Governor Brown
Who knows if Whitman did much of anything wrong here or not, but this could be a killer politically:
The California governor’s race took on a circus-like atmosphere Wednesday as a former housekeeper for Meg Whitman alleged the Republican gubernatorial nominee employed her for nearly nine years, even though Whitman knew the housekeeper was in the country illegally.
Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred, former Whitman employee Nicandra Diaz made the accusations at a tearful Los Angeles press conference Wednesday. Diaz said she asked Whitman for help with her immigration status in 2009 and Whitman refused. “I felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage,” Diaz said.
Whitman responded to the charges in a statement Wednesday. “After nine years of faithful service, Nicky came to us in June 2009 and confessed that she was an illegal worker,” the statement reads. “Nicky had falsified the hiring documents and personal information she provided to the employment agency that brought her to us in 2000. Nicky told me that she was admitting her deception now because she was aware that her lie might come out during the campaign. Nicky said she was concerned about hurting my family and me.”
Update. Commenter Pangloss sums up
In fairness to Whitman, she shouldn’t be criticized for this episode, because for the first nine years she employed the illegal alien she didn’t know that she would someday need to demagogue the illegal immigration issue.
IOKIYAR
September 29th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Nope. IOKIYAR. California’s nativist are all solid GOP voters. The independents all hire their own illegals. It’ll only be a problem if Meg mishandles the situation, which of course is infinitely possible.
Next debate is Saturday. Brown is a loose cannon. Bring popcorn – someone is going to come out of the event looking like an asshole.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
It seems the IRS notified Whitman in 2003 that the SSN provided did not match the person of her housekeeper, and she seems to have done nothing about it.
She worked through an agency, however, so there is a little bit of wiggle-room here, but not much, given the IRS notice. Even if it was an agency, Whitman had a duty to notify them and stop employing the woman.
Ed
September 29th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Dude, you totally wasted a chance to quote a wicked good song in your title.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
If you’re worth over a billion freaking dollars, why wouldn’t you hire your maid from a reputable agency and make them responsible for background checks on their employees to ensure you wouldn’t ever have these problems on the off chance you decided to go on a vanity driven quest for political office in a state with illegal immigration problems?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Now it is 1984
Knock knock on your front door
It’s the suede denim secret police!
They’ve come for your uncool niece!
September 29th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@Hugin & Munin: What song?... inquisitive minds want to know.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
@Hugin & Munin:
Born in East L.A.?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
@Jim Crozier:
Win-nah.
Did she learn nothing from the unfortunate Zoe Baird? That was way before 2000.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
@Jim Crozier: “How do you think she got to be a woman like that”?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
@Jim Crozier: Most rich people are rich because they’re cheapskates and cut corners. Sure, they’ll drop a half billion dollars on a megayacht, and then they’ll hire a bunch of illegals to work on it. The yacht is tangible and deserving of the investment, the wages are invisible and wasted money.
Anyone wonder how companies like HP got into the shitpile they’re in now? Same kind of dumb-fuck management.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
@ed drone:
I tend to be pretty sympathetic to Whitman here and also don’t think this is going to gain much traction.
I am sure over the years I have hired countless illegal immigrants for various tasks but if they produce proper paperwork there isn’t a whole lot left for me to do. Now, my use of illegals is less of an issue because 80% of them are Polish or Ukranian and those aren’t the “same kind” of illegals that Whitman likely used.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
@jibeaux: She only recently decided to start voting, I think she wasn’t paying much attention to what happened to Baird’s nomination.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
@Hugin & Munin:
What? I knew there was something but I couldn’t remember it.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
So, despite Allred’s involvement it sounds like the real deal.
I tend to agree with Martin about the likely effects, though. The die-hard racist wingnuts in the San Joaquin Valley and inland empire will vote for her anyway, and all the Orange County and San Diego robber baron libertarian-republicans employ illegals themselves.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Another song:
Sha-na-na
Sha-na-na
hey hey
goodbye
On the other hand, the maid’s hiring of Gloria Allred is good news for Whitman. Allred is so widely loathed that some voters are likely to vote against Brown just because they hate Allred.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Do as I say, not as I do, kids!
September 29th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Please see Ben @ 6 for another hint.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
@Ailuridae: Yea, and you aren’t running for governor now are you?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
@Ailuridae:
I actually don’t care if the gal was an illegal and Meg knew about it, what I do care about is that Whitman did not make an effort to help her even if the story went down the way Whitman said it did.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
You don’t know if she did anything wrong? If she had an undoc’ed worker in her employ for 9 years, she did something wrong. It’s against the law. (And if you’re talking about the “if” here, then alright, but it doesn’t seem like you are.)
Another question: Did she pay SS and all that on her?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
You don’t know if she did anything wrong? If she had an undoc’ed worker in her employ for 9 years, she did something wrong. It’s against the law. (And if you’re talking about the “if” here, then alright, but it doesn’t seem like you are.)
