Fox News producer Jake Gibson reported over the weekend that the person who famously called Meg Whitman a whore — an utterance caught on-tape — is none other than Jerry Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown.

True? We don't know. Do we trust Fox News? Not really. Intriguing? Definitely. Add this one to the pile of rumors about whoregate, in which someone on Brown's staff, or maybe even Brown himself, described their Republican gubernatorial rival as a sex seller.

This report does have one interesting point, however:

Brown has yet to fire the whore-sayer. In a normal campaign, that would probably be the first order of business.

“The person who said that word is someone who can't be fired… Jerry's wife can't be fired.” a source told Gibson.

Other journalists state the voice caught on tape is that of a woman. Some have said the utterance was made by Jerry Brown himself. But a woman, in fact, is heard at the end of the tape recorded on the voicemail system of a Los Angeles police union official.

The story broke last week when the union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, released the recording.

It was made when Brown phoned LAPPL official Scott Rate to ask for the labor group's endorsement. Brown left a message but failed to get the complicated technical process of actually hanging up down pat.

And so the recording continues after Brown thought the call was over, and he's heard discussing endorsements with his associates.

What to do about Whitman's alleged bow (one the LAPPL says she did not and could not make) to union demands that the candidates protect their fat public pensions at a time when state and local governments are hurting? Someone on the tape suggests that the Brown campaign produce a TV spot calling her a “whore.”

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