Jerry Brown: “This is Not About Sarah Palin”
[Guest post by DRJ]
LA Weekly looks at why Jerry Brown stepped into the Cal State-Sarah Palin event:
“State Attorney General Brown said late Tuesday that he’ll look into allegations that the California State University Stanislaus Foundation dumped documents related to its invitation to have Sarah Palin come speak at the school.
He also wants to find out why the foundation has refused a California Public Records Act request that essentially asks how much its paying to have Palin speak at the campus, part of a financially strapped Cal State system. (The foundation is a nonprofit organization with separate finances, but Brown does have jurisdiction over nonprofits in the state). Brown stated that Palin has recently been paid $100,000 to speak elsewhere.
Brown stated he will look at documents that State Sen. Leland Yee got his hands on after they were pulled from a dumpster by students at CSU Stanislaus. They are said to contain part of Palin’s speaking contract, although Brown has yet to authenticate them. He wants to know how such documents, denied as public information under the records request, ended up in the trash.
***
Brown indicates he plans to get all up in the CSU Stanislaus Foundation’s finances, which include $20 million in the bank and $3 million in spending each year on university “endeavors.” He warned the foundation not to trash any more documents.”
Is this contract law vs open records? Foundation privacy vs the public’s right to know? Or is it really Jerry Brown vs Sarah Palin?
— DRJ
MORE: A university official claims the Palin contract was stolen from an office recycling bin last week.
Too bad he wasn’t this interested in the ACORN document dump.
Mike M (25ccc4) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:37 pmToo bad he is wasting taxpayer’s money dumpster diving looking for gotcha documents that were too worthless to shred. OH! I forgot he is running for Moonbeamerator on the “Wishin’ and Hopin'” platform.
This is why legalizing marijuana under the guise of medicine is unwise. It produces the academic equivalent of the munchies.
vet66 (996c34) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:44 pmIf it isn’t about Sarah Palin, what’s it about?
Rochf (ae9c58) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:45 pmPatrick, the site is as slow now as it has ever been and my comment just vanished. I had gone to read my e-mail while it chugged away and when I came back, no comment.
Mike K (2cf494) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:55 pmIt’s Jerry Brown running for Governor. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
mojo (8096f2) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:56 pmSome people are really desperate to get their name in front of the voting public, and Meg Whitman’s been spending million$, million$ that our “beloved” AG doesn’t have, so he does what he does.
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/14/2010 @ 1:56 pmHe’s always been a media whore.
He was; he issued a report criticizing Acorn on multiple grounds.
@ Rochf: state AGs are charged w/ ensuring that funds that the public entrusts to charities aren’t wasted. (charitable law emerges out of trust law; the AG represents the general public which we can consider the trust beneficiary) Hence jurisdiction (although this may well be selective interest, who knows)
jpe (e31238) — 4/14/2010 @ 2:01 pmThe only thing that Jerry Brown has ever wished to ensure is his continueing electability, and he will associate his name with any person, event, or thing that advances that possibility.
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/14/2010 @ 2:25 pmIt is Captain Moonbeam vs a nearby windmill.
Larry Sheldon (86b2e1) — 4/14/2010 @ 2:48 pmYes the Attorney General has a (very rarely exercised) oversight function over non profits to see that they’re not wasting funds. This little tempest in a teapot started when a lefty state Senator from San Francisco/San Mateo wanted to stir up trouble for anything remotely connected with Palin.
However, since everywhere Ms. Palin goes, she draws boffo crowds willing to pay, and pay handsomely for the opportunity to hear her speak, then it seems to me that an invitation to her to come speak at a fund raiser for Stanislaus State is a pretty good investment. It’s pretty much guaranteed that there will be no waste of funds there.
