Brown may be eyeing a comeback

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown spoke at the state Democratic Party convention Saturday, and boy, did he sound an awful lot like a candidate for Golden State governor -- again.

Eerie.

Brown, who served two terms as governor from 1975 to 1983 before term limits took effect, reminded his Democratic audience assembled in San Jose of some of his “highlights,” like getting rid of former Gov. Ronald Reagan’s bulletproof limousine and using a blue Plymouth from the state motor pool.

Brown said he kept the Plymouth for eight years and put 240,000 miles on it, adding: “Now that’s sustainability.”

He acknowledged his reputation for coming up with unconventional ideas as governor. “They didn’t call me Moonbeam for nothing,” said Moonbeam. “I worked hard to get that.”

Even so, Brown said, he accomplished more than his Republican successors. “I tried hard not to build freeways, but we built three times more than [Pete] Wilson and [George] Deukmejian combined,” he said of his Republican successors. “Even without trying, we did more than those idiots.”

After blasting the Bush administration for its record on education and the environment, the current state attorney general and former Oakland mayor hinted to his partisan audience that he might run for governor again in 2010.

“I don’t do much these days except sue people,” he said. “But maybe one of these days I’ll get around to doing more than that, and maybe you’ll help me.”

Not good with numbers

With the sad milestone of 4,000 U.S.-troop deaths having been reached in Iraq, it calls to mind a poll released this month showing that many Americans had lost track of the fatality figure there. In contrast, public awareness of the political activities of a certain TV talk show host was amazingly high.

The survey, conducted for the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press from Feb. 28 through March 2, found that at that point, 35% of Americans estimated the death toll at around 3,000; fewer respondents -- just 28% -- were on the mark, saying the total was around 4,000. (In August, when the death toll was about 3,500, the poll found nearly twice as many of those interviewed, 54%, correctly named that number.)

In the new survey, 84% correctly identified Oprah Winfrey as the celebrity who had campaigned for Barack Obama.

That was far more than the 56% who were able to accurately identify Arizona as the state John McCain -- the presumptive Republican presidential nominee -- has long represented in the Senate. Fully 19% tabbed New Hampshire as that state, a reflection perhaps of the importance voters there have played in McCain’s political career.

The poll had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A change of heart

Mike Gravel, the former senator from Alaska whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in recent months was virtually invisible and free of any impact whatsoever, has packed up his political bags and taken them to the Libertarian Party.

According to the website Third Party Watch, which as you might expect watches third parties, Shane Cory, executive director of the Libertarian Party, confirms that Gravel has switched parties.

A statement on the same website quoted Gravel: “I’m joining the Libertarian Party because it is a party that combines a commitment to freedom and peace that can’t be found in the two major parties that control the government and politics of America.”

Hunting new roles

Fred Thompson, the tall, wise-looking, deep-voiced actor and former senator who was the surefire next President Reagan last summer until he actually announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, is returning to show business.

Actually, he never left. He’s just leaving the low-paying political part of show business and reentering the high-paid end, the one on a screen.

The high-powered William Morris Agency announced that it has signed to represent the man with so many formers in front of his name -- former prosecutor, former senator, former prosecutor-senator playing a prosecutor and also playing a president and an aircraft carrier commander and anything else that seems to need a wise, weathered commander. Except the real White House.

Thompson’s political show flopped, showing a lingering hesitancy to launch, early organizational problems, lingering organizational problems and an apparent dislike for campaign workdays that went much past 10:45 or 11 a.m.

Doggone it, folks really seemed to like him, though, and he had pretty good conservative credentials. They just didn’t vote for him.

How much is enough?

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama went after the “we’re-not-paying-enough-taxes” vote the other day during a television interview in New York.

First, he said the Bush tax cuts ought to die. He likes that top marginal rate of 39%.

Maria Bartiromo on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” asked, “Who ought to pay more, and who should pay less?” Predictably, the politician chose to talk about who would benefit from his higher tax plan.

“I would not increase taxes for middle-class Americans, and in fact I want to provide a tax cut for people who are making $75,000 a year or less,” he said. “For those folks, I want an offset on the payroll tax that would be worth as much as $1,000 for a family.”

Does that means everyone making over $75,000 is wealthy?

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Times staff writer Richard C. Paddock contributed to this report. Excerpted from The Times’ political blog, Top of the Ticket, at latimes.com/ topoftheticket.