CA Governorship--Brown apologizes to Bill Clinton for Monica Lewinsky joke

[WI_DEM]

Jerry Brown apologized to Bill Clinton Monday for making a Monica Lewinsky joke during a campaign stop this weekend.

"Bill Clinton was an excellent president. It was wrong for me to joke about an incident from many years ago, and I'm sorry," California's Democratic nominee for governor said at a press conference Monday.


Brown was compelled to make the statement after The Page posted a video of Brown bashing Meg Whitman for using a 1992 clip of Clinton criticizing Brown's record on taxes.

The ad shows Clinton, who was fending off Brown in the Democratic presidential primary, saying that Brown raised taxes during his earlier term as governor, a claim Brown denied at the time and still disputes.

On Sunday, Brown said, "I mean, Clinton's a nice guy, but whoever said he always told the truth?"

Brown then mocked Clinton's infamous denial of an affair with Lewinsky. "I did not have taxes with this state," Brown said.

After making his apology, Brown tried to refocus his fire on Whitman, who he says is running a false ad pegged to Clinton's past remarks.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42131.html#ixzz0zWHbLEfi

(I'm having my doubts that Brown was the right candidate for the Dems to win back the CA governorship).

[bluestateguy]

1. Never apologize (even when you know you are wrong)

It reveals weakness before your enemies.

[WI_DEM]

4. I have to admit I'm worried about CA--this really should have been an easy pick up for Dems given

the unpopularity of Arnold, but I'm just thinking that Brown is the past and we should have come up with somebody newer. Hopefully I'm wrong and Meg isn't making it easy with all of her cash.

[karynnj]

10. The problem is which "new face" could have countered Meg and her money?

Newsome and Villaraigosa, who had years before been seen as future stars both accumulated way too much baggage for a really tough race. Name recognition is really needed to compensate for being incredibly outspent.

Caveat - I don't know California well - have never lived there and could well be not thinking of some Democratic superstar who did not run.

[karynnj]

7. I take this as a "John Lennon" apology

The reference here is to Lennon's Chicago press conference apology in 1966 at the beginning of a Beatles tour for a comment that came from a serious interview with Maureen Cleave of the London Evening Standard where he used the phrase that the "Beatles were bigger than Jesus". In context, it was not irreverent or inaccurate. It was reprinted in an American teen magazine, Datebook. It led to people = mostly in the South - burning Beatles' records. (From memory of a dedicated Beatles fan, so quite possibly not completely accurate - it was more than 40 years ago.)

His apology basically boiled down to apologizing for saying things that offended some. For me as a young teen, it was the first time I was conscious of this kind of non-apology apology. Here, Brown goes a bit further - saying the joke was "wrong", but it gives me the same vibes. As stated, he still say - and the budget numbers back him up - that Bill Clinton's accusation, which Whitman is using is just not true. That is the key point - and he said nothing to take back the claim that Clinton has played free and loose with the truth.

He is still discrediting Whitman's use of Clinton' charge. His apology and praise of Clinton as a President was done to try to assuage the hurt that Clinton fans (look at comment here) have - and as such was needed.

[KingFlorez]

2. Clinton and Brown don't like each other

When that ad came out, it was bound to bring up the old animosity.

[blm]

3. Clinton not condemning Whitman's use of that clip in the context of this race isn't helping, either

This Whitman ad should have been countered immediately by Clinton before it increased the awkwardness of Brown's positions defending himself against Clinton's words from 1992.

[karynnj]

9. Good point - the budget numbers show that Clinton was "wrong"

As he is not running against Brown any more, it would have been decent for him to issued a statement that he had been inaccurate in that charge - possibly blaming it on an unnamed aide pulling the wrong years for the comparison.

The fact is that Whitman is using a KNOWN inaccuracy, using Bill Clinton saying it to give it credibility. As you said, Clinton could have immediately corrected Whitman. Given he didn't, it's not Brown's fault that Clinton's credibility was impeached here.

[AtomicKitten]

5. BClinton was wrong about Brown's tax record.

Every time Whitman pays to broadcast this ad, that misinformation is repeated over and over again. Since BClinton has confined his campaigning for the most part as payback for people that supported HClinton in the Dem party, I doubt he's interested in correcting the record on Brown's behalf. And that's a damn shame.

[karynnj]

11. It i actually shockingly dishonest

It i possible that he thought what he was saying in 1992 was true, but not publicly saying that he was wrong and demanding that Whitman take the ad off the air is wrong. If he did that, Brown could use Clinton's comment that the info is wrong and that Brown did a good job as Governor and that he had personally asked Whitman not to propagate a "mistake" on his part. This would likely force Whitman to take it down - or look dishonest.

The question is if Bill Clinton is a big enough man to put aside his own animosity. (If John Kerry could cordially meet with Pickens, whose transgressions against him were FAR greater, because it could possibly give a climate change bill a somewhat better chance of passing, certainly the man who headed the Democratic party for 8 years should be able to admit a mistake - or an aide's mistake, to help elect a Democratic Governor in the largest state in the country - for the time when Congressional districts will be defined.)

[David Zephyr]

13. That's the core of all of this.

Brown's quip won't hurt him.

All it does is re-invigorate that news that Whitman is lying about Jerry and underscore her dishonesty.

[karynnj]

6. I don't really see why Brown even had to apologize there

There is backup that Clinton was wrong in his charge. It is true that Clinton is not above lying in a campaign. He was called on in in 2008! The fact is that Clinton is known for abusing the truth when it suits his purposes. Another 1992 opponent, Bob Kerrey, was more explicit in his comment on Clinton's veracity - calling him an "unusually good liar". (Time had an interesting commentary that argued that he was actually not good at lying - but did not dispel the case that he did lie. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988870-2,00.html)

I do think he might have been better off explaining that Clinton erred in making that charge - explaining that Clinton used the wrong years when he compared the budget, rather than using Clinton's reputation to dismiss it and make light of it. The fact is that given that it was Clinton, who both has lied when it helped him and who is very very sharp - I do think that the charge was likely an intentional lie in 1992 - and one that hurt. (The comments elsewhere that Clinton was STILL angry that Brown stayed in the race too long after it was clear that Clinton would win are rather ironic given 2008, where HRC stayed in far longer after it was clear she would not win - even after all the primaries were over.)

I do think that Brown is an excellent candidate for the governorship and think he will win. The fact that this makes you question if he is the right candidate ignores that the problem here was started by a Bill Clinton error (which he never conceded) or lie from 1992. Brown pointing out that Clinton was not known for telling the truth - in addition to putting out the numbers that dispute the 1992 lie that Whitman is using is fair - as is the joking reference to Clinton's most famous lie. Clinton is not running and, like it or not, his relationship with Lewinsky - and lying about it - are part of his legacy. (It is also true that Democrats have had Clinton's back far more often than he ever had theirs.)

The apology is simply good politics.

[Upton]

8. Brown should be apologizing for his opposition to prop 19 instead..

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. The Great Bill Clinton Would Never Be In Danger Of Losing A Race To A Poltical Dilletante

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