Does Scott Brown Actually Write Anything Himself?

[Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog.  Like ProgressMass on Facebook and follow on Twitter.]

Republican Scott Brown holds what he frequently refers to as “the People’s Seat,” despite the fact that he refuses to meet with “the People” in an open, public town hall forum well-advertised in advance.  OK, fine.  For the most part, we lowly constituents have to rely on written missives from Brown (unless we also listen to his misleading and hypocritical “Radio Report” series of paid advertisements).

But that begs the question, does Republican Scott Brown actually write anything himself?  There are plenty of reasons to believe he doesn’t.

First, we recently learned that Republican Scott Brown used the Bush family ghost writer to draft his autobiography.  (It’s not really much of an autobiography if someone else writes it, right?)  Sure, plenty of politicians use ghost writers, but they’re all Washington D.C. elitists, right?  Not Scott Brown!  Oh, well.

Second, we all recall when Republican Scott Brown was caught plagiarizing from Republican Elizabeth Dole’s biography, fabricating a fictitious background for himself – and he didn’t even have the courtesy to pay Liddy Dole as a ghost writer!

“This kind of plagiarism makes me wonder how many things about Scott Brown are really genuine,” said Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge 21st Century.

He added: “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.”

It’s doubly funny (or perhaps doubly shameful) that Brown resorted to the old scapegoat tactic of blaming an intern for his mess.  American Bridge 21st Century chronicled Brown’s plagiarism scandal:

Third, this headline kind of says it all: “Scott Brown’s Pledge To Keep Out Third Parties Written With Help Of Third Party.”  What are they talking about?  As Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren were negotiating the terms of the “People’s Pledge” (the agreement for which Brown has had to pay fines twice for violations), Brown’s negotiations were not drafted by the Brown campaign, but rather by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), one of those very “third parties” that the People’s Pledge has operated to keep out of the process.  NRSC lawyer Sean Cairncross served as Republican Scott Brown’s ghost writer on this one.  It’s as ironic as it is disingenuous.

Fourth, and perhaps most telling, compare these two passages:

She is a far-left ideologue and her liberal friends from across the country are helping her: She has the Harry Reid Democrats, the Hollywood Crowd, the Far Left Juggernaut, the Occupy Wall Street Bunch, and the Massachusetts Machine raising money hand-over-clenched fist. […]

This is why Washington insiders, celebrities, elites, occupiers and leftists are pouring money into their attack campaign against me, and why I need your generous help again, right now, whether it’s for $25, $50, $100 or some other amount, to fight back hard and win.

and

I try not to divide people up into easy categories – assuming the best because they agree with me, or the worst because they don’t.

The first passage, in which the writer divides people up into “easy categories,” comes from a fundraising e-mail dated April 10, 2012, and entitled “Warren’s liberal friends.”  The e-mail was signed “Senator Scott Brown, The People’s Seat.”

The second passage, in which the speaker insists that he doesn’t “divide people up into easy categories,” was uttered by – wait just a second! – Republican Scott Brown in a speech given on May 2, 2012, just twenty-two days after Brown very clearly “divided people up into easy categories.”

This clear disconnect in rhetoric suggests one of four scenarios:

1. Brown wrote the first passage but not the second (passing off ownership of the rhetoric until he delivered the second passage in his speech).
2. Brown wrote and delivered the second passage while blissfully unaware of the first having been sent out by his campaign.
3. Brown didn’t write either passage, which is plausible since he doesn’t seem to write anything else.
4. Brown wrote both passages and simply lied in his speech about not dividing people up into “easy categories,” thinking he could Etch-A-Sketch away his earlier childishly partisan rhetoric.

If Republican Scott Brown ever held town hall meetings, maybe we could ask him which scenario was accurate.  (And maybe that’s one of the reasons why Brown hides from his constituents and refuses to hold town hall meetings.)

Obviously, U.S. Senators are very busy people and they can’t personally write every single word that is communicated from their office or campaign.  However, when Republican Scott Brown time and time again doesn’t bother to communicate his own words (on top of his aforementioned refusal to hold town hall meetings), we have to question how genuine he is and whether or not he’s simply a puppet of his right-wing partisan Republican leadership and corporate benefactors on Wall Street and in Big Oil.