Neither silent nor deadly! The Texas versus California battle is getting hot. Or at least gassy. So let the punch lines begin.
David Siders of the Sacramento Bee first reported on his
blog that the ongoing feud between California governor Jerry Brown and Texas governor Rick Perry just blew up into a whole new realm. A different kind of hot air.
Brown called Perry's radio ad inviting California businesses to relocate to Texas 'barely a fart.'
Putting it in context, Brown told reporters "It's not a serious story, guys. "It's not a burp. It's barely a fart."
By late news time, it was the lead story on the west coast -- at least in Sacramento. John Myers, the political editor of ABC affiliate News10, packaged the whole thing, with video of the Brown giving the quote to Myers himself as cameras walked along with them after a press event.
But this is a story some reporters are sitting on for right now, afraid to use the "f" word. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times tweeted "Guessing I can't use Jerry Brown response to Rick Perry ads bashing Calif taxes in NYT? "Not a story. It's not a burp. It's barely a fart."
But don't poo-poo this story. It's bound to blow up quickly. We can smell it.
Perry is sure to fire back and isn't shy about tooting his own horn. So when we catch wind of any response from the Perry people in Austin, we'll air it right away.
And if that means we have too many stories, we'll just cut one and try to squeeze this one in.
BTW, this story broke on the very same day NBC Nightly News ran a
story on high gas prices in California. Between Perry's ad and California's gas issues, maybe Brown was just feeling the pressure and couldn't keep it in anymore.