Another question: Did she pay SS and all that on her?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
@jibeaux: And also Kimba Wood, who although she later paid the requisite taxes, had employed an undocumented worker as a nanny. (Technical note: at the time it wasn’t against the law to hire an undocumented worker.) Wood was Clinton’s second candidate for the AG spot following Zoe Baird.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
That dirty messikan lied to me
1one
Yeah, I could see it working on the goopers (=_=)
September 29th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
@ed drone: As the head of EBay she should have been bright enough to verify the information. Most corporations verify the SSN first and I assume that if you are hired by EBay they verified your documentation.
What bother me more is the lack of maternity leave. How cold is this person who wants to run California. Let them eat cake, really.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Ridiculous. This won’t have the slightest effect. As everyone has said its ok if you are a republican—more than ok, its proof positive that you know how to exploit the right people. The people who like Whitman’s policies will be thrilled to think she has the ruthlessness to fuck over her own housekeeper, and then to pretend to care about “Nikki” being used by those evil feminists. And I don’t think you can underestimate how hated Gloria Allred is by lots of people for whom she’s just the white/female version of Johnnie Cochrane.
All the usual suspects will line up like iron filings around this issue. For the right wing this will be just proof positive that illegals are out to get them and for the left it will be proof positive that the democrats won’t do anything anyway. Now if it had been a clear case of slavery/servitude with abuse that would be a different matter. But depraved indifference to the plight of a low level worker? Man, that’s par for the course.
aimai
September 29th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I retract that last comment. If she went through an agency, then, well, I just don’t know.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Well, that sucks—I mean, that Gloria Allred is involved on what appears to be the right side of this.
But is Whitman’s defense really that she’s been helping to conceal an illegal immigrant since June of 2009? Shouldn’t she have phoned up Sheriff Arpaio, and had Senorita Diaz on a prison-flight back to banana land once she got the news?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
First two comments have it right. IOKIYAR.
Don’t you feel sorry for that poor woman? I mean Whitman, of course. She’s the real victim here. Deceived by that awful brown woman.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
DougJ: Sorry, I won’t post names w/o links, and you don’t wanna know how much of a PITA posting links on a kindle would be. Even basic HTML is hardly worth it.
‘Tis the vicissitudes of backdoor work slacking.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
@Hugin & Munin:
Dead Kennedys, California Uber Alles
There’s a neat thing you can do in Firefox…highlight the words or text you want to find out about, right click and a menu with ‘Search Google for (text)’ comes up. Click and find!
Well, I think it’s neat.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
@aimai:
I don’t think that in this case it is okay if you’re a Republican in CA. It cements Latino support for Brown while bumming the teatards out.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Wow, talk about your she said/she said situation.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
How does a housekeeper supposedly working for housekeeper money ($20K/yr? $25K?) afford a A-list leech lawyer like Allred?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Ohhhhhh, so that’s what this was about.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
@licensed to kill time: Very cool! Thanks.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
@arguingwithsignposts:
She said, she said would have been a good title.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
@Jules:
Whitman’s decision not to help the woman is unconscionable. But that isn’t a surprise – she’s a Republican.
Assuming Ebay is located out in the valley there is also probably a long line of illegals who worked there in janitorial and cleaning.
I’m all for tough politics especially if it means electing a D the governor of CA. To me its just so peripheral to anything that matters about governing a state.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
What makes you think it will bum the teatards out? Every single one of them will think “there but for the grace of god go I.” Every.Single.One of them. All Whitman has to do is talk about the GOP’s determination to do “tort reform” and “stop all these absurd regulations” and “gotcha journalism” and etc… and they’ll be cheering her on. She’s a victim now, and there’s no status they like better for white folks than powerful victim.
aimai
September 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I really detest that “IOKIYAR” thing. To me it implies a certain resignation to that state of affairs.
We should be calling out hypocrisy and scumbaggery every time we see it, not dismissing it as business as usual.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
@licensed to kill time:
Oops, Dead Kennedys, California Uber Alles linky
September 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
DougJ: Face it, you are slippin’!
September 29th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
@Face:
Contingency fee. ‘Tis a beautiful thing.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
@Hamilton-Lovecraft:
Yup, it’s a
well knownpremise of our culture:September 29th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
@ed drone: Ed do you have a link for your comment? If she was notified in 2003 and kept her for 6 more years, then there is a problem.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: We don’t really have teatards – not as a big force, at least. And the Latino support won’t change much. Brown is leading among Latinos 54-28. Brown needs to show that he’s going to push for immigration reform before that changes – with specifics. Democrats in general haven’t done much for the population of Latinos they most hope to draw. That’s clearly being set up for 2012. Brown will need to make a strong case in the last 2 debates.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
@JPL:
Somebody here at BJ clued me in on that one…maybe Hal? He also had a quick trick for blockquotes and tags: Highlight the text you want to bold or ital or blockquote etc, mash the appropriate tag once and it inserts the opening and closing tags all in one go. It’s easy, try it!
