Moonbeams And Starshine

by digby

Jessica Yellin is batting a thousand this week. She just did a story on Jerry Brown holding a big Hollywood fundraiser for his Governor’s bid tonight, reminding everyone that he used to rub shoulders with entertainers when he was Governor back in the 1970s (unlike most California governors — Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzennegger to name two.) Then she said:

Back then he was known as Governor Moonbeam.

I have no doubt the Republicans are planning to bring that up, but the least the press could do is explain where the name came from:

As Governor, Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that would indeed eventually be adopted by the state. In 1978, Mike Royko, at the time a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, nicknamed Brown “Governor Moonbeam” because of the latter idea. The nickname quickly became associated with his quirky politics, which were considered eccentric by some in California and the rest of the nation. In 1992, almost 15 years later, Royko would disavow the nickname, proclaiming Brown to be “just as serious” as any other politician.

There are plenty of criticisms to be made about Brown, who in many respects is no longer even close to being a liberal. But dredging up the “Moonbeam” nonsense is typical, lazy hippie punching. The fact that Brown’s allegedly silly stoner talk about communications satellites was prescient apparently is meaningless.

It’s the same idiocy they pulled on Al Gore. Anyone who actually thinks about the future is derided as some kind geeky of hippie freak. We should be spending all of our time wallowing in Leave It To Beaver nostalgia and cold war sentimentality like the kewl kidz do.

BTW: Yellin went on to say that the man “the haters call Darth Vader” has become a grandfather for the seventh time. His daughter Mary and her partner Heather have welcomed a new baby. Wolf congratulated them too.

No mention of the “haters” among Cheney’s staunchest supporters who think that Mary and Heather are condemned to hell and shouldn’t be allowed to marry or adopt children. No need to bring up all that unpleasantness. It’s different for villagers.

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