California has enormous fiscal problems, but no one can accuse Governor Jerry Brown of personally contributing to them.
Brown flew in from Sacramento to Burbank airport today as part of his first official gubernatorial road trip to the Los Angeles area. Nothing unusual about that. Except that he did it alone, with no staff. Not even his wife-slash-chief-adviser Anna Brown accompanied him.
Further, he did it on Southwest, the epitome of the no-frills cattle-car airline.
And he did it in coach.
The Governor had the company of many other Californians who bent his ear for the entire trip, most particularly Tianne Rios, a juvenile justice special education supervisor who works for the State's Department of Corrections.
Now, imagine Meg Whitman doing that. Even as a publicity stunt. You can't, can you?
The incident recalls Brown's previous tenure as California's Governor, when he famously eschewed living in the official Governor's mansion and being chauffeured via limousine, instead renting an apartment and driving an unremarkable Plymouth sedan. And then, as now, his tenure was immediately preceded by another clueless movie star Republican, whose mess he had to clean up.
Note to "Fiscal Conservatives" everywhere: This is what "Shared Sacrifice" looks like. See you on Southwest.