Remember Brad Garnett? He’s the classy fellow in the gray hoodie and backwards baseball cap who is among the most enthusiastic of the “war whoopers” and “tomahawk choppers” that made national news after BMG posted a video of them a couple of weeks ago. Garnett works as a field coordinator for the Massachusetts Republican party, and he’s listed on Scott Brown’s website as the contact for the Boston area office of “MassVictory,” which appears to be a joint venture between the Brown campaign and the Mass. GOP.
“MassVictory Boston Area” maintains a Facebook page, and we couldn’t help noticing that the first photo on that page seems very much in line with Garnett’s behavior in the video.
The photo, dated August 24, is captioned “What a great pic from the Squantum stand-out last night in Quincy. Great job everyone!” The sign – gosh it’s so clever. It’s a play on words, you see – the stand-out was held in the part of Quincy known as Squantum, and someone hilariously changed the name to “‘SQUAW’ntum” because, you know, Elizabeth Warren is a fake Indian, as you can tell by just looking at her.
Now, to be clear: this photo was posted about a month before the “tomahawk chop” incident. So it was shot and posted before Brown sternly instructed his staff that there was to be no more behavior of the sort seen in the video. Still, once Brown issued that warning, shouldn’t the photo have been taken down? Is the proprietor of the MassVictory Boston area Facebook page – who may be Brad Garnett, though we can’t say for sure – simply disregarding Brown’s admonition?
One gets the sense that, far from what we saw in the video being an isolated incident, this kind of thing is – or, at least, was – business as usual for the Brown campaign.
lynne says
My title becomes even more relevant. QED.
I think it still is. It certainly is with his supporters – I kid you not, there were at LEAST two incidents of war whooping at the standout before the UML debate that I personally know of and witnessed. That would be long after the explosive video and subsequent “admonishment.”
Crap trickles downhill, it starts at the top.
fenway49 says
I went for a short hike out in Petersham and Hartwick, Mass. These are two towns Brown won pretty handily in 2010. I was happy to see that, in the battle of the yard signs, it was close to evenly matched. I took that as a good sign.
But I was not surprised a bit at what happened when I pulled into a gas station in Ware. Some 30-ish guy in a pickup truck behind me took one look at the Warren sticker on my car and started a quite animated rain dance or something, replete with war whoops. His truck had very nice NRA and “My pickup can beat up your Prius” decals.
If it weren’t for douchebags, Scott would have no luck at all.
bostonshepherd says
Really, David, are Atlanta-Braves tomahawk chops and “Squaw-ntum” signage a burning issue in this campaign? I’m surprised to see your giving it more attention.
I realize BMG broadcasts on a narrow frequency band, politically speaking, so perhaps devoting posts to the Indian thing is productive for you. But generally, one would think raising the heritage issue hurts Warren more than casting a negative light on Brown.
I’m all for pointing out hypocrisy, but in this case it’s a net negative for Warren, IMHO.
Mark L. Bail says
try to help us out.
This stuff is an issue because Scott Brown has made the race about “character.” He’s keeping Warren on the defensive with innuendo and outright lies. Warren benefits every time attention is drawn to Scott Brown’s record and negativity.
David says
If one indeed thought so, one would be wrong.
petr says
Well then, you have you work cut out for you, vis-a-vis, Lawyer Browns’ statements regarding asbestos victims, trusts and the interstices of insurance co v insurance co…
michaelbate says
that whenever a Brown backer brings up this nonsense about Elizabeth’s heritage they are admitting that Brown cannot win if the race is fought on the real issues.
James Carroll had an excellent column yesterday (Monday, Oct. 8) about heritage and family myths, and how these help shape character.
bostonshepherd says
I think the whole Native Indian issue is way overwrought, to begin with. That said, my point was if Warren’s boosters here at BMG keep bringing the issue up, I think it keeps a flame under the pot. Why would you want to do that politically besides having your own private sneer-fest like you’d find on a progressive fringe blog.
Oh wait.
methuenprogressive says
“because if you didn’t point out our racist scumbaggery no one would know Brown’s base are racist scumbags.”
You people really believe some weird shit, shep.
kbusch says
from one’s political opponents is almost always useless. I doubt you’d find my suggestions for the Brown or Romney campaigns to be that useful either.
Bob Neer says
And hurts with the mass of MA voters, especially independents, because it fuels the perception that Brown is hiding from his actual positions and his real world votes.
whosmindingdemint says
who invented that one exactly? Oh, the same guy who tries to smear Warren’s legal work, and uses the word “professor” the way an angry mob uses bricks, that’s who.
bostonshepherd says
After I realized it wasn’t from The Onion or a David Letterman Late Night parody, all I could think was….I hope the geniuses in Chicago keep playing this over and over and over.
If more people viewed BMG, I’d say the same thing about its obsessing over the Warren Indian issue.
Keep digging, boys.
karenc says
I assume that the big bird commercial will get little play as they have been asked by Sesame Street to take it down. I agree that they should have left it to the comedians.
methuenprogressive says
Imagine what these people would be saying if Warren’s parents had told her she had one of them there negroes in the woodpile?
petr says
… Is not the root word “squantum” itself an native-american Indian name?
As is…
… Wait for it…
…Massachussetts!!?!?!
So white people living in “squantum”, in “Massachusetts” feel the compelling need to bastardized the spelling to “Squaw”-ntum in order to point out EWs borrowed heritage???
Makes me pine for the days of the relatively straightforward irony of the Bush/Cheney years….
petr says
Stupid smartphone
sethjp says
Was I the only person struck by the fact that, in a city with an Asian population just shy of 25% (and a “white” population under 66%), every single person in this 30+ person standout appears to be Caucasian?
Granted, Squantum is a very white part of Quincy, but it’s right next door to North Quincy, where much of the city’s Asian population lives. Not one minority? Not even one?! That says something about the Brown campaign, in my opinion.
kirth says
Until Scott Brown analyzes the photo and tells us, there’s no way we can tell whether the people in the photo are white, or Inuit, or whatever. Only his keen eye can make these discriminations.
sethjp says
🙂