Meg Whitman is a Whore

X marks the spot, California!

Okay, Jerry Brown would have my vote.

There is a current uproar over an open telephone catching Brown or a Brown aide calling Meg Whitman, his Republican opponent, a “whore,” for cutting a secret deal to protect police pensions in exchange for the police union's endorsement.

Of course, the Whitman campaign is making a big deal of the slur: "The use of the term 'whore' is an insult to both Meg Whitman and to the women of California. This is an appalling and unforgivable smear against Meg Whitman. At the very least Mr. Brown tacitly approved this despicable slur and he himself may have used the term at least once on this recording."

Blah blah, woof woof, as Jimi Hendrix used to say. I could have predicted that response pretty much to the letter. Its political boilerplate, that gets rolled out sooner or later by every female candidate in every election. It would be fun to go back and find almost identical accusations by Hillary Clinton's campaign, or Sheila Copps's campaign, or Belinda Stronach's campaign, or any one of a hundred others. It ought to be read as such—as utterly insincere and manipulative, underlining the insincerity of the deal with the police union, and reinforcing the truth that Meg Whitman represents politics as usual. It's total insincerity tends to reinforce the problem with Meg Whitman that the tape also reveals, and it would sure scare me away from ever, ever voting for her.

Jerry Brown has always been something different. Love him or hate him, he has never been a politician like the others. He's been around forever, but the truth is, he was one of the first prominent people in modern American public life who actually began to speak out against, and do something against, big government. People tend to forget, but the so-called “neo-conservative” movement actually began in the Democratic Party, and Brown was one of the early leaders. For that, he deserves some respect and some consideration from those of us who are worried now about governments being out of control.

On this specific issue, again, he is on the side of the angels. And nothing could matter more. California is bankrupt. The main reason it is bankrupt is rich civil service pensions, which currently represent, nation-wide, in America, a trillion unfunded dollars, and a grand total of three trillion going from public into private pockets. This is, among other things, and to speak in precise terms, a vast transfer of wealth from the working and the poor to an idle ruling class. It is also pretty well impossible to imagine any way the governments can actually cover the sum, with or without bankrupting the economy.

The problem has been created because civil service unions cannot lose: they are not limited, as other unions are, by the need to keep their employing company profitable or ultimately lose their jobs. So even the sky is no limit.

For those sitting across the table, too, greasing up the pension fund is always a good way to buy labour peace. Yes, the sums are insupportable, but it does not matter—that will be left to future governments, and future incumbents, to sort out. No taxes need be raised today, to cover sums that will come due only some time in the future.

Unfortunately, thanks to demographics, the sums are starting now to come due.

Chris Christie, in New Jersey, is wisely tackling the problem head-on, taking on the teachers' unions. There is no other way. Jerry Brown, to his credit, is proposing to do the same thing. Meg Whitman, the phone call reveals, by contrast, is not only selling out California's and America's interests in order to get herself elected. She is also directly betraying those who would be voting for her as the supposed “conservative” candidate. Neat bit of triangulation, fortunately exposed by this taped phone call, that her own people are stupid and arrogant enough to be publicizing.

This is a perfect example of exactly why there needs to be a Tea Party movement, over and above the two-party structure. All who believe in the Tea Party concept should now mobilize with all their might to elect Jerry Brown.

Why? Because Meg Whitman is a whore.

And wait, there's more.

Anyone who believes in the fundamental principle of human equality—and there is nothing more fundamental in civic life--that all men are created equal, is honour-bound now to support Brown. Because Whitman, in her response to the Brown tape, has played the gender card, and made the issue “vote for me, because I am a woman.” She has made the issue “the honour of the women of California.”

As a practical matter, it is perfectly acceptable to use any conceivable insult against a man or a male candidate—you can even buy the t-shirt at any corner store. Heck, George Bush was an idiot, they say, albeit also clever as the devil himself. But say a word against a female candidate, or a pejorative that can refer to women but not men, and you have offended “the women of California.” This is not permissible, and must be voted down. It must be voted down, so that no future politician can hope to disguise their malfeasance and short-circuit the public debate by appealing to any similar prejudice.

Jerry Brown. It has to be Jerry Brown.