Governor Flake

Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. is a flake.

Brown, the former governor of California, has already taken a shot at the presidency. Now he's considering another futile run for the Oval Office. If he goes through with his candidacy, he'll shake up the Democratic circuit with his Way Out in Left Field politicking.

Sure, his advisers say this is not the Jerry whose dreamy futurism earned him the nickname "Governor Moon-beam." They insist that he's changed.

But the Brown of today, while he may no longer date singer Linda Ronstadt, still talks like a flake. Take a listen...

On his background: "Is it a record without contradictions and hypocrisy? No, it isn't." (He's honest!)

On why he wants to run for president: To "get rid of organized bribery" in U.S. politics. (He's idealistic!)

On the death penalty, which he has always firmly opposed: "I don't intend to back off my support for peace." (He's a flake!)

His advisers say he has toughened his rhetoric and has truly "undergone a metamorphosis." But the Yale Law School grad and son of a quite different California governor sports quite the same anti-big government, anti-Big Brother, anti-Big Mac rhetoric that won him two terms in California.

Jerry, if you're out there--as you certainly are--take some free advice. Forget about the whole White House thing. One, it doesn't become you, and two, you don't have a chance. Go back and learn some more about Zen Buddhism.