Democratic allies of
Jerry
Brown said Friday that he should offer a direct apology
for someone in his campaign calling Republican rival
Meg
Whitman a "whore" in a discussion of whether to create
an ad alleging that she had protected law enforcement pensions
in order to win police endorsements in the race for governor.
"It's inappropriate; it's just wrong," said Stephanie
Schriock, the leader of EMILY'S List, a Democratic group
dedicated to electing pro-choice women, on C-SPAN's
"Newsmakers." Such words "just shouldn't be used anywhere by
anyone, period. It is just not what our democracy is about.
It's unfortunate to hear it in any place."
Such rough talk in politics or business is nothing new, nor is
it particularly surprising. In August, Alaska
GOP
Senate nominee
Joe
Miller compared a third-party bid by sitting Republican
Sen. Lisa Murkowski to prostitution.
But the recording of the slur against Whitman, made during a
Brown campaign discussion inadvertently taped by a voice mail
machine, pushed it into the national spotlight and changed the
discourse of the gubernatorial race, which had been focused
for more than a week on the revelation that Whitman employed
an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper.
On Thursday, The Times reported that the Los Angeles Police
Protective League provided an audio recording of Brown calling
the union to discuss an endorsement. Brown apparently failed
to hang up, and then had a conversation with his aides
discussing strategy in response to potential police
endorsements for Whitman. Whitman had earlier exempted public
safety officials from key parts of her pension reform plan —
at the same time she said Brown would bend to labor's desires
on the issue.
An unidentified voice can be heard saying, "What about saying
she's a whore?"
Within hours, a spokesman for Brown said the candidate was not
the speaker, but the campaign does not know who it was. The
candidate's campaign manager issued a lukewarm apology, saying
the discussion was "a private conversation" but that "at times
our language was salty. We apologize to Ms. Whitman and anyone
who may have been offended."
The Whitman campaign called it an "unforgiveable smear," but
the candidate herself made no public comment.
Brown has yet to address the matter, and his spokesman said
the campaign did not plan to issue any other statement beyond
its apology Thursday. But for good measure it also released an
endorsement of Brown by the California branch of the National
Organization for Women, which cited his record on women's
issues and said pointedly that "actions speak louder than
words."
Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics
Institute at American University, said that's not good enough.
"It's one thing to use salty language, it's another thing to
use the word 'whore,' " she said, adding that it was unlikely
that the same word would have been used to describe a male
candidate.
"The longer this statement is out there and it's ambiguous who
said it or if it was him, that hurts him," she said. Brown
would be better served "if he came out right now — him, not
his campaign surrogates — and said, 'Look, I don't believe
this, I don't think that's the case, I'd never think this is
acceptable, it's overt sexism.' "
Whitman has been aggressively courting women voters and has
said their votes are critical to her chances. While some
thought the dustup would hurt Brown's standing among them,
others said the electorate knows that politics has an ugly
side.
"I think voters realize that politicians and their aides often
use harsh language about their opponents in private. This
particular word is unfortunate, but it's not exactly unheard
of," said John J. Pitney Jr., a government professor at
Claremont McKenna College and a former national GOP official.
"One thing it does do is it enables Meg Whitman to go on the
offense and stop talking about the housekeeper."
Dan Newman, a Democratic strategist, said he was hopeful that
voters would appreciate the underlying message — that even in
private Brown was unwilling to soften his pension reform plan
to gain political endorsements. "I heard him essentially
saying he's going to stick to his principles instead of
bending to an interest group to earn their endorsement,"
Newman said.
But the remark disconcerted some of Brown's most fervent
supporters.
"I am a woman and I am supporting Jerry Brown. I fundamentally
disagree with everything Meg Whitman stands for and I will be
voting for Jerry Brown," Los Angeles Councilwoman
Janice
Hahn said. "However it is never acceptable for anyone,
particularly a man, to call another woman a whore and
particularly someone of Meg Whitman's stature."
