George Skelton (LA Times): Governor, Take Pat Brown's Advice

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Los Angeles Times
Dted Monday April 18

Capitol Jounal:
Governor, Take Pat Brown's Advice
By George Skelton

Shortly after he was bounced from office, former Gov. Pat Brown wrote an advice letter to the bouncer, new Gov. Ronald Reagan.

"Dear Governor," Brown began.

"There's a passage in 'War and Peace' that every new governor with a big majority should tack on his office wall. In it, young Count Rostov, after weeks as the toast of elegant farewell parties, gallops off on his first cavalry charge and then finds real bullets snapping at his ears.

" 'Why, they're shooting at me,' " he says. " 'Me, whom everyone loves.' "

"Nothing worse will happen to you in the next four years. Learn to live with that, the rest is easy."

Today, 38 years later, that counsel is just as timely for another celebrity governor, a superstar accustomed to basking in cheers, but now hearing jeers.

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