Now a fund raiser where Barbara Boxer was the guest speaker? That wouldn’t draw flies, and would definitely merit an AG investigation.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 4/14/2010 @ 2:51 pmYes, the California AG is charged with looking after the interest of the public but this is Junior, who will only look after the interest of California citizens when it fits his agenda. As the AG he should have represented the people with regards to Prop. 8, however much he disagreed with it. Prop. 8 (and doesn’t matter how one feels personally it was still passed) was voted by the people and it is and was his sworn responsibility to defend the will of the people. He didn’t. He has been a plague on this state since he left the seminary. My attitude to him is been there, done that. Please when he loses this time will he please go away. As a native Californian I resent what he has done and how he has represented this state.
Caroline S. (4e3063) — 4/14/2010 @ 2:55 pmIf this was Al Gore being invited to speak, would anyone consider it an issue?
Larry F. (f55ad1) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:43 pmOn the one hand, you have a left-wing politician trying to court favor with his base by making a big to-do about the expenses for a conservative speaker on campus.
On the other hand, you have the leftist arrogant academic establishment acting as if it is beyond the pale for the taxpayers to dare question how public money is spent on campus.
I don’t know whom to root for (or against) in this matter. I would feel a lot better about Attorney General Brown if he had shown a fraction as much interest when his fellow Democrat John Edwards was receiving $55,000 to give a speech on poverty at UC Davis three years ago.
JVW (31536e) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:43 pmHe’s always been a media whore.
He’s always been a whore.
FTFY.
Dmac (21311c) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:45 pmWhoops, make that four years ago that Edwards spoke at UC Davis. Brown might argue that he wasn’t Atty. General then, but he was back in 2007 when the story first started making news and I don’t believe his office had any comment about it then.
JVW (31536e) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:45 pmThe previous AG was Bill Lockyer, who is now the Treasurer, and is whining to Goldman-Sachs because it costs more for a CA CDS than for some Third-World Countries.
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:53 pmHow clueless can you be to think that CA’s finances are better than Guiana?
Governor Moonbeam II would compound the unmitigated disaster California is already.
Steve G (7d4c78) — 4/14/2010 @ 3:57 pmFrom a friend on another blog
I read she was charging $55 thousand to give a speech at one of California’s public universities.
Wait, that was John Edwards.
Maybe she’s worried if she flies coach she’ll get an earful from members of the public who don’t like her politics.
Wait, that was Barney Frank. (And it was in first class.)
ian cormac (022264) — 4/14/2010 @ 4:51 pmBut it wasn’t public money. The money paid for Palin’s travel expenses came from private donations.
Here’s a link
…and a relevant quote:
Jerry Brown should butt out of this. It’s a shame there aren’t more people who remember his first time as Governor. And has anybody asked what Linda Ronstadt is up to?
Some chump (c2555f) — 4/14/2010 @ 5:21 pm“Now a fund raiser where Barbara Boxer was the guest speaker? That wouldn’t draw flies…”
Wrong, Mr. Myers. It would be like flies on doo-doo at an engagement like that.
GeneralMalaise (51dd09) — 4/14/2010 @ 5:22 pmI’m sure that he’d be doing the same thing if it involved Bill Clinton. That it involved Palin is just an odd coincidence.
[this is my shocked face]
Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 4/14/2010 @ 5:25 pm“…has anybody asked what Linda Ronstadt is up to?..”
About 245, I think.
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/14/2010 @ 6:22 pmi have a good word to say about brown .he never molested any children after they were born.what he favored before that point in time might have been the reason he left the priesthood for the left.
clyde (a62dee) — 4/14/2010 @ 6:37 pmWhen an athlete says it’s not about the money, it is always about the money.
When Brown says it is not about Sarah Palin, IT IS MOST DEFINITELY ABOUT SARAH PALIN.
MU789 (00e597) — 4/14/2010 @ 6:46 pmI’m seeing an ACORN linked Media Matters shill, who is part of an extremely wasteful government, spend a lot of government resource on a publicity stunt.
