Nope, not an April Fool’s joke.  Anne Gust, who has always been a powerful advisor to Jerry Brown since they met back in the early nineties, doesn’t really suffer fools.  Apparently, she wasn’t really liking what she saw out of Senate Minority Leader Bob Dutton.  Dutton went crying to the media:

Dutton said first lady Anne Gust Brown “yelled” at him in one meeting with the governor last Wednesday over a lack of cooperation.

“Frankly, I was yelled at more than I was talked to,” Dutton said, “and mostly by Mrs. Brown, not even Gov. Brown.”

Brown press secretary Gil Duran blasted Dutton later.

“And the dog barked at him, too,” Duran said. “Big girls don’t cry. The real issue here is the fact that schoolchildren, the elderly and the poor are going to be crushed if these reckless Republicans don’t get their act together and make a reasonable deal for the good of the people. Given the magnitude of the situation, we really don’t have time for Bob Dutton’s feelings.”(SacBee)

Is this supposed to make Californians like him better? Respect Jerry less? What? I’m just not sure what the gain for Dutton is with this story.

At any rate, at this point it doesn’t even seem to matter.  Jerry is working on addressing some of the issues in the ransom note in his own manner, and just leaving the Republicans behind.  Some of the issues need to be addressed, and others are something of a red herring trumped up for political reasons. As for the budget, it looks like we’ll be heading for a bloody May revise through the traditional budget schedule.