September 29th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
@Martin: What do you mean Brown is a loose canon?
Have you been paying attention to what he has said vs. what queen meg blathers on about? Dude…..clue in. Meg has dropped $119M of her own money so far. She & Jerry are tied in the polls even though Jerry did no advertising up till 3 weeks ago.
I’m votin’ for Jerry….again. And happy to do it.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Today’s Republican voter understands that incidents like this one are all manufactured by ACORN and secret agents working for George Soros. Once FOX news tells them that Meg was just a victim in all this, and it surely will, they will be even more angry at the Democrats and more willing than ever to “do something about illegal immigrants.”
September 29th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
@Face: Allred takes the case pro bono for the pr value and the chance to stick to Whitman if possible.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
And then you have ol’ Barb Boxer leading the charge for prohibition in the state against the current Republican governor.
California – can you guys get any more wack?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
It’s hard to overstate how screwy the country is when it comes to immigration. This really isn’t something that I can see getting resolved easily with the realities, the demands, and the emotions all tied up in an issue that doesn’t fall strictly right or left. It’s tragic for bleeding heart liberals as much as Adam Smith free marketers, evil for right wing demagogues and blue state working class. I can’t really predict how much blowback Whitman really gets for this episode.
Somewhat related, this set of videos from a Republican/right immigration conference a few weeks back I find incredibly telling, in particularly, David Frum’s input. While he doesn’t come out and say it, he pretty much concedes that conservatism is dead, using the immigration issue as an example. It’s battle is to remain relevant to white America, because the only thing it has to offer is resentment and fear of newcomers and outsiders. I’ll stress again, this isn’t my assessment of the nation. This is pretty much what David Frum thinks, in a forum with other conservatives, and doesn’t seem to get much pushback on the idea.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Maybe Jimmy O’Keefe can invite the maid over for a sekscapade on his love boat so she’ll be totally discredited.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
In fairness to Whitman, she shouldn’t be criticized for this episode, because for the first nine years she employed the illegal alien she didn’t know that she would someday need to demagogue the illegal immigration issue.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
@Face: Contingency fee or pro bono.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
@eemom: But the voters don’t see it as hypocrisy. They really do see a double standard, and they’re okay with that.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Meg is a vanity candidate trying to buy an election. Her illegal alien problem only adds to the image.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
@John Bird:
She is? Do you mean Feinstein? (Feinstein is definitely, and she’s an idiot who should have retired long ago, and needs to be primaried if she runs again.)
September 29th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
@licensed to kill time: Thanks. I left a reply for Ed Drone about his comment that Whitman knew since 2003 and then I highlighted the comment and found by way of google. How fun is that.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I dont get it. From Latimes blog, its clear Whitman did everything correctly, she checked her papers, filed her W-2 taxes etc. When she came to know that the maid was illegal, she terminated her. Whats wrong in this so for? Maid didnt like it but thats not the issue. This is what a normal person would do.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
@Ailuridae: E-Bay is in the South Bay here in the SF Bay Area. Actually the illegals are just as common up here (if not more so) than out in the valley….there is more money here than out in the valley.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@Face:
Allred doesn’t just work for money—press coverage is just as good as far as she’s concerned. If she can get her face back in front of the camera, making actual money from the client paying her is just a bonus.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@Ajay: The only thing that would be questionable is if the IRS notified them that the SSN did not match the name. As the head of Ebay she could have verified that also.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
@Face:
Allred is getting paid with publicity…...
September 29th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
@Ajay:
Also, are you referring to a post from good ol’ Malcolm in the LA Times? Because he’s a teatard of first order.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
@Ailuridae:
Sympathetic? When she was notified by the IRS in 2003 that the SS # she provided for this woman was not a match for her employee? And she did nothing about it and continued to employ her?
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for that shit. She should get a break on hiring illegals because you’ve hired illegals?
WTF?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
Again, what Martin said. The Teahadists out here won’t think twice about it, and it won’t affect the Latino vote one whit (so to speak).
The major strike eMeg has against her with the base is that she’s self-financing her campaign. The wingnuts hate rich assholes trying to buy elections (cf. the former Mr. Arianna Huffington and their loathing of the Governator), even if they’re against Governor Moonbeam.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
She’s still Team Red, so it doesn’t matter to her core voters what she does so long as she has an R after her name. And in mid-terms that’s all who turns out—core voters.
She’ll lose, but only because CA’s a blue state.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
The best part of this is that she was just at the last debate talking about how illegal immigrants come here for jobs and if you want to stop it you have to go after the people hiring them.
Check the clip entitled “Immigration, path to citizenship” (it’s one of the last ones).
She’s probably got some deniability based on the agency issue, but the IRS notice is going to be an issue.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
@kindness:
When Whitman used that old footage of Bill Clinton debating Brown in an anti-Brown commercial a few weeks ago, Brown got all pissy and mocked Clinton for the Lewinsky scandal.
