You want a good laugh? Take a look at this Jerry Brown video clip from a 2002 debate in Oakland:

Lately, Jerry Brown has been implying that as governor, he will "uphold the law" in California (whatever that means in Moonbeam's mind), even going so far as to imply he'd support the death penalty.

In this short video clip we have dug up from his run for mayor of Oakland, you can see he said something quite different as recently as 2002!

Jerry actually has the impudence to argue the case that he’s an effective leader, citing evidence that he “stopped the death penalty” as governor. Time for a little history lesson, which apparently Jerry thinks we have all forgotten.

First to the tape: During the Oakland debate he called himself effective because “I not only opposed the death penalty, but as governor I stopped the death penalty. We didn’t have anybody executed when I was governor of California.” 

And how’s this for effectiveness? An outraged Legislature had to override his veto of the death penalty to restore it in 1977. The next year, California voters spoke too, and strengthened the law. And then, finally, in a stunning display of what Brown call effectiveness, the electorate was so disgusted with Brown that they overwhelmingly threw out his anti-death penalty judges he’d placed on the state’s Supreme Court.

Well done, Jerry.

Jerry Brown’s idea of effective leadership is to empower himself to carry out the Brown catechism, not the people’s will. I understand political realism, opportunism and real changes of heart.

Jerry Brown is none of that.  He is an arrogant arbiter of what he believes is right, the people be damned. This is a man who protested the death penalty outside the gates of San Quentin in 1959, talked his father in 1966 out of executing Carol Chessman (though the older Brown eventually thought better of his son’s advice and Chessman was executed) and to this day remains a staunch opponent of the death penalty – even for those who murder sworn officers.

But that’s not the worst of it.  He pretends to be the exact opposite – a humble servant of the people who touts his tough on crime record as attorney general.  He’s the worst of the worst.

Two years after bragging about stopping the death penalty in 2002 – notably as he mused about running for state attorney general  -- Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle he would follow the law regarding capital punishment…a sentiment the paper described as a dramatic change for Brown.

Then, in 2006, he told The New York Times: ”The attorney general owes a duty of loyalty to his client, and his client is the governor and people of California….and as attorney general, I'll have no hesitation in carrying out that law, whether it is capital punishment, bars on same-sex marriage or collective bargaining or anything else."

Well, you know how he decided to 'carry out the law' with regard to Prop 8.

Any way you look at it, the moves of a septuagenarian contortionist are ugly.

This is a man who obfuscates, twists the truth, distorts reality and cannot be trusted on what he says about anything.

After interviewing Brown and Meg Whitman, the California State Law Enforcement Association endorsed Meg recently, saying Brown “remains steadfastly opposed to the death penalty, even for the murder of police officers.”  

Three highly respected public safety organizations that often go with the Democrat in a race have cited Meg Whitman’s support of the death penalty as a major factor in their decision to endorse her.  In addition to the California State Law Enforcement Association, Meg has won the endorsement so of the California Peace Officers’ Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents nearly 10,000 sworn Los Angeles Police Department members.

The protective league’s president wrote that Whitman’s "commitment to fully fund public safety and lifelong staunch support of the death penalty are significant factors in making her the clear choice.’’

Play that video one more time.  Effective leadership? Jerry Brown has failed that test and has failed Californians far too many times.