He only mentions discounts. That's one sided. More here for a deeper explanation.
Mercury Insurance, the initiative's backer, gave Brown's Attorney General campaign committee $13,000 the day before it poured $500,000 into a campaign committee for the ballot measure. Brown needs to return the money and give the responsibility for an accurate title and summary over to an independent third party.
All of Brown's laudable spiritual, charitable and political growth has clearly inflated, not deflated, his ego. Yet to govern California with its present woes Brown will need to check that ego at the door and dig in.
California's next governor is likely someone who's already won a landslide election as governor, albeit 30 years ago. That's Jerry Brown, who won his latest landslide for Attorney General in 2006.
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And I would say the same about Meg w. California has to have better than these two
Read the transcript, don't take the interpretation. Jerry sound good. Listen to what HE SAYS, not what others say about what he said.
Brown sounds like a sell out to me.The highest bidder wins
It is about time a light is shine on Mr feel good brown and his shenanigans,California not only should have better but deserves better than Mr feel good brown. Their has to be someone better than him and Meg W.
Finally, a ray of light on this guy shines.
CA voters deserve better.
Brown comes of really well here. Just solid. I've liked him more and more over the years. I think we need some competency in office, not just someone who wants to be liked.
Agreed. Jerry even comments that he needs to say something outrageous to get press for the rest of his comments.
Jamie Court: "Brown had to release the transcripts because his own communications director taped the phone conversations with reporters surreptitiously and, I believe, illegally."
As I understand California law, it is not illegal to record a phone conversation, provided that at least one of the parties approves of the recording contemporaneously, and not after the fact.
Ergo, if Jerry Brown authorized his subordinate to record his calls, then it's perfectly legal. But if both Brown and the reporter he was talking to were heretofore unaware that the recording was taking place, then such permission to record cannot be granted by Brown retroactively, and the subordinate is guilty of an unauthorized eavesdrop or surveillance.
And as always, it is illegal in all 50 states for an outside party to record a phone call with neither the knowledge nor the permission of said phone call's participants, unless said outside party is a law enforcement agency acting in accordance with the court's permission.
That's what I've been told by California lawyers, too. That if one party knows about the taping then it's OK. But I've also heard that both parties had to be informed that they were being taped. Notice boyoboy's comment below.
It's a respectful courtesy to tell someone you're taping a conversation to get all quotes correct -- but does a California reporter, who is doing the recording, legally have to inform the person he's interviewing that he's being taped?
Just curious. Thanks.
I'm fairly certain that's incorrect. While federal law only requires one party to be aware of the taping, California law requires that all parties have to be aware of the taping.
The worst Democrat is better than any Republican is no longer true.
Look at what the Bluedog/Turncoats are doing to the healthcare bill and A Woman's Right To Choose.
Third Party.
A Democrat who caters to the biggest Insurance Company in California is D I R T Y.
Brown is not a Blue Dog. He is usually attacked as too progressive. Is he clean? Is anyone who has been in politics clean?
I have no idea if there is anything to the Insurance beef at all however I can count on one hand the politicians who aren't in bed with insurance. Maybe I don't need all the fingers of that hand.
In any case you need to compare apples and apples. Please show me this less big business oriented Rebuplican you wish me to vote for. I assure you they aren't running in California.
I don't get the point of secretly recording the conversations.
For a brief while I was a reporter. I used a note pad and a tape recorder. And it wasn't uncommon for the person I was interviewing to make their own tape of the conversation. All very above board.
As long as all parties are notified of the procedure on the telephone, Jeff.
Otherwise, it's illegal. Surprised you didn't know that.
States' laws re: recording people vary. It's against the law in California to record someone if they aren't aware that they're being recorded.
It was a JOKE, Dear.
Brown's comments about Mother Theresa, Zen Buddhism and dating Linda Rondstandt were obviously signs not of arrogance but of a sharp and self-deprecating wit.
He's old, he's a sixties retread and he's a thousand times better than Meg "I don't bother to vote" Whitman.
The article comes across as an attack on Brown by somebody with a personal axe to grind--who must know a lot about ego from personal experience
I mean come on the comment on Hillary is obviously a joke, however I guess the self obsessed press has no sense of humor. Hey I like Hillary in general (although I'm more progressive than she is) and I found his comments hysterical. Seriously where is the humor?
And our other choices for governer are whom? A woman who only recently discovered voting (Witman) and other republican re-hashes.
If this is the best you can throw at Jerry Brown.... zzzzzzzzz.....
OB-viously.......I'm a great admirer of Mrs. Clinton and my response is the same. It's a joke son.
I'll bet Hillary's own response would be similar too...
Prediction: Bron will be Cal's next Governor....and nothing here will impct that one whit.
tm
Even the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican.
Proven true time and time again.
Sorry, I'm done selling out on my principles. With all of it's dysfunction and impotence, the Green Party of California hasn't sold out the electorate like that ever.
Hey, cool! If you can just get enough people to agree with you on that, you can help the GOP take over Sacramento the way the Naderites handed the White House to Bush in 2000.
The only party who hasn't disappointed its electorate is a party who has never gotten anyone elected.
No, but I do recall a Green Party member of the State Assembly a few years ago - can't think of her name off-hand - who managed to alienate her Oakland constituents in short order, and was found to have abused her staff in a rather egregious manner. Needless to say, she lasted all of one term. Too bad when your legislative pioneer turns out to be less than stellar.
Nevertheless, 55 Green Party members currently hold elected office in California on the local level, so there's something to build on.
With the exception of Ted Bundy, all serial killers have been Democrats. John Wayne Gacy was a union boss.
If you want to start counting bodies, the tally would get rather high for both parties. Unless you consider illegal wars/military reprisals out of bounds when it comes to mass-killers.
Yawn. And all criminals are conservatives.
now that Garamendi will not be running for Gov., I sure hope we'll get a few more great Dems in the race.
has Brown even announced yet ... or are we just going to let Meg Whitman buy this thing, Bloomberg-style?
ugh
Brown hasn't announced his candidacy yet. Still he had a 20-1 fundraising advantage over Newsom, which is why Newsom quit.
I can't imagine Meg being elected. I think that the people of California learned their lesson this time. Brown has served California in various capacities for many years. I work in Oakland and have friends that live there. Brown was great for Oakland.
Brown will run, and I anticipate that he'll be elected.
Drudge has a lead that shows the San Diego ACORN head talking to locals at a restaurant, guaranteeing them Brown will whitewash his investigation of ACORN and find blame with the camera crew. Tapes of the comments available. Is that the Governor you want? Is that the Attorney General you want?
Perhaps you're are mistaking us for Politico?
Like drudge is a credible source of anything? and to answer your questions, yes, yes.
Please provide a link to the recordings.
Since when have ANY of Drudges leads been proven to be accurate?
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