First, Scott Brown’s statement on his official website regarding his motivation for holding public office was exposed as being lifted verbatim from Elizabeth Dole’s website. The Boston Globe reported on October 11, 2011 that, “The Massachusetts senator uses the exact words [used] by the former North Carolina senator (Elizabeth Dole) [in her remarks] at her campaign kickoff in 2002. . . . Brown spokesman John Donnelly said the language was attributed to Brown in error, while his staff was creating the website.” While they claimed to have just used Dole’s page as a placeholder, Brown’s staff managed to change the opening sentence and took out references to her parents’ names. As noted by the Globe article, the public response to this “technical error” was not so receptive: “This kind of plagiarism makes me wonder how many things about Scott Brown are really genuine . . . . The fact that he can’t come up with a personal values statement of his own, that he has to steal someone else’s, I think is very instructive of what kind of politician he is.”
Then, there’s Humorgate . . . the only quotable line from his recent performance at a popular St. Patrick’s Day Roast was similarly lifted from Conan O’Brien, as TalkingPointsMemo pointed out. When first asked about it, the Brown campaign said it was a coincidence. Then, according to the Boston Herald,“Brown spokesguy Colin Reed ‘fessed up when confronted with YouTube evidence of the theft.”
Now, a quick look at his scottbrown.com website reveals that he has misspelled the names of several cities in Massachusetts in the field organizing section. His staffers — can we say national Republican operatives? — don’t seem to know how to spell the city of Somerville and towns of Princeton and Somerset. They seem to be so busy recruiting National Republicans like Olympia Snowe to town that they aren’t finding the time to spell check. Whatever excuse they use this time, Brown’s staff may want to remember Tip O’Neill’s adage, “All politics is local.” People like their names and cities spelled correctly.
Scott Brown might want to start working on his sloppiness problem.
…are all spelled basically how they sound (though I suppose someone completely unfamiliar might spell the first Summerville). What happens when they need to spell places like “Draycut”, “Gloster”, “Wuster”, “Quinzy”, “Haivril”, and “Lester” correctly?
Of course, even some Mass. natives may wonder where this place that its residents call “Birricka” is.
Thanks.