Do anything, say anything

Our attorney general (left) has stuck his finger in the wind and agreed to launch a special investigation into the death of Michael Jackson. (right) Can you guess which one is running for governor?

Brown whose ability to sniff out a headline is legendary is up to his old tactics. In 1978, before the passage of Proposition 13 - he was its most vehement opponent. When the voters adopted it by an over-whelming margin - he was "born again." That created a lot of frustration in the legislature. Brown had hoarded state funds to assure that he would not have the kind of deficit that cost his father the 1966 election. He then let the legislature figure out how to use some of those funds to bail out local government which had had a huge reduction in funding - owing to the reduction in property tax revenues.

In the middle of that long summer John Paul 1 died after only 33 days as Pope. Members were grousing on the floor about Brown's apparent conversion as a tax cutter. One said "Why don't we run Junior (his nickname at the time) for Pope." Another replied "He could not get the job, he really is not a Catholic." To which a third member who had fought Brown on his bonehead appointment of a Adriana GIanturco as head of Caltrans - "Oh that's OK, we have a couple of days, he could convert."

The only question anyone in California should have about our AG is why in the world would anyone consider him seriously to re-take the job he did so poorly three decades ago.