Brown’s a loose cannon and a hothead. I’ll still vote for him, but that’s what he is.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
@kindness: Brown is a lot like Biden. He speaks too truthfully at times and he gets carried away. Don’t get me wrong, I like these traits in him, but I can see him getting on a roll attacking Whitman, getting carried away, and saying something that pisses off Latinos. His comment about Clinton a few weeks ago is a good example:
The guy knows his stuff. He’s forgotten more about governing this state than Meg will ever learn, but he needed Clinton’s endorsement and he could have made that point quite clearly without the gaffe, especially when the reporter clarified the record. He could have put the whole thing on the reporter. He even had time to prepare his statement – he wasn’t operating on the fly as if in a debate. He gets carried away when he sees an opening. He does that. Sometimes it ends with facepalms.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
@JPL: @BR:
Gosh. I had no idea. But it mentioned the statements given out by Whitman (and I dont think Whitman will lie at this stage;she will withhold info but outright lie would be suicidal).
Also, why would someone who has Billions, would gain anything from hiring illegals intentionally?
September 29th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
@kindness: I’m voting for Jerry after what he did with Oakland. The man actually every now and makes the vague attempt to change things. That’s something that needs to be encouraged. I already know what I am getting with Megan, more Arnold with less of a clue.
Paingloss @
Youthful indiscretion. Megan’s moved on, why can’t the rest of us?
However I am dying to see how the Right spins this. Popcorn time.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
@Ajay:
Well, gee. I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Walmart and Tyson and…well, I think you get where this is going.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
By the way, has anyone else in California been seeing the ads Brown has been running talking about giving more control back to local governments, rather than Sacramento? I have seen it probably a half dozen times lately (in the LA market). I’m trying to figure out the angle on it.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
@Ajay: IOKIYAR
HAHAHAHA
September 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Obviously, the problem is that Whitman’s nanny was operating from a real address in a real state, which meant that her documentation was accepted without question.
It isn’t as if she was living out of a PO Box in West Virginia, like Cole.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I’m really looking forward to Jerry Brown being governor. (And I really hope folks help his campaign – I’m going to make some calls for them soon.)
We’ve had crappy governors for a long time – Arnold, Davis, Wilson, ...
September 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
@Pangloss:
Oh, come on. She should have planned ahead like Obama did with his birth certificate.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
@BR:
Well, the statement also applies to Feinstein, yeah, but the entire California Senate delegation is publicly opposed to drug law reform.
Go Democrats!
September 29th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Nobody in California cares about this stuff in the last weeks of a campaign, particularly when it comes from somebody like Gloria Allred, who is an effective litigator, but too much a publicity hound.
The blowback on this stuff is terrible. Linked in any way to Jerry Brown even by mere proximity, it makes him look like a craven political weasel, which negates the folksy but capable image he was giving at the first debate. And he would be a fool to mention or comment on this at all during the second or third debate.
This is the kind of crap that paid political operatives insist is just the thing to do, but this kind of pointless slime is little more than a tiresome distraction.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
@Michael: That’s where my mind went too.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
@Brachiator:
So, sounds like good news for John McCain out of the Golden State today. Now here’s Al with the weather.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
@Martin:
That’s the kind of thinking that pisses me off. Rich fuckers who splurge on shit then get their panties in a tightwad over trivial expenditures.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
@KG:
It’s probably well-intentioned and a bit of a bow to the right. The sticking point isn’t local government control, it’s local government money. Our Assembly has severely cut the amount of money that the state returns to cities and counties. That might be acceptable, considering the economy here but, California is the only state that doesn’t charge royalties to oil and gas companies. The Republicans in the Assembly are as steadfast in blocking that one as they are in blocking any attempt to close the numerous loopholes in our tax code.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I agree. Whitman could have helped Nicky get the process started, with a minimum of unpleasantness.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
@geg6:
Everyone hires illegals here. It’s like saying you smoked pot. You go to Home Depot, buy a few bags of concrete, pick up an illegal and by lunch you’ll have your sidewalk repaired and it’ll cost you $8 an hour, lemonade, and a sandwich.
Yeah, it’s wrong – especially when you’re a billionaire running for Governor, but everyone either gets their lawn mowed by an illegal, their house painted by one, their kids watched by one, or they hire them as day laborers. And the big secret is that even though you might pay them what you would have paid a regular contractor, you’ll often get better results. That illegal at Home Depot you picked up might have been a master mason for 20 years in Mexico. That nanny you hired may have been a nurse.
But really, hiring illegals is about as common as lighting up here. For much of the state, it’s not viewed as a big offense.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
OT: this must get front-paged. H/T sully.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
@Martin:
Since when has “doing a thing that everyone in Cali does” been okay for a Republican politician in the gauntlet? I mean, I bet she smokes mad green too, and loves to kiss a woman’s pussy, but you don’t let people know that if you’re down with the R. Unless you married a Kennedy.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Doesn’t anyone clean their own house or cut their own lawn any more (beside me)?