I’m pretty sure Palin doesn’t mind being framed as the enemy of these idiots.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/14/2010 @ 6:51 pm“…has anybody asked what Linda Ronstadt is up to?..”
About 245, I think.
You’re underestimating, AD. Folks in her hometown of Tucson, AZ have reported that when she visits family there, there is not an enchilada to be had… they sell out.
She is known as the Queen of MiNiditos Restaurant… home of the world famous flat enchilada.
GeneralMalaise (d23929) — 4/14/2010 @ 6:55 pmWell, I was trying to be kind…I’m sure that with Jerry’s new campaign, a lot of attention is being paid to her that she would rather not deal with.
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/14/2010 @ 7:02 pmAbout 245, I think.
Linda Ronstadt was as hot as any woman in the ’70s. I remember a cover story on her in Rolling Stone where the pictures of her put any Farrah Fawcett poster to shame. Look at some of her YouTube videos from that era and you can see a rare combination of innocence and beauty and talent.
Even Sally Struthers and Kathleen Turner have aged better than Linda.
MU789 (00e597) — 4/14/2010 @ 8:35 pmI updated the post with a response from the University regarding Palin’s contract.
DRJ (daa62a) — 4/14/2010 @ 8:55 pmI started getting all sorts of
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641) — 4/14/2010 @ 9:27 pmpress releasespropaganda from Brown’s office several months ago, as he was starting his run for governor. He’s very concerned about recalling toxic teddy bears and killing our economy with job-destroying global warming legislation, but rather less with keeping violent felons in prison when many inmates are on early release.if it wasn’t about Sarah, it would have been handled by a minion and never have had a press release quoting him.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/14/2010 @ 11:38 pmguess he’s forgotten all that seminary learning about dishonesty, etc…..
… a response from the University…
Don’t these people watch any TV cop shows?
AD - RtR/OS! (4a0d27) — 4/15/2010 @ 12:01 amThey should know that you don’t put anything in the trash that you want read.
That is why they have cross-cut shredders, after all.
Read this letter to the editor in our local paper and tell me this fellow isn’t typical of what’s wrong with our system of public higher education and doesn’t deserve contempt, or, at the very least, an ass-kicking…
Palin event an insult to CSU
Sarah Palin will be the speaker at a “gala” $500-a-plate dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of CSU Stanislaus? Are they kidding? Inviting an anti-intellectual, shallow, know-nothing product of skillful PR to be the symbol of a great Central Valley university?
They can’t be serious. They could invite her to debate health care reform or global warming. They could invite her as part of a series of speakers so an audience could decide who is talking sense or nonsense. But to invite her as the sole speaker to honor and represent 50 years of higher education is both humiliating and laughable.
I have been a part-time lecturer at CSU Stanislaus since I retired from San Francisco State University. I empathize with my colleagues at Stanislaus. They are fine professionals. They don’t deserve this insult.
Mario D’Angeli
Professor emeritus, San Francisco State University
GeneralMalaise (d23929) — 4/15/2010 @ 6:54 amTo be fair, Palin has gone to several universities, so maybe she could be a good speaker at one.
imdw (1635c7) — 4/15/2010 @ 7:06 amProfessor emeritus…
When I see a letter like that, I’m reminded of a line in an old Heinlein novel The Door Into Summer, if memory serves. “Professor emeritus means professor without merit.
Red County Pete (2c7319) — 4/15/2010 @ 8:44 amWasn’t this the same AG who took a pass on investigating ACORN?
Rochf (ae9c58) — 4/15/2010 @ 11:52 amComment by Rochf — 4/15/2010 @ 11:52 am
You didn’t expect him to actually investigate his campaign staff, did you?
AD - RtR/OS! (7055a4) — 4/15/2010 @ 12:23 pmthe CSU Stanislaus Foundation has $20 million in the bank?
No wonder a Liberal is breathing down their back
Dan Kauffman (ce5245) — 4/15/2010 @ 12:35 pm