Dirty Politics and Sen. Scott Brown - It’s What He Does

By Columnist, TRB - Senator Scott Brown (R, MA) has been running a series of dirty political ads suggesting that his opponent lied about a fraction of the Native American blood elder members of her family have said existed in her bloodline down over the years. The opponent and victim of these Brown ads is Elizabeth Warren, who says she has never taken advantage of the Native American background, nor has she told many people.

She refers to it as a "family story," a tale that passed to each succeeding Warren "family historian." This makes perfect sense. Many families in New England will tell you such stories. One suspects these stories exist because quite often they are true. White European "settlers" and Native Americans do have a history of inter-marriage that goes back centuries.

The problem here is that Scott Brown, by virtue of his own actions in the very recent past, can not be taken seriously in his attacks on Warren. Back in 2010, Brown was an ardent supporter and personal friend of a Mass. state representative named Jeff Perry. Perry was running for an open seat in Congress and Brown was among his most active supporters. So was Romney. But Perry had problems.

Halfway into his campaign it was discovered that his political website, one that he vetted himself, contained several outright lies. Among them was the listing of a college Perry claimed to have been graduated from. It turned out that he had not attended this college. These very public lies were reported in all of the major newspapers in the state, including The Boston Globe. They were the subject of numerous political radio shows on which Brown himself had been a guest.

Did Brown, who is now hammering Warren for repeating a story that has existed in her family for generations, distance himself from fellow Republican Perry? Afterall, he had been caught; there was no doubt that Perry had misrepresented his background in an attempt for political gain. But Brown did not mind. In fact, he continued to support Perry at every turn, even showing up at Perry rallies to remind everyone that Perry was a "good and honest man." But he was not a good and honest man and Brown probably knew it.

So what exactly bothers him about Elizabeth Warren? There is no proof that she has lied about anything, but he has branded her a liar. Is it the fact that she is running against him that bothers Brown?

Making matters worse on the Perry front, later during his failed campaign it was discovered that a decade before when Perry had been a police officer, he had partnered with a cop who was a child molester known for stalking and sexually assaulting young women while he was on duty. It was strongly alleged by many sources that Perry had knowledge of this pedophile patrolman's crimes and was even present during some of them.

In 2010, one of the girls who had been a victim of the assaults made a television appearance, during which she repeated her charges against Perry's partner, who had been sent to prison for his sex crimes. She also said that Perry was standing nearby while she was assaulted and failed to stop the assault or report the officer at a later date. After this news show aired, did Brown step away from Perry? No. He embraced him even more tightly, supporting his friend right up until the last vote was counted and it was announced that Perry had lost. Mitt Romney supported Perry also - until the very end.

Romney knew the story on Perry, but embraced him.

Brown knew the story too.

It is awfully difficult to take either of these men seriously when they criticize anyone based on their truthfulness.