Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown is apparently becoming a little sensitive to criticisms he is using his official capacity of Attorney General as a campaign platform.
In a Los Angeles Times story yesterday, Brown defended his investigation into pay practices in the City of Bell, deflecting allegations by the Meg Whitman campaign, that his actions were a campaign stunt.
Maybe someone should ask Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. The man with the tire tracks across his back.
The Bell issue is clearly within the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County District Attorney. In fact, the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division was already investigating the Bell matter when Brown rolled into town.
The California Department of Justice, Brown’s former office , has a long-standing policy to only enter local investigations when either requested by the local District Attorney or a conflict is declared.
Has anyone heard of any request for assistance from Cooley?
If Cooley has asked, it will be news to everyone.
It would appear Brown ran Cooley over with his campaign bus and he’s going to ride this investigation for all he can get. After all it’s free press.
It didn’t take long for Brown to engage either. From self-initiating a live impromptu call-in to Los Angeles radio station KFI’s John and Ken Show to holding press conferences, Brown was on the move. A call where Brown’s purpose was to announce his new Bell investigation.
However, hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou stole some of the Brown thunder. They wanted to discuss illegal immigration.
Now Brown has parlayed the fiasco onto local and network television.
When you listen to Brown’s nauseating interviews you get the picture. Comments like “We’re gonna get to the bottom of this.”, We’ve issued subpoena’s for records, and they’ve got forty-eight hours to respond.”, and “This is an outrage.”, bring the word pandering to mind.
Here’s a dose of classic Brown press conference verbiage from another Times story published online yesterday:
“These outrageous pay practices are an insult to the hard-working people of Bell and have provoked righteous indignation in California and even across the country,” Brown said. “I’m determined to get to the bottom of these exorbitant payouts and protect the state’s pension system against such abuses, and today’s subpoenas are an important step in that process.”
Expect Brown to make reference to lethal injection as punishment for the Bell officials.
If the Bell incident had been discovered two years ago would Brown be as outraged?
I doubt it.
Then why did the story break in the LA Times and splash into the general consciousness through KFI with Steve Cooley flat footed and unable to show any leadership role? How long has this been going on in Steve Cooley’s backyard? Witnesses on KFI have stated that they reported the corrupt goings on to the DA and got no support.
Jim, your claim to fame is being able to negotiate the hardball side of local politics. You often identify the motive towards personal gain in the official actions of various elected officials.
How would you know? Why would you imagine such? What is Jim Irwin going to do for the middle and lower-middle classs citizens of Bell? It seems that they could use your honest services, if you are willing to give honest servicves.
Let me put it this way. The people who may be angry at the way Ramos has treated Erwin and Postums are 10 times as angry over the way Rizzo, et al have treated the people of Bell.
Therefore, when you attack the Attorney General coming to defend the people of Bell, you are alienating your own supporters. If you do not understand that, then you are not the political analyist that you think you are. Maybe you are good for San Bernardino County, but not good enough for Bell nor the vast metropolis of the County of Los Angeles.
Let me put it this way. The $15,000 Rolex and Rizzo’s $800,000 salary appear to the average person more alike than the interest of the average resident of either Bell or San Bernardino County. The interest of the the average resident of Bell or San Bernardino County appear to be more alike than the interests of either Rizzo or Erwin.
Rizzo was not abashed to publicly defend his pay and his actions. He even used the old excuse that he could have done even better working in the private sector, as does the average resident of Bell or San Bernardino County.
So Jim (and or Bill), Rizzo has changed things. It is time for you to move beyond the fine points of the law. It is time for you to move on from comparing the corruption of this public official to that public official. It is time to begin to describe how the actions of the public officials, the conty employee unions, and the county employess impact either positively or negatively on the average citizen of San Bernardino County. That may be the question that led you all into the mess you are in in the first place. You can begin with the effect of the gift of the Rolex.
If you can not make this transition, it would probably be better for everybody, particularly yourself, if you would simply shut down this website and allow iepolitcs.com to carry the load.
Steve:
The sitation in Bell is outrageous. People should be held to answer. The purpose of the theme of the coverage on Brown is designed to focus on the grandstanding for political gain by an attorney general. He should step down if he’s going to act like this. If he wins the Gov spot, he’s only out of a job for a few months. If he loses, he leaves a few months early.
The vents of yesterday involving LA County DA Cooley revealing his investigation brings my point home.
Brown didn’t care to find out what Cooley wwas doing. He only cared about jumping the gun.
Jim, I read the updated information and understand it.
Let me reitterate that I first learned your name from the Press Enterprise article when you were indicted by Ramos. Your response was agressive, but not the usual claim of “politically motivated prosecution”. Your quotes had a degree of honesty in how you had come to your current position, and very specific claims as to the motivations of Ramos.
So I googled Ramos and came up with iepolitics.com. This in due course lead to InlandPolitics.com. In the cousrse of the past year, I have learned much about how various people thing and have had confirmed much about what I thought that various people think.
For instance, I have learned usch from iepolitics about the plight of the average county union worker. Yet, I have had confirmed from this that I am was right by not becoming one and that much of our national financial mailaise is due to the thought process of the average county union worker.
Similarly, on the websites you have defined your thinking. This includes both the thinking that got you indicted and the thinking that you will hope will be a successful defence.
But as you define yourself you are not necessarily perceived favorably
by those who read you. For instance, the union member who thinks they are being screwed out of their percentage increase and the union member who is willing to give up a raise for job security are two sides of the dame coin to me.
As the blogs teach me to hate political consulant Chris Jones, I do recall that Jim Erwin is also a political consultant and seems to me more like Chris Jones than different. Sometimes Sharon Gilbert and Dorreen Boker seem like two peas in a pod–both county emnployees with little knowledge of what things are like in the private sector.
We have been promised many things on these blogs. First, if the Attorney General entered the case, then charges would be dropped. Now that the Attorney General is in the case, everything that he does is suspect and we are waiting on the FBI to take charge.
All the while we are being promised great things when the truth comes out. But at the same time, we are only told of other’s falsehoods. And we are told that the truth will probably never come out, certainly not through the Great Hope Niel Derry.
The blog is getting weary without hope. I hope that you have reserved quite a lot for the jury that you have denied the blog.
I’ll second that observation (Steve’s and Stevie’s think the same)o;