September 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Nein, nein, you’ve got it all wrong. Meg’s deeply worried about darling Nicky.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capito......html#more
Time to bring up shovegate again, I suppose.
http://www.businessinsider.com.....nce-2010-6
September 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
@Ailuridae: I have zero sympathy for Whitman. She knew she wanted to run for governor and she knew she needed a clean record. Of course, if she didn’t demagogue against illegals, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
I have no problem hiring “illegal” labor. My drywall guy has been in the US for 21 years and it’s the government’s unwillingness to come up with a solution that makes him “illegal.” The American guys who work for me demand cash payment, which gives me two equivalent moral dilemmas.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
@Dennis SGMM:
Sort of. Many cities and counties are laying off teachers, firemen, police, furloughing city hall staff, closing parks, beaches, and other things voters actually care about.
Sacramento is seen as the enemy even in many blue or purple counties these days, and local control isn’t just a right-wing talking point in the white collar areas of the state that he needs to win.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I think it’s a good time to bring up this classic gem by this blog’s very own John Cole-
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2.....ing-jerks/
September 29th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
All the wingers in Cali ever talk about is how the illegals have it so easy, if so, why do they work at all? I guess the guys picking oranges, working at the carwash, cutting the fucking bushes, wiping peoples asses and cleaning up the damned hotels and taking care of Whitman’s kids are just doing it for the hell of it because the’re bored…
September 29th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
@John Bird:
I have no idea what your keyboard salad here is supposed to mean.
@Mnemosyne:
He does seem a bit toned down from the days of his callow youth, but yeah, still a loose cannon. Overall, I think he connected well in the debate. Even though he has been around for decades, younger voters (and even some older voters) may not know exactly who he is or where he has come from. But he did well with the humor, and with his remarks here and there where he connected his personal history to California’s history and future. Whitman, despite the huge amount of face time she gets from her well-financed ad campaign, still comes across as a well-rehearsed cipher.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
@KG: It’s a good angle, actually. Everyone thinks that the state legislature is totally fucked. Brown is basically admitting the same thing. At the very least, he seems to be moving along the lines of prop 22, that would forbid the state from borrowing against local budgets. I expect he’d also press for local government to have greater leeway to raise taxes and have more budgetary control. It’s a good play, and will play well with independents.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
@Paris: I do. I should say, I just turned the lawnwork over to my son but I took care of it until this summer. Manual push-mower, no less. Might help explain why I don’t look like a Republican pundit.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
@Martin:
As my mother used to say, if “everyone” jumped off a cliff, would you just follow along and jump, too?
Edited to add: I see that you do your own lawn (or at least make the kid do it). So you are the only non-lemming in Cali, I take it?
September 29th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
“After nine years of faithful service…”
That phrase strikes me as so condescending that I kinda think it tells me everything I need to know about Ms. Whitman.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
@DarrenG:
You’re correct and that was why I wrote that it was well-intentioned. There’s plenty to dislike about the shenanigans in Sacramento although the real villain is California’s Brobdingnagian state constitution. Lamentably, a constitutional convention is out unless someone figures a way to make money from it.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
@Brachiator:
Yeah, okay, I get it, you’re not hip and you can’t use Google.
Here’s the Littlest Play-Skool Version:
You look really stupid when you pop up in a thread about how Meg Whitman just f’ed up major and post about how bad this is for her opponent.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
@Martin: hmmm, this actually might make sense. I have to admit, as a libertarian, it caught my attention when I heard the ads.
While I’m not yet convinced that the State is ungovernable, I do think we’re getting close. And I think the only way we are going to be able to fix it is through a constitutional convention.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
@Dennis SGMM: The AT&T California Constitutional Convention, now airing on the History Channel, following Pawn Stars and followed by Swamp People.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
@geg6: Yeah, and that’s a fair criticism, but it’s not really analogous.
People support the laws they agree with and push against the ones they don’t. There was a story of a smallish farming town somewhere in the south or midwest that had recently elected a new sheriff who proceeded to crack down on the little pot farms that most farmers in the area ran. Just a discreet corner of their farm, they’d plant it in case their main crop didn’t come it so they had a cash crop to fall back on so they could make the mortgage. If their crop came in, most of them would destroy the pot plants. No harm, no foul, and not having that fallback would have caused more than a few of them to go under.
So Mr. The-Law-Is-The-Law started to crack down and the town recalled him and elected a guy in his place that promised not to do that unless it actually resulted in a bad outcome for the area.
