[Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog. Like ProgressMass on Facebook and follow on Twitter.]
Our Republican junior Senator, Scott Brown, tried to gin up interest yesterday in a speech on bipartisanship. Unfortunately for Brown, the rhetoric in his speech runs directly counter to his own past partisan rhetoric.
One of Republican Scott Brown’s central claims is:
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.
Try squaring that claim with Republican Scott Brown’s actual rhetoric, from an April 10, 2012 campaign fundraising e-mail entitled “Warren’s liberal friends” and signed “Senator Scott Brown”:
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…
It sounds precisely like Republican Scott Brown is trying to “divide people up into easy categories.” Brown is simply being dishonest about his partisan rhetoric and record.
Republican Scott Brown also identified what he thinks is “the problem with Washington”:
You see, the problem with Washington is that as soon as you arrive there you realize the town is bitterly divided into two sides – one good and one bad. And everyone believes they are on the good side, and on the other side are the bad guys.
Yet, again, Republican Scott Brown’s actual rhetoric runs counter to his claim, and puts Brown as part of the problem. Brown’s divisive, partisan rhetoric to out-of-state donors exemplifies the “bitterly divided into two sides” political dynamic that Brown yesterday claimed to reject:
“I know there are several other GOP campaigns to support, but this race is THE battleground for the United States Senate– the only sure hedge to a potential second term for President Obama,” he wrote to would-be donors.
Republican Scott Brown promising out-of-state right-wing Republican donors that he will be the last bastion of partisan obstruction against President Obama does not indicate a willingness to work in good faith with anyone. It does, however, contribute directly to the “bitterly divided” state of our nation’s capital.
Republican Scott Brown’s rhetoric and record is that of an obstructionist partisan Republican. Any attempt by Brown to Etch-A-Sketch it away is completely dishonest and yet another example of Brown pretending to be something that he isn’t.
