Jerry Brown needles GOP for pre-taping response to his speech

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Before getting down to business, Gov. Jerry Brown started his State of the Speech on Wednesday by ribbing top Republicans for pre-taping their response to his remarks.

The response -– or ‘pre-sponse,’ as Brown’s spokesman called it -- from state Senate Republican leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar and Assembly GOP chief Connie Conway of Tulare was accidentally posted online the day before the speech.

‘My speech wasn’t finished 24 hours ago,’ Brown said. ‘I didn’t know you were psychics.’

He added, ‘After the speech, I want to check with you on some stock tips.’

Conway took the joke in stride.

‘It turns out, I can take a little ribbing. Maybe I was clairvoyant. There was nothing in the speech that was not expected.’

She joked that she was only following the governor’s lead -- after all, his budget proposal accidentally appeared on the Internet on Jan. 5, days early.

Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles) was more critical, saying the Republicans who taped the response (shown above) were lucky to avoid being ‘burdened by the facts.’

He accused them of stalling progress in the Capitol, saying, ‘They had the same pat answer of ‘no.’ It is the same pat answer of ‘no’ that they have used consistently.’

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-- Chris Megerian and Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento
twitter.com/@chrismegerian