It’s amazing, really. Even though it was Scott Brown’s top advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, who got caught playing dirty tricks on the Democratic Senate candidates via the CrazyKhazei Twitter account, Brown still thinks he’s the victim. In this clip from an interview with Fox25 reporter Sharman Sacchetti, Sacchetti does a good job trying to press him, and he just will not budge. No matter what actually happens, Scott’s reality is always that he’s the victim. Check it out.
Notice a couple of things:
- Initially, Brown thinks the question is going to be about negative campaigning against him. But look how smoothly Brown takes it in stride when the reporter pivots and asks him about CrazyKhazei. The expression on his face barely changes. He may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he is slick.
- When his initial (lame) gambit – that Fehrnstrom “is not Scott Brown” – quickly fails, Brown immediately plays his old standby, the victim card. “I find it kind of amusing that people are talking about that, yet when they see a commercial or an ad or the protests about me that are completely non-factual, it’s like, oh, no big deal.” Man up, Scott – politics ain’t beanbag. Plus, since when is it “completely non-factual” to point out the votes that you’ve taken as a Senator? As someone once said, if you can’t take the tweet, get out of the kitchen.
- His final line on this, when Sacchetti appropriately points out that Brown is employing a double standard by keeping Fehrnstrom on while whining about negative campaigning against him, is really appalling. He says, “yeah, well, the bottom line is that I told him not to do it, he’s not doing it, and I’m not quite sure what else to say on that.”
You’re “not quite sure what else to say”? Geez, Scotto, let me help you. Try this on:
I’d like to apologize to Alan Khazei, and to the other Democratic Senate candidates, for Eric Fehrnstrom’s behavior throughout this “CrazyKhazei” episode. Although I was unaware of his actions, I recognize that I have ultimate responsibility for the conduct of the people who work on my campaign. I want to assure Alan and the other candidates that I have instructed my staff that nothing like this is ever to happen again. I recognize that, although we differ on many important issues, all the candidates in this race are patriotic Americans who want what they believe is best for the people of Massachusetts and the country. I deeply regret that my staff was, without my knowledge, engaged in the kind of negative campaigning that I have deplored many times.
Unfortunately, it seems as though manning up and taking responsibility is not in Scott Brown’s repertoire. Why am I not surprised?
and that’s all I got to say about that.
or the Gump?
into a two week story, and with this response, he’s still keeping it alive. Even Fox25 with their normal softball questions to Brown asked about his double standard in negative campaigning. The more he dodges the question the more people think that he’s fine with false attacks on candidates. Kind of taking away the sweet lovable Scotty we knew doing ads from his kitchen. Keep up the good with Scott.
do you think Scott Brown will win reelection? No caveats, regardless of Warren being in/out, all of Brown’s negatives and faults as pointed out here hourly… do you think he will win?
What has he accomplished for Massachusetts Democrats, or Republicans? He wasn’t the “41st Senator” — the red meat obstructionist ready to bring it to Obama, as he promised the Tea Party. And he hasn’t done much else besides filibuster his own jobs bill: a perfect metaphor for his performance to date. Voters want results and Scott Brown doesn’t have any to show. He can’t even control his own campaign staff, or take responsibility for them on Fox News for God’s sake.
But is that the bar we hold all elected officials to? If we look at our Congressional collection from MA, do they all have great accomplishments over the last year starting when Scott Brown was sworn in?
I’m not questioning whether Scott Brown “should” get reelected, I’m asking if he “will” get reelected. As far as I can tell, we reelect people all the time who have flimsy perhaps non-existant records in office. John Kerry comes to mind… what’s he done?
BTW… I want results too!
If it blows up, nobody will blame him. If they come back with a good deal, he will claim it was all his idea.
please vet your posts based upon your personal take on future election results.
Good day sir!
P. S.
Doesn’t matter if you know the other candidates, who votes for specific candidates after all, just stick a D and an R next to a box and let them vote.
As the most prominent Republican in Massachusetts and bereft of any hint of liberalism that great Senators like Edward Brooke had, it should be no surprise that Brown is frequent topic on this left blog.
