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Friday, June 02, 2006

A Rocky Road to Ruination

The news for Democratic Attorney General hopeful Rocky Delgadillo got worse, then worser and now, its just plain bad.

First off, the Oakland Tribune endorsed Rocky's chief rival, Jerry Brown on Thursday. One might say its no surprise that the former Governor's hometown paper would endorse their Mayor. Fair enough. However, the paper takes issue with what they say is the City Attorney's attempts to spin Oakland's crime statatistics.

And more importantly, the sum of Brown's experience is far greater than that of Delgadillo and all the more reason he is seen as well qualified for the post. And perhaps that's why Brown is so far ahead in the polls.

Hat tip to la.indymedia.org on the above.

But when it was getting bad for Rocky, its also getting ridiculous. We received a copy of a photo that is circulating around town that indicates not only has Rocky perhaps been less than honest about his past, but he may also have gone in for a little Hollywood touch work on his teeth and hair, just in time for the campaign. (See the photo above, click for a larger version).

Some guys just can't catch a break!

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38 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

maybe they could have thrown in a few bonus iq plugs along with the hair plugs while they were in there

June 01, 2006 9:13 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

If only Rocky could hire dentists and hair doctors to fix Rocky's damaged image...

June 01, 2006 9:15 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Does anyone out there know who paid for all of this????

June 01, 2006 9:18 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Brown should have done something about his bald head years ago. Unlike Rocky, he needs liposuction on that pork belly. Brown can't stop feeding at the public trough. OINK!

June 01, 2006 9:23 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

At least Brown ages naturally. This Rocktard guy is all puff and no stuff. He also gets his nails done.

June 01, 2006 9:27 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:18

Obviously Brown paid for "all of this" blog, dipshit. Where else can you buy attack ads on your opponent so cheaply?

June 01, 2006 9:27 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:27

At least Rocky's a real man. Brown is some sort of asexual mutant--we can't be sure.

June 01, 2006 9:28 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Attack ad my arse. Photos don't lie. Man I laughed my butt off reading this.

June 01, 2006 9:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Boy are you easily amused. I guess that goes right along with a low IQ.

June 01, 2006 9:30 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

A "real man"?!?!?!? What man spends this much time on his teeth, hair and nails? And has to make up a football career? And a scholarship? "Real Men" go au natural and tell it like it is.

June 01, 2006 9:31 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Who would win an arm-wrestling match--The Rock or Governor Moonbeam? I rest my case.

June 01, 2006 9:33 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Rockard is a phony to the core - his hair, his teeth and even his resume...case closed

June 01, 2006 9:35 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Does anyone know who paid for the hair plugs and gap closures??? This costs a few bucks and I'll bet it wasn't Rocky.

June 01, 2006 9:36 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hey Delgado you're in the wrong business...with publicity photos like that, your customer testimonials will make a killing on the midnight--4 AM infomerical circuit.

June 01, 2006 9:37 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:39 Hint - a secret admirer

June 01, 2006 9:39 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:36

Do you think anyone really cares about your last-minute mudslinging?

June 01, 2006 9:41 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hopefully he can return those plugs after he gets the ol' historic humiliation on Tuesday. In eight years, he can run as the Kojak candidate and pretend he never heard of this Rocktard character.

I think Jerry could kick Rocktard's butt, by the way. Smash a cell phone across those veneers, then go to work plucking those plugs. Rocktard would be so busy trying to protect the investment, he wouldn't think to block the savage kick to the gonads and it would be over quickly.

The road is paved with failures like Rocky, so you have to respect the old timers in this business. After all, there's a reason they're still around. They've seen 'em come and go, rise and fall, and they've learned a few tricks on the way.

June 01, 2006 9:45 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Rocky will never quit - he'll just keep plugging away like anyone who played pro-football.

June 01, 2006 9:47 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Well Brown's old, that's for sure. But he sure doesn't represent the future of the Democratic Party. He's the best thing that ever happened to Republicans.

June 01, 2006 9:47 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:41

Touchy touchy. You obviously care. Must be something to hide. But you Rocktards don't have anything to hide, now do you?

(They only reason they wouldn't care about last minute mud is cuz this race is over, baby!)

June 01, 2006 9:48 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Add it all up--veneers, hair plugs, scholarship v. football scholarship, honorable All-American v. All-American, pro-football camp v. pro football career--and what do you get? A sideshow not worthy of credible news reporting.

