Have you noticed that every time Scott Brown gets asked about anything these days, he starts off his answer with a dig at Elizabeth Warren’s “credibility”? Here’s an example – this is from the same radio interview in which Brown about a minute later claimed to have held secret meetings with kings and queens, thereby subjecting himself to national ridicule.
You know who has actually failed the “credibility” test? Scott Brown himself. Incontestable video evidence proves that Scott Brown has repeatedly claimed, with a straight face, to have met with “kings and queens” and other super-important people. He made that claim at least three times over the last year or so before getting caught out for making it on the radio yesterday (and there’s yet another instance in this video of Brown with our old pal Jeff Perry, at about 3 minutes in). And he has made that claim in an effort to make the case that he’s been an effective Senator who talks about important issues with important people. It is not, in other words, a sideshow. Rather, it is a part of Brown’s own case as to why he deserves reelection.
And it’s false, as his own campaign spokesman admitted yesterday.
This kind of thing is why campaigns employ video trackers. One “kings and queens” comment might be plausibly described as a “gaffe.” But using the same line at least four times over several months in different settings, knowing full well that it’s false, well, that’s no gaffe. That’s a pattern, and it’s one that doesn’t say anything good about Scott Brown’s “honesty, credibility, and trustworthiness,” to quote his own words.
n/t
What’s so very strange about Brown’s repeated attempt to show off is the form that his boasting takes–secret meetings with crowned heads. The “everyman’ guy next door is more important than the rest of us–he gets to meet behind closed doors with potentates: does he think that the Koch brothers are part of a royal family?
his resume, by making himself appear more important than he actually is. If he hadn’t made such sport of Elizabeth Warren’s Cherokee heritage story, no one would have bothered with it, but he did, and they are, and he deserves it.
Does he admit he was wrong and he shouldn’t have made that claim, or does he say in his mind they were kings and queens, he’s proud to have met with kings and queens, etc?
And also, let’s not equate this apparent rhetorical exaggeration, which was obviously an attempt to convey the general true fact that he’s been very working hard and having important meetings with top foreign leaders, to Warren’s deliberate act of checking a box in a minority law professor directory used by schools to recruit minorities to their faculty.
We now have proof that Scott Brown is a frequent liar.
First, we learn that he plagiarized his values statement.
Now, we learn that he consistently made false claims about meeting with Kings and Queens.
Brown’s current and consistent lies to Massachusetts voters is definitely far worse than even the most ridiculous claim about Warren’s heritage. So you are finally right about something. They are not equal.
Scott Brown has a huge character flaw. He’s a liar.
The words that come to my mind are “projection” and “confabulation”.
It appears to me that Scott Brown’s obsessive focus on the false claim that Ms. Warren inflated her credentials is a projection of his own false claims of power and influence. I think “liar” is perhaps inaccurate — I suspect his claims are instead a confabulation.
I think the earlier characterization as delusional is apt. A lie is a false statement, knowingly and intentionally made, usually in pursuit of some conscious purpose. A confabulation is a false statement that the speaker genuinely believes to be true.
I think Scott Brown believes he is powerful and influential. I think he needs to believe that. I think this need fuels his delusions and motivates these objectively untrue assertions. This need to feel powerful and influential is common among abuse survivors. Sadly, all too often it leads to abuse itself (which is one reason why abuse survivors all too often become abusers themselves).
I am as uncomfortable with “armchair diagnosis” like this as anyone else — I would much prefer the campaign to focus on issues. Nevertheless, since the candidate so relentlessly directs his media exposure to this topic, then there is little alternative but to address it.
Remember, Scott Brown also plagiarized his values statement on his web-site. Plagiarism is pretty serious. And, to commit plagiarism with his values statement is also pretty serious.
I just have a simpler explanation. Scott Brown cannot be trusted. He lies.
He’s a fake.
who wrote the “kings and queens” stuff in his stump speech, and, you know, he’s a busy guy – he can’t be bothered to fact-check every little detail of what he says. 😉
to get Obama to play basketball with him. The earliest ones were stated almost as if, in the wake of his victory, he was a near peer of the President. This is true of the many times that he had – nearly incoherently spoken of being the one who has led on all issues in a bipartisan way – often after he simultaneously filibustered a bill and submitted a bill to do the same thing but which contained vague jargon rather than a real funding mechanism.
In some ways, Rubio, with his self-righteous protests that Obama did not consult him *a VERY junior Senator) before he changed immigration policy, is similar. They both have very inflated egos.
has finally learned not to consult with known liars.