In light of Scott Brown’s claim that he didn’t actually snub Setti Warren at the Newton Memorial Day parade, BMG asked the Warren campaign for clarification on what really happened. A Warren staffer responded as follows (email, no link):
What the clip shows is Mayor Warren offering Senator Brown the chance to come over and meet with some of the veterans that he was marching with in the parade. Senator Brown waved him off. We’re not concerned or worried about this, and Mayor Warren greatly enjoyed his time out at the parade yesterday.
So, there you have it. It’s true that the video does not clearly show Warren extending his right hand, as one would normally expect in a shake-hands situation. However, I would definitely characterize as a “snub” what the Warren staffer describes. Frankly, I’m not sure which is worse; neither is good. Watch it again, with the Warren campaign’s response in mind:
to meet Vets in a Memorial Day parade. Nice.
You guys are getting desperate in your quest to find anything, however trite or meaningless, to disparage Scott Brown. Your zeal for finding negatives, any negative at all, will not convert independent voters to your “progressive” cause. Boo hoo.
1. I didn’t shoot the video, nor am I the one who first characterized it as a snub – that was the WBZ anchor.
2. I asked the Warren campaign for comment, which seems like a reasonable thing to do, and posted exactly what they said.
3. Episodes like this, along with the flap over Brown’s ever-shifting position on RyanCare, sometimes moreso than prepared speeches and policy positions, reveal a surprising amount about a candidate’s character. Voters care about character, in case you hadn’t noticed. So it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to post about on a political blog.
4. As I’ve repeatedly advised you, it’s a big internet, and nobody is forcing you to read BMG. At least, I hope they’re not – we disapprove of that kind of activity, and have asked the You Must Read BMG squad to discontinue its practices. 😉
My guess is that clip would have been on Fox in heavy rotation. The new response would have turned it into why wouldn’t the Senator meet even briefly with veterans on Memorial Day.
It really is not that big a deal.
I think I can answer that for you Karen!
They would post it all over the internet in the hopes that they can sucker someone into believing that Scott Brown doesn’t want to “exchange handshakes with a possible opponent”
http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/2011/05/scott-brown-keepin-it-classy/#comment-271260
That’s the sort of unsportsmanlike behavior we frown upon in schools, let alone the highest of elective public office. What Sen. Brown revealed in that split-second decision to walk away is that he is childish, lacking confidence, and short on basic etiquette. At least on the most basic level, Brown should have been able to bring himself to greet, properly, a fellow veteran. This moment reveals more about the real Scott Brown’s character than he will ever know.
Scott Brown hates it when veterans ruin his Memorial Day.
He did the same thing to me at a festival. I went up to shake his hand covere din my Democratic Garb at the time and we made eye contact and he jolted away. Stay Classy Scotto
It’s true everyone. Scott Brown took one look at Tyler (specifically what he was wearing) and ran. In fact most of the women at the “festival” did the same exact thing.
Way to go Tyler!
k
Let’s stick with substance folks. It’s the votes and the policies that we need to examine. There are voting elders in Massachusetts that have a very bad feeling about the threats to Medicaid and that could be the deal breaker for our Junior Senator. Will he snub enough people with his votes to make an opening possible? That is the real substance to pursue. Meanwhile, if we are going to point fingers at poor manners, I don’t think one can compare the acute abrasiveness of let’s say, for example, Rep. Barry Frank with Sen. Snotty Brown’s dismal of Setti Warren at a parade…..maybe he needed to go pee. Point being, it must be a slow news day to perseverate on this nonsense.
…threats to Medicare
n/t
Yes there are fare more important issues, but Brown repeatedly ducks and cowers before those of the “people’ who dare to disagree with him.
The article whines that Brown is not getting a fair shake because of blunders by WBZ – on this – and the Boston Globe in briefly including a fake Brown quote from TMP.
I suspect the real intent on the Ryan bill thing is almost like the Bush National Guard story – where one real error was used to debunk not just the error, but the issue itself. The fact is that Brown DID say that he would vote for it – and his staff corrected that he had not decided how to vote. The BG quote (that he meant “on” not “for”) was false, but the truth is he did flip all over the place on this. The problem is NOT the fake quote that few saw, but the real statement that was heard.
To these biased eyes, both whines simply give another day’s coverage to negative stories. The parade explanation actually makes it worse. It makes it clear this was a cordial, non-political event – where Brown rejected an invitation to meet with his Newton vets, who are his constituents – on Memorial Day.
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