Tracking Beatty

Joe Scott blogs today about the Warren Beatty-for-governor rumors, which are being fed by the actor's political speeches around the state. Beatty told ABC last week that he won't rule out a run. Scott doesn't think Beatty is in the race, but he writes that Beatty wants to dump Arnold Schwarzenegger and will serve "as a one-man 'truth' squad during the general election. He’s smart, reflective, and quotable."

Today in Oakland he’ll deliver another barn burner speech to the biennial convention of the California Nurses’ Association. State nurses are waging a compelling TV ad war against Schwarzenegger because of his refusal to block implementation of previously passed legislation that would reduce-nurse-to-patient ratios.

On a personal note, I’ve known Beatty since the mid-’70s when he subscribed to my national political newsletter, The Political Animal. At the Bel Air wedding reception in the ‘80s for the Democratic consultant Bob Shrum and his wife, the novelist Mary Louise Oates, Beatty mischievously said his bathroom wall was papered with old issues. We had a good laugh about that.

Oates at that time was a writer for the LAT.