But when it comes to today's newspapers, they're so desperate for readers they'll publish anything. What a pity they smear the better lawyer. What a pity for the Democratic Party they've endorsed an eccentric has-been.

June 01, 2006 9:52 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

If the future of the Democratic Party is a man who has lied on his resume about playing pro-football, getting a scholarship and being and All-American, then we are truly in trouble. The best thing for the party is to put Rocky in the past as quickly as possible.

June 01, 2006 9:53 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

who paid for the plugs???

June 01, 2006 9:54 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Is there anything about this guy that's real?

June 01, 2006 9:55 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

You're right, this Attorney General's race is all about Rocky's teeth, hairline and football career.

(What are they teaching in public schools these days ...)

June 01, 2006 10:03 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Good work Dems vote for Brown the proven loser - at least the Rs will have a chance to beat him.

June 01, 2006 11:22 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Oh, yeah, that Bedroogian fellow is rather formidable, I hear.

June 01, 2006 11:40 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Not compared to Rocky, but Pooch will bite Brown's ass.

June 02, 2006 6:34 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

keep dreaming rocky rooter - brown will dust the pooch just like he rode over rocky

June 02, 2006 7:56 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Didn't our mayor do the same?

June 02, 2006 8:28 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

doesn't anyone out there know how rocky paid for the hair plugs and teeth job???

June 02, 2006 3:07 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The next edition of the Rocktard Files shall outline the entire sordid money trail of Plugsgate. Stay tuned.

June 02, 2006 4:11 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

In response to the question about who paid for the plugs and the choppers: The slumlords held a hairplug fundraiser in Palos Verdes. Mama Anne D. found a coupon for Brite Smile in the Value Pak. Presto!!

June 02, 2006 8:00 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

How about Brown's bald head and hairy palms. Tell us about that, Deep Throat.

June 02, 2006 10:40 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Deep Throat? Leave Mrs. Delgadillo out of this!

June 02, 2006 10:59 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

9:37

You're right on the money. The only career he'll have left after Tuesday will be on late-night informercials.

June 02, 2006 11:20 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Brown not cut out for top cop
Neither his hefty resume nor his, shall we say, occasionally otherworldly interests make former governor Jerry Brown a good fit for state attorney general.

By STEVEN GREENHUT


Most of us at some point in our lives have had a job interview that has ended with the interviewer saying something to this effect: "Mr. So and So, while you have interesting skills, we don't think you are the right fit for the position or our company."

After last week interviewing former governor and current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who is running for California's attorney general post, I'm left wanting to pull out that old human-resources blow-off. "Yeah, Mr. Brown, you've got some really good experience, and many interesting things to say. But do you really think this is the right job for you? This is the top law enforcement position in the state, where you would have subpoena power and would be in charge of criminal-justice matters, including a death-penalty you view as Nazi-like. I'm afraid this isn't the right fit for you."

On Tuesday, California voters have a choice in the Democratic primary for attorney general between Brown and Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. The Republican primary features state Sen. Chuck Poochigian of Fresno, an author of major crime-fighting legislation, who is running unopposed. In job interviews where managers choose the right candidate, this selection process would be a no-brainer. Delgadillo and Poochigian would be the two finalists, as both of them have excellent credentials for the position.

But public opinion polls in the Democratic primary show Brown to be heavily favored, thanks mainly to his name identification. Jerry Brown, the son of former Gov. Pat Brown, was elected governor in 1974, where he served eight unusual years at the state government's helm, earning him the overused nickname of Gov. Moonbeam. In terms of law enforcement, his main "accomplishment" was appointing Rose Bird to the California Supreme Court, where she used her power to overturn every death penalty conviction – 61, according to Wikipedia – that came before her. She was tossed from the court by an angry electorate.

That was then, this is now. "I live in Oakland, in a neighborhood where we had seven murders," he told me. "That gets your attention. I have been sensitized." He talks tough on gangs, saying gang members only understand jail time. Recent news reports quote Oakland community leaders who complain that the governor has gone from "Zen Buddhism to Rambo." Campaigns debate the condition of crime in Oakland, with the Brown folks focusing on the significant overall crime drops since the 1990s, while his opponents focus on the murder spike, with 50 homicides recorded in the past four months. It all depends on your timeline.