We’re going through a similar effort at the state level. Prop 19 if passed would legalize marijuana in the state. Basically, much of the public is saying ‘it’s not worth treating this as a crime’, and they’ve been acting that way for years. Much of the public here sees immigration the same way. The crime isn’t that these people crossed the border, but that the immigration process is so thoroughly fucked up thanks to years of Republican mismanagement that doing immigration right is nigh impossible. They’re here, give them citizenship, and we’ll keep employing them. We sure as hell don’t want 3 million destitute people wandering around the state, and there’s no reason for them to go back to Mexico just to be destitute there (or get killed in some drug lord crossfire). Might as well get them on the tax rolls like everyone else.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
@Dennis SGMM:
No. The real villain is, as always, the fucking California Republicans. The GOP pimped the tax ratchet. The GOP endlessly exploits the tax ratchet. The GOP spends all day screaming “California Budget Deficit! Liberals! Liberals! Liberals!” and then bends the pooch over for another reaming the moment they get near the levers of power.
Even the most reasonable of a not-so-reasonable pack of GOoPers can’t close even the most outrageous of tax loopholes (tax free yachts – I’m looking at you) without catching a 24/7 wingnut media shit storm.
The system was rigged to fail, but the anti-tax Republicans have made it their lives’ work to rig it. In a Democracy, the rules aren’t a problem nearly so often as the people who make them.
A Constitutional Convention would be great, assuming you could craft a Constitution without getting completely usurped by corporate whores and anti-tax glibertarians. But that’s never going to happen.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
@Dennis SGMM:
“The map printed as part of Part II of Gulliver’s Travels appears to indicate that Brobdingnag is located on the northwest coast of California,” sez Wikipedia.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
@KG: If Prop 25 passes, it’ll go a LONG way to making the state governable. If the majority in the legislature is facing the opposing party in the governors mansion, the situation goes back to what we have now as the veto requires the current ā majority, but if voters have put the same party in power in both places, we could get simple majority budgets going through on time. Tax increases would still need the ā , which is why Brown is going to the ballot for those as well. Only a simple majority is needed on the ballot, and voters seem to be in favor of increases in many areas.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
There’s a “verified, but limited” joke to be made here, I’m certain of it.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I am Governor Jerry Brown, my aura smiles and never frowns…
September 29th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Last night I said this over at Crooks & Liars debate I said:
Jerry was rambling a little. Queen Meg was well coached.
I believe what Jerry said. Meg, when she wasn’t slamming Jerry was spouting BS.
Yea….I do hope Jerry wins. Meg would do exactly what is wrong. She’d try to worm her way into the Natl Repub scene which means she’d become another wealthy tea tard.
Honestly, you couldn’t pay me enough to want that job.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
To those who think this won’t hurt Whitman—among whites, probably not. Among Republicans, certainly not.
It will kill her with Latinos. Currently, Boxer is doing better with the Latino vote than Brown has been doing (although both are well ahead with that demographic).
But, if you’re a Republican in California, you do not want to piss off Latinos. Ask Pete Wilson. Energize that vote against you and you’re dead.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
@Zifnab:
To Dennis’ (and my) point, the “people who make them” in California are often the voters themselves, sans intermediaries, through our uber-broken initiative system. The gawdsawful mess that the state Constitution is in is largely a result of decades of really bad voter initiatives, not action by the state legislature.
Granted, many of those initiatives were drafted and funded by Republicans, but we (for certain values of “we” anyway) voted for them.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
We are missing the bigger point.
Prostitution…IOKIYAR
Hiring illegals…IOKIYAR
Failing to file financial disclosures…IOKIYAR
Earmarks…IOKIYAR
Sleeping with lobbyists…IOKIYAR
September 29th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
@Zifnab: That’s my fear as well. A convention would be the OC Republicans wet dream. The only people that would be paying taxes under the new constitution are those living in homes valued under $1M and renters.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
@John Bird:
No, I just don’t confuse cliches and platitudes with being hip.
The people who think that Whitman just f’ed up are stupid. This kind of thing rarely gets much play, especially in California, even though the supposedly wise political hands always love to go for the last minute political smear.
And I never said it was bad for her opponent. I said that it would be dumb for Brown to try to go with it. And I don’t think that Brown is dumb. In fact, the early reporting shows that he’s not. So let’s look at how this “explosive political hot potato” is being covered, with a side of context:
So, exactly who is this stuff supposed to impress? Latino voters who aren’t backing Whitman anyway? Westside liberals who exploit illegals immigrants, while pretending to feel guilty? Or Orange County conservatives who exploit illegal immigrants without shame?
September 29th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Afternoon music break . This goes out to all the real hippies out there and anyone else who likes de blues by the RIP diva of raunchy soul singing.
and encore.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
@DarrenG: Not one person born in 1960 or later voted for Prop. 13. So “we” didn’t make that law.
The irony of Prop. 13 is that when people see their neighbors paying 1/10 their tax bill on an identical home (as I do), they want to protect that neighbor. It’s insane – people flip out at the notion of a poor minority person getting some government benefit, and then vote to protect their rich neighbor.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Much ado about nothing. There are 11 million employed illegal aliens/undocumented workers (ALL employed by Republicans) and their families in this country. We found one more.
