Free Republic

Gov. Jerry Brown has brought in the big gun -- his dog, Sutter Brown -- to do some ankle-high lobbying on the issue of a special election that would allow CA voters to weigh in on budget issues. We kid you not: here's the latest You Tube moment in the California budget wars, this one starring the cheeky California Corgi, who is now part of a tongue-in-cheek drive called "Doggies for Democracy." Looks like Sutter -- after doing his first "excloo" with us here at SFGate.com -- is now a media sensation who can be found pimping, uh, pushing his...

Two days after Gov. Jerry Brown called off talks and suggested Republicans were obstructionist, Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton and his budget point man, Sen. Bob Huff, held a news conference today to explain their moves over the last week. Dutton said first lady Anne Gust Brown "yelled" at him in one meeting with the governor last Wednesday over a lack of cooperation. "Frankly, I was yelled at more than I was talked to," Dutton said, "and mostly by Mrs. Brown, not even Gov. Brown." Brown press secretary Gil Duran blasted Dutton later. "And the dog barked at him, too,"...

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed wife Anne Gust Brown to be his unpaid "special counsel" and named two executive secretaries as he began Wednesday to shape his new administration. Brown announced more than 20 appointees, all of them Democrats and many of them people who advised Brown when he was governor before. Jim Humes, 51, Brown's chief deputy in the attorney general's office, was appointed executive secretary for administration, legal affairs and policy. Nancy McFadden, also 51, a former adviser to Gov. Gray Davis, is executive secretary for legislation, appointments and policy. Brown is using the title "executive secretary" instead of...

In the last few days Democrat Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign has been doing damage control after someone close to him was heard calling his Republican rival Meg Whitman a "whore." In the immediate aftermath, it was assumed that it was one of Brown's assistants who uttered the derogatory phrase. However, new sources reveal that it may have been someone much closer to Brown: his wife. According to anonymous sources close to Brown, it was his wife Anne who called Whitman a "whore." When asked about the quote, the source inadvertently said that it was Brown's wife when stating, "The person...

Attorney General-elect Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he will appoint his wife, Anne Gust, as his unpaid special counsel, giving her a "broad mandate" in a new post that will be part of a significant reorganization of the state attorney general's office. "It will be a very important and high-level role very close to the policy and administrative processes," said Brown, who was in Washington, D.C., to attend House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi's inauguration. "It is a broad title and she certainly will have a broad mandate because her experience is very broad." This will not be the first time Brown...