A Huffington Post article today reports:
In a Friday interview on Boston’s WTKK-FM radio, the incumbent said he is giving up booze until November’s Election Night. Brown noted that he has not had any type of alcohol since January 1, referring to the adjustment as “one of those New Year’s things” that he did “on a stupid bet.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/21/scott-brown-booze-i-wont-drink-election-day_n_1442728.html
Yet as was reported on Blue Mass just two weeks ago – far after January 1, Brown not only sampled various beers, but drove afterwards – as well as making a fairly obnoxious frat boy comment about a woman reporter covering the event.
Brown took some more heat later in the week for behavior that was, shall we say, not up to “role model” standards. What got a thorough round of press was Brown throwing back a number of beer samples at a brewery and then driving off. Even if Brown has a high alcohol tolerance and wasn’t impacted at all by his several drinks, with police in Massachusetts cautioning all of us that “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving,” Brown simply could have used better judgment, given his very high-profile position.
http://www.progressmass.org/blog/2012/04/weekly-scott-brown-d-up-week-of-41312.html
Here, Brown may have exceeded Romney’s propensity to lie because this was a completely unforced lie – he brought it up – and I don’t think that his drinking was considered a negative. Is this a gambit to suggest that he is not drinking because he is working so hard to win? How does this fit with his barncoat/truck/regular guy persona? I really do not get this. Interesting that the Boston Herald seems to have forgotten its own story, which is still up.
theloquaciousliberal says
This same lie was noted on Daily Kos already this morning:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/23/1085730/-Scott-Brown-falls-off-the-wagon-
This is all pretty remarkable actually, given that virtually no-one . I’d like to see more follow-up reporting on this.
There are other examples. Anyone seen the Senator drinking in 2012 anywhere other than this one “brewery tour” example? Anyone know what he was doing New Years Eve (that caused him to wake up the next morning and make a “stupid bet” – a promise Gail and the kids? – that he would stop drinking for the year)?
centralmassdad says
Drunk driving AND problem drinking, all at once? These are strong conclusions, given the evidence presented.
John Tehan says
To wit:
Source: http://alcoholism.about.com/od/dui/a/mandatory.htm
Brown apparently has not been caught driving drunk, but he certainly drank a good amount of beer at the event at the brewery and then drove off. If he keeps that up, it’s only a matter of time before he does get pulled over for DUI.
centralmassdad says
Unless you were at the event.
The article linked says he tasted a Red IPA, one of about 12 kinds of beer the place makes, out of one of those little tasting cups, and then drove away.
From this we make accusations that it is only a matter of time before he gets pulled over for DUI, plus speculation that his family is trying to get him to stop drinking.
I call BS. To write more would be uncharitable.
karenc says
if he was at least a bit “buzzed”. The original article, in the Herald transitions without any reservations to him them driving. I would assume that someone – in his campaign, in the media, or even the place would have volunteered to find a sober driver for the Senator if there were any question he was over the limit.
I do agree with the fact that as a role model, he should not have driven because it suggests that drinking (a little) and driving is ok. I really don’t know why he didn’t have someone on his staff drive.
The articles I posted did not suggest either, but they do suggest that Brown really has a problem with reality if he did not see a contradiction between saying he had not had any alcohol since January when he was pictured with beer a week ago. A Politico article says it depends on the meaning of drinking – apparently “sampling” beer is not drinking beer. http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/04/it-depends-on-the-what-the-definition-of-drinking-121219.html
centralmassdad says
level of completely baseless innuendo.
You guys are usually better than this.
karenc says
1) Brown said that he has not had any alcohol since January.
2) He CLEARLY had beer to drink at the brewery.
What is wrong in pointing out the obvious discrepancy? Neither of these statements are speculation – they are fact. II have no problem with people who think this is not a big deal – it isn’t, nor did I say it was.