If Meg Whitman stiffed the government for SS taxes I’d be pissed. If she merely gave employment to a Mexican who wanted it, I really don’t give a crap.
FTR - I’m all for a complete immigration overhaul because the present system is untenable and immoral. It makes criminals out of people who have harmed nobody, somewhat like our drug laws. I doubt the Dems or the GOP will honestly address the issue. They have more pressing issues like crush videos and direct to consumer wine sales to worry about.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
@Martin wrote:
My personal experience with my rich relatives supports this observation. My sister always looks extremely confused when I suggest that she should be certain that the woman who comes twice a week to clean her house is not a tax cheat.
People who pay folks in cash and never get a receipt are pretty obviously facilitating income tax fraud. But hey, they gotta save a few bucks.
And it isn’t just illegals who want to be paid under the table. In Florida there are plenty of citizens who house clean for a living and I’ve yet to meet one who is not taking cash and presumably failing to declare it as income.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
@Mark:
Hence, my “for certain values of ‘we’,” although your example of Prop 13 isn’t a very good once since there have been numerous subsequent ballot measures that have attempted to repeal it completely or in part.
Given that all have failed, we can’t just lay the blame on the Boomers who originally passed it.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
@DarrenG: I really think that we need to amend the initiative process so that any budgetary items passed still require the governor’s signature to become law.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
This post should be entitled, “Campaign Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon”.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
California resident here. This will not cost Whitman one single vote among those who already support her. On the contrary. It will help her that she is demonstrating, and putting into action, the belief that the help is brown and the rightful overlords are white.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
@Ailuridae wrote:
And have you gotten letters from the IRS about this?
My mother had to pay a fine (a couple of hundred dollars IIRC) when the IRS contacted her about a person she paid cash to years ago. The woman filed for SS benefits and named my mom as someone who she had worked for.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
@Zifnab:
RE: There’s plenty to dislike about the shenanigans in Sacramento although the real villain is California’s Brobdingnagian state constitution.
I agree with you that the state constitution is not the problem (I don’t even know why people would think this. But the Republicans and the Democrats long ago came to an understanding when they agreed to voter districts that would make the GOP a permanent minority, but guarantee incumbents of both parties safety and security. As a side-effect, the Republicans have been able to block tax increases.
On the other hand, even though there appears to be a bit of conventional wisdom that believes that the state can be rescued with a round of tax increases, I have not seen anyone propose a test budget with the necessary increases in them.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Can anyone link to a story describing the IRS notice angle? I haven’t been able to find it other than as comments in blogs.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
@HyperIon:
Yeah, people who clean houses for extra cash really should pay their fair share. Damn those stinking rich babysitters and house cleaners.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
@HyperIon:
I don’t pay cash as I pay everything above board. I don’t have any permanent employees. But here’s a common situationin which a business hires illegals unknowingly:
I need to board up a window or windows in a neighborhood that I don’t travel to regularly. I call the BBB, the CoC or an Alderman for a recommendation for a local board up company there. They give me the name of Janek fast board up. I agree to terms and they go off to work.
I show up to check on the work at the end of the day and the four guys doing the work are all clearly just off the board Polish. The work is satisfactory I call Janek, make arrangements to pay and ask in passing if all their workers are legal. He says “yes” (he wants future business from me or anyone I know) and offers to let me see whomever’s documentation I want. And once you have a valid SSN number from someone out of state you can get a new state ID and everything looks on the up and up. Welcome to urban America and please rethink your opposition to a National Biometric ID that solves 99% of this issue immediately.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
@J sub D wrote:
Dude, I am only arguing that dodging income & SS taxes is a bad thing. It doesn’t matter who does it. People who don’t declare income are hurting all of us. It’s a way of life in S Florida. And it has very little to do with illegal immigration.
Rich employers look the other way because they are cheapskates. Then they bitch about the deficit.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Since when is the California governor’s race NOT a complete circus sideshow? Seriously, we are the state that brought you a recall that involved a porn star AND Gary Coleman running for Governor, where the “normal” candidate was a former Austrian bodybuilder turned 1980s action hero best known for the catchphrases “I’ll be back.” and “Asta la vista, baby!” And he won.
Even today, we have one candidate who though she could buy the governor’s mansion on eBay and the other one is a geriatric who used to live in an ashram and tried to get the state to launch its own satellite in orbit the LAST time he was Governor.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
@Ailuridae wrote:
I understand what you are saying (but I’m not sure I want a national ID). I just don’t think this is analogous to what Whitman is accused of doing. This woman WAS her permanent employee and when the IRS contacted Whitman, she must have known what the problem was. She willfully continued to employ someone whose SSN was evidently not hers.
You wrote:
I just don’t understand why.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
@goblue72:
And of course, the people running for Lt Governor are their own special brand of flakes.
