Backed into a corner and wilting under the assault of GOP candidate Meg Whitman's formidable political machine, California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has been forced to address a "devastating" new attack-ad that shows Bill Clinton belittling the former governor in 1992. The Whitman ad, which shows Clinton saying that Brown "raised taxes" as California governor and left the state with a deficit after arriving in office with a surplus, has been seen as a savvy political move by the former eBay executive.

Brown, for his part, went on the offensive but may have chosen to attack the wrong foe. Lambasting Bill Clinton's words in the decades-old video, he also pokes fun at the Monica Lewinsky scandal by angrily quipping, "I did not have taxes with this state" after saying that Clinton wasn't always known as the the most "truthful" person.

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Erik Hayden