I
centralmassdad says
But the point of the comments in this thread were to posit that Brown has a drinking problem, and that he is a drunk driver. Based on: absolutely nothing whatsoever. “His comments are easier to understand if he was ‘”buzzed.'”
karenc says
and the several words where the quantity consumed was minimized – as in “a little”. I said if he were not sober, others were have stopped him from driving. These were because the issue was brought up.
centralmassdad says
But my point was indeed “brought up.” By you, in the original post.
John Tehan says
…but I did watch the video, where he’s seen drinking from a pint glass of the Red IPA. As noted by other commenters, that’s a very strong beer. He also said it was his favorite, implying that he had sampled at least a few of the other beers offered. At the same time, he’s been quoted saying he quit drinking as a New Year’s resolution, and that’s CLEARLY not true.
My dad was an alcoholic – I think he actually suffered PTSD his whole life from his experiences in WWII, but that’s beside the point. Being intimately familiar with the actions of an alcoholic, I can tell you that this whole episode stinks of a drinking problem on Brown’s part.
hesterprynne says
…this story from the Attleboro Sun, 4/7/12, which says that beer is going to be a central part of an upcoming Brown fundraiser:
Maybe he’ll be having the club soda with his candlepins.
Or maybe he figures that if you’re going to ditch a New Year’s resolution, you might as well pick up some bucks at the same time.
Any other theories?
SomervilleTom says
I’m not sure that I’d call consuming a tasting-cup of Red IPA “drinking”. The staid Episcopal church that I attended for decades uses (watered-down) Ruby Port for communion wine. I suspect that each communicant consumes as much alcohol each Sunday morning as Scott Brown drank at the event in question — essentially zero.
Perhaps we might rather focus our energies on the myriad of more important ways that Elizabeth Warren (or the eventual Democratic nominee) is a better junior senator from Massachusetts than Scott Brown and let this one pass.
mski011 says
I agree.
I put up a self-proclaimed “Cheap Shot” on this one and really just used it as an opportunity to remind everyone about Brown’s description of Hillary Chabot dancing in the back of his truck.
demredsox says
This is not a thing that matters. It’s just not.
petr says
I think the title of the post says what needs to be said: “Romney levels of honesty”…
Let’s get back to the fact that Brown is the one who brought this up and that all the ‘overreaching’ is merely attempts to square his actions with the circle his speech has taken. This isn’t about problem drinking (though, as the son and grandson of alcoholics, I can attest that it certainly has that whiff to it…) but rather about problem speaking.
JHM says
fits in admirably around here.
Happy days.
sethjp says
Blue Hills’ Imperial Red IPA, the beer that was supposedly his “favorite” is 9% ABV. That means that one 4oz sample pour (the typical sample cup size) gave him almost as much alcohol as a half pint of Miller High Life (ABV 4.7%). And to have chosen a favorite, means that he had to have sampled more than one, right? A quick look at the ABV counts of Blue Hills Brewery offerings (at BeerAdvocate.com) shows that the majority of their beers are over 5% ABV with high sixes being fairly common and 4.8% being the absolute lowest (the watermelon wheat that Scott tries to get Hillary Chabot to drink). So, if he sampled four or five of their beers, he probably rolled out of their with close to the equivalent of two pints of Miller in his stomach. (And this completely ignores the fact that we see him drinking from a pint glass in the Herald’s video.)
I don’t see that as a huge deal for a regular beer drinker — as Scott appears to be — but it’s certainly not “essentially zero,” per you. And it’s definitely not “not drinking,” as Scott’s campaign would have us believe.
merrimackguy says
What ever happened with that? If he doesn’t he should. I would if I was him.
theloquaciousliberal says
Michelle announced this to much fanfare in February 2011:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/michelle-obama-president-_n_820340.html
A doctor backed this up in October 2011:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/barack-obama-tobacco-free-report
And there have been no reports of him smoking since then. Good for him, I say.
Charley on the MTA says
I do not care about this matter. At. All.
Two words: Ted Kennedy. That is all.