Still, this is why I love California. I especially love it when people from other states with a professionally criminal political class lecture us Californians on our crazy political landscape.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
@HyperIon:
Babysitter and housecleaners, self employed people that they are, are required to pay 15%+ on every dollar they earn (FICA). Tough to blame them for reducing their price by 5-10% to avoid it.
Doing illegal drugs is a “bad thing” too. The government says you support terrorism when you do. The last 3 presidents are guilty of it. Do you give a shit?
September 29th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
@Paris:
Uh me, and I live in CA also, too. I’ve also never knowingly hired an illegal despite driving by them at the Deep frequently. I’m sure that some sub-contractor I’ve hired over the years to work minor construction at my house has had aliens working on his crew but I’m not about to check their papers. But I mostly do my own work, at least I did until I had two hips replaced this year. Damn, should have hired those Mezicans, maybe I’d still have my original equipment.
September 29th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
@HyperIon:
Here’s the thing about that though. When Whitman became a candidate her IRS records are made public. Not sure what all is covered on those disclosure forms though.
If the IRS sent a single letter to the Whitman’s in 2003 I can believe that it was ignored or never received/opened.
On the larger issue I think Whitman is right – you can’t deal with immigration responsibly without a real-time electronic verification system. I;ll go a step further and demand the system be biometrically linked. And, to be honest, whether it is a conservative or liberal who objects to that measure I want them to put down their Huxley and their Orwell and call me when they have anything remotely tenable.
September 29th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
In case nobody else has posted it, here is Whitman’s page on immigration policy. “We need to build an ‘Economic Fence’ with a strong e-verification system that holds employers accountable for following the law.”
September 29th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
@Brachiator: Believe me, as a former resident of Mayor Hair Gel’s fine city, I know.
And then we’ve got his opponent, some GOP hack who in the most poinant of ironies is the son of Mexican-American immigrant farmers who was sued by the IRS for underpayment of his employees SS/Medicare witholding taxes. Cuz that’s how SoCal Republicans roll.
September 29th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
@Brachiator:
Don’t look at me. Here in Minnesota, we send city councilmen to jail for taking $1500 in free plumbing to grease the permit process, and State Auditor is an independently elected position from which someone good can become governor. (Arne Carlson, the last Republican I ever voted for, and would do so again in a heartbeat over either of the clowns running this year.)
The political landscape in California is crazy.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
@Dennis SGMM:
I first thought of it as an appropriation of a right-wing talking point. (I seem to remember that Jerry was pretty good at that back in the day.) But then I thought it might just possibly—just possibly—be a dog whistle to those of us on the left who would like to modify seriously Prop 13.
That may have been just wishful thinking, though.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Willing to blow $119 million on a vanity campaign, but unwilling to pay her undocumented domestic help adequately. To me, it’s a more damning juxtaposition than Fiorina’s layoffs and her $1 million yacht.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
@DarrenG: Does it not take 2/3 vote to repeal it? That one has to fall on the over-50 crowd.
September 29th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
@Pangloss:
Plus the maid had an awesome feedback score on eBay.
September 29th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
@Tom Hilton:
This story is the gift that keeps on giving, because people can read what they want into it.
Whitman paid Nicandra Diaz Santillan $23 an hour, which is not too shabby a wage. Diaz Santillan worked for Whitman for 9 years, and seems to be calling foul only recently, now claiming that she was forced to perform extra duties and was not reimbursed for mileage.
What I didn’t initially see is the degree to which this story has upset conservatives, who may stay home and not vote for any candidate for governor. Apparently, Whitman disenchantment was a big topic on a drive time talk radio show here in Southern California.
As Martin indicated in an earlier note, almost everyone in California who can do so hires illegal immigrants. And wealthy Californians, liberal and conservative, pay (or underpay) a similar wage for illegal immigrant maids and other household workers. The illegal immigrant doesn’t complain or ask for a raise because she doesn’t want any trouble. The greedy ass wealthy employer doesn’t press too hard about immigration status because she is getting a reliable worker at bargain basement prices.
But while the Southern California NPR crowd is celebrating Whitman’s problems, but they do so quietly because they are doing the same thing that she is. But the conservative true believers and future tea party people feel betrayed.
The next stories in this news cycle will question Whitman’s judgment in thinking that she could get away with lowballing an illegal immigrant worker with respect to her wages. And hiring an illegal immigrant worker will look like small cheese if it turns out that Whitman fired the woman just to provide cover for her “tough on immigration” stance.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
@Martin:
I’d love to be in the same shitpile as HP. It makes a gazillion dollars every quarter, and its business model virtually guarantees that it will make a gazillion dollars every quarter until people stop needing hard copies.
Mark Hurd is in the shitpile. Not HP.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:17 am
@aimai:
“This won’t have the slightest effect.”
Actually it will. We don’t just have brown people in California, we have brown voters. Lots of them.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:21 am