What Was Jerry Brown's Response to Idea of Calling Meg Whitman a Whore?

Jerry Brown calls a police union official.  He leaves a message and attempts to hang up the phone. The attempt fails.  Brown continues talking in the background unaware that the remarks are being captured by voice mail.   If you got that call, you know you would be listening closely.  And if the conversation involved the word "whore" being used to describe Brown's opponent Meg Whitman -- you would say "bingo."  Well this is all on the audio turned over to the Los Angeles Times:

The comment came after Brown called the Los Angeles Police Protective League in early September to ask for its endorsement. He left a voicemail message for Scott Rate, a union official. Brown apparently believed he had hung up the phone, but the connection remained intact and the voice mail machine captured an ensuing conversation between Brown and his aides.

Dan Riehl's thought:

Remember when a Joe Miller staffer said something about the oldest profession in reference to Lisa Murkowski seeking endorsement from the Libertarian Party? Well, this looks to be far worse to me.

The central issue here involves the protection of law enforcement pensions.  Both candidates wanted the endorsements of police departments -- so how they approached the issues would have consequences.  Whitman had offered an exemption for public safety in her reform plan. The LA Times listened carefully to the relevant portion of the call:

“Do we want to put an ad out? … That I have been warned if I crack down on pensions, I will be – that they’ll go to Whitman, and that’s where they’ll go because they know Whitman will give ‘em, will cut them a deal, but I won’t,” Brown said.

At that point, what appears to be a second voice interjects: “What about saying she’s a whore?”

“Well, I’m going to use that,” Brown responds. “It proves you’ve cut a secret deal to protect the pensions.”