While his ubiquity on this site does not bother me, it alone will not defeat him. For this I would like to quote Susan Daggett, the wife of Colorado Senator Michael Bennet. From the New York Times last year: “You can choose the pain of sacrifice in the next eight days,” she said, in urging everyone to make calls and knock on doors, “or you can choose the pain of defeat.”
Ms. Daggett said this a week or so out from election day. We’ve got a lot more time than that and an opponent who is not a tea partier like Ken Buck, but still no fan of positions to the left of Mitch McConnell. Still, the point is that the defeat of Brown is going to take more than these posts. It is going to take work. Hard work made all the more difficult by a lengthy primary in which we cannot afford to let any of the Dems bloody each other up too much.
By the way the New York Times article and the Colorado Senate race last year is a great case study for political junkies if one not especially instructive in Massachusetts.
the continual small-minded attacks on Brown from this site will only reinforce the necessity of having a choice in the overall scheme of existing phonies and hpyocrites (the Kerry’s, Capuano’s, Tierney’s etc.) David still doesn’t get it that personal attacks against Brown are not going to win this election. And the usual cast of clones on this site continues to play Mr. Sir Echo to these essays in futility.
Or is their willingness to take one for the Party by stepping down after many years of service so that re-districting is easier.
I also like how they vote in lockstep, while each of them claims to be voting “what their constituents want.”
Doesn’t anyone have a problem that Rep. Tsongas doesn’t even live in her district?
Republicans don’t believe in collectivism, so your suggested apology just doesn’t apply. Only a Democrat believes that people should apologize for the actions of other people, and only a Democrat would think that this is something anyone needs to apologize over. Scott Brown isn’t a dweebish Democrat like you think everyone should be, apologizing for everything all the time. That’s why we elected him in the first place. I bet Martha Coakley would have tearfully apologized and resigned along with her whole staff if it was her adviser, right? I mean I bet she really would have, that’s what Democrats do, they’re so ridiculously serious about stupid stuff, they can’t do anything without passing it through ten levels of anal academic anxiety.
The law recognizes the concept of agency. You are responsible for the actions of employees acting on your behalf.
Why don’t you type up a brief, put on your suit, and sue somebody?
much more entertaining.
wherein managers are most definitely responsible for the actions of their subordinates.
There’s nothing “collectivist” about it.
Scott Brown was shooting daggers at her following those questions. She will probably never get an interview with him again. So I appreciate her putting the welfare of the country before her career. I hope she gets rewarded for being a tough and courageous news reporter.
His camp has registered QueenElizabethWarren.com.
picking on Scott Brown. Feelings are getting hurt.
Don’t Get Cute called Sue Kennedy a Harvard educated lawyer.
Edgar the Armenian called us clones.
Merrimack Guy says we vote in lockstep.
The sharpness of their namecalling is a reaction-formation to the frustration and anxiety they feel over Brown’s vulnerability and the Massachusetts Miracle slipping away. Next thing they’ll be breaking out “moonbat” and “surrender monkey.” You know only the GOP is allowed to be mean.
If just one of these guys breaks into “Kumbaya,” I suggest we stop singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” and join in.
The bar for name calling is very low on this site.
What can I say?
I cry when I watch Little House on the Prairie reruns.
I get Phil Donahue’s twitterfeed.
I like to sit in my hot tub, siping a latte, surrounded by therapeutically scented candles, listening to Deepak Chopra tapes.
I morris dance most weekends.
In addition to the Fox 25 interview, Scott Brown also did an interview with NECN that day (Friday, 9/2).
He declined to apologize for the Khazei fracas, just as in the other interview. And in a halfhearted way, he tried to deny that Eric Fehrnstrom was even on his staff. His seconds-later concession that Fehrnstrom was on “double secret probation” appeared to be a grudging concession that he was going to be seriously busted if he tried to push that explanation.
Other highlights of the interview:
(1) another exhibition of the Senator’s vapid megalomania: what’s good for Scott Brown is good for the country
(2) the shout out to an apparently important part of the base — the Kegger Community:
All this starts at about 10:45. Rock on.
by labor this time around.