From the position of the attorney general's office, a crucial issue is capital punishment, something Californians widely embrace for incorrigible and violent criminals, but which Brown has a career of opposing. "I have shown over a long history a great fidelity to the law of California," he said, emphasizing that he would enforce the laws as they are written despite his personal views of them.

When deciding on a candidate, I'm a firm believer in looking at the total record and downplaying the last-minute conversions. Those conversions often are motivated – big surprise here – by the need to take the right positions as the candidate seeks another office.

Let's give Brown the benefit of the doubt and not go back to the Gov. Brown days. What was Brown saying a few years ago? Well, in 1996, on his "We the People" radio show, Brown slammed the execution of William Bonin, who murdered 21 teenage boys: "On Feb. 23, 1996, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, William Bonin was sent to his death, murdered by the state, by our representatives, in our name, to protect us. ... There isn't the same mood of generosity or humanity to look at what we are really doing. ..."

That's charmingly quaint 1970s-era "soft on crime" gibberish, which I gleaned from links to radio transcripts provided me by Ken Khachigian, who is overseeing the Poochigian campaign. Brown expressed those thoughts two years before he became mayor. He says that he has grown in office since then, but look at his ideological foundations. Sen. Poochigian nails the problem here. Back in the 1970s, when Brown and others like him were in charge, their theories of criminal justice propelled the crime rate into the stratosphere. That's what helped move George Deukmejian into the governor's office after Brown.

"We've seen a dramatic change starting in the 1980s," Poochigian said, with prison building, three strikes and other laws based on tougher assumptions about the motivations of criminals. The crime rate has dropped substantially, but now that it has dropped the public seems less concerned about crime and might be willing to elect Brown and move back in the other direction. "Brown doesn't want to focus on traditional law enforcement issues," the senator told me.

Delgadillo, whose focus is gang crime, seems to agree. After talking to him, his staff joked that it seemed as if Brown were running to be United Nations representative. Delgadillo is a liberal Democrat, but at least his views on crime come from the right planet.

But Brown's retro views on crime are no less troubling than his views on the evils of corporate America. The attorney general, remember, can use the power of the state to launch investigations against private companies and individuals for many reasons. Some AGs, such as New York's ambitious, spotlight-seeking Eliot Spitzer, have used their vast powers to wage political crusades against anti-abortion activists, gun makers and others they view as evil. This is a hugely powerful position ... a state investigation can bankrupt many companies and destroy the lives of individuals.

"The corporation is an out-of-control Frankenstein," Brown said in a 1995 "We the People" radio show. "Corporations are ripping us off and we need to understand the mechanism." He argued to me that the radio show was meant to be provocative and is a form of entertainment, not a fair description of his views. He also argued that he has encouraged much investment in Oakland and has been quite friendly to private companies. But in our discussions, it seemed clear Brown would put the environment ahead of property rights, and his views are still hostile to private enterprise.

Remember, Brown's anti-free-market language is not from the past. Speaking at the Boalt Hall School of Law a little more than two months ago he said that "Hundreds of thousands of working people are currently exploited and as attorney general I could and will go after employers with our lawyers to enforce the law," according to the campus newspaper. In my interview with him, Brown emphasized the threat of global warming and said he would defend a California anti-global-warming law against the Bush administration, which could provide some insight into the priorities of a Brown administration. "With over 1,100 lawyers and 5,000 employees at his disposal, the California attorney general has great powers," explained Khachigian. "Irresponsible use of these powers could have an enormously destructive effect. ... It's clear that the massive powers in this agency would be implemented to fulfill his passion of tearing down the corporate structure and, as he has already promised, aggressively prosecuting employers."

Brown adamantly denies that, saying he would have "a sense of restraint." But which Brown do we believe, the corporate-hating leftist or the newly sensitized Oakland mayor? Nevertheless, the interview was delightful, as Brown meandered from thoughts on Mother Teresa to Friedrich Hayek. Fascinating stuff. If we were electing a state philosopher, I might walk precincts for the guy. But as a top cop?

I hope voters will say, "Thanks for applying, Mr. Brown. We'll keep your resume on file, just in case we have another opening. This just isn't the right fit."

June 04, 2006 9:26 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

LOS ANGELES, June 3, 2006 -- Making multiple false claims to the public about his past and committing perjury in 2001 about his qualification on an application for his present job may just be the tip of a huge iceberg for the LAPD-endorsed Delgadillo.


http://la.indymedia.org/

June 04, 2006 2:58 PM  

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