Scott Brown’s sabbatical from electoral politics shows that he still has much to learn if he aspires to sit in the Corner Office.
His meteoric rise to national prominence sent Republicans into paroxysms of glee, but it also confounded many in Massachusetts. That Martha Coakley ran a poor campaign has become a local truism. Yet Brown got his own comeuppance, when a better candidate, in the person of Elizabeth Warren, came along and plucked holes in the narrative of his short, sweet tenure in the US Senate.
For his part, Brown continually hammered one note: Warren’s Native American heritage. But even as it became clear that voters had wearied of his attacks on Warren’s background, he refused to move on.
Refusing to move on is a problem for the former US senator. Case in point: Bqhatevwr.
Not content with letting his tweets die a quiet death, this latest “pocket tweet” gaffe has prolonged his agony and made him the butt of jokes from coast-to-coast. The man who created Twitter’s iPhone app says Scott Brown’s explanation for a recent spree of late-night tweeting — Brown shot off “whatever,” “whatever bud,” “Your brilliant Matt” and “bqhatevwr” in quick succession, then blamed the utterances on pocket-tweeting — is almost certainly a terrible lie.
A Boston Globe editorial brushes off Brown’s remarks as the foibles of a “tech-shy parent.” However, the story generated no less than three separate Washington Post posts, and Gizmodo, which bills itself as the “go-to authority for gadget news and digital culture” simply eviscerated his explanation, a “Really, Scott?” moment if there ever was one. Blue Mass Group was also less generous, with one commenter comparing the episode to the notorious “secret meetings with kings and queens” incident.
Instead of looking to a former colleague like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio who skillfully navigated his ill-timed water sips into PAC dollars, Brown succeeded in blowing up the almost forgotten tweets again and sending them reverberating around the national echo chamber.
Popular he may be, but an inability to self-censor or turn a gaffe to advantage can quickly cripple a politician. Republicans are already peeved with Brown for bowing out of the Senate special election. As for the governor’s race, next to a seasoned contender like Charlie Baker, Scott Brown will have to work harder to come up with a narrative more substantive than misspelled tweets and tech-newbie fantasies.
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Former Chelsea housing authority chief Michael McLaughlin pleaded guilty to four felony counts of concealing his inflated salary from federal authorities, and then took a long walk over the Northern Ave. Bridge. McLaughlin has agreed to provide information to federal investigators. A state investigation of alleged illegal political fundraising involving McLaughlin is ongoing. Margery Eagan has a hard time reconciling the deal McLaughlin is likely to get — no jail time if he delivers a Beacon Hill pol to US Attorney Carmen Ortiz — with the prosecutor’s treatment of hacker Aaron Swartz. Eagan is not alone — read the Globe’s letters page for a good sampling of the Ortiz/McLaughlin outrage.
House members were admonished at closed caucuses earlier this month about the “perilous” nature of making job recommendations for state jobs and urged to make all referrals written and dole them out evenly.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Boston City Councilor John Connolly confirms that he is seriously considering a run for mayor this year whether Mayor Tom Menino seeks reelection or not. CommonWealth recently looked at Connolly’s fundraising tear.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden says assault weapons are unnecessary for personal protection because a double-barrelled shotgun is easier to aim.
A new Gallup poll shows Congress’s approval rating is 15 percent — one point higher than it was in January. With sequestration cuts approaching, the Associated Press (via WBUR) analyzes the impact on Massachusetts and New England. Related: It’s more than two-and-a-half years since the Senate passed any notable legislation. House Speaker John Boehner, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, says the fiscal crisis was created by President Obama.
A state financial review team declares Detroit is in a state of “financial emergency,” Governing reports.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley agrees to tougher gun control restrictions on anyone involuntarily committee to a public or private mental health facility, the Washington Post reports.
The Supreme Court takes up a case seeking to overturn political contribution limits for individuals.
ELECTIONS
The Globe says Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s name “is in the mix” as names are floated for the next pope. Longtime Vatican watcher Rev. Thomas Reese tempers the talk, however, by pointing out that it started with Italian journalists, who are “more like novelists than reporters.”
Add state Sen. Will Brownsberger to the list of Beacon Hill pols jockeying for Rep. Ed Markey’s currently occupied seat in Congress. State Sen. Katherine Clark and state Rep. Carl Sciortino have also declared for the non-race.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A Japanese bank has been tapped to be the lead institution to secure financing for the Cape Wind project.
The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg tests a cell phone with an unlimited talk, text and data plan for $19 a month.
EDUCATION
UMass Boston opens a food pantry to feed hungry students, the Associated Press reports (via WBUR).
The New Bedford schools are facing a $3 million budget deficit due largely to the discovery of 55 positions that were not included in the budget.
A poll of students at four colleges in southern New England by a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth biology professor finds that most students and teachers accept evolution as a concept but misunderstand how it works.
A Saugus charter school nears approval, but one of the town’s school committee members claims the Pioneer Charter School of Science is run by followers of a Turkish exile and Islamic scholar, the Item reports.
Brockton, Bridgewater and Easton police are taking advantage of school vacation this week to use the empty buildings to train officers how to respond to a gunman in schools.
HEALTH CARE
Researchers find a biological marker for dyslexia in kids, Time reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A bad omen? An inspector from the Environmental Protection Agency was taken to the hospital after falling ill while inspecting Fall River’s water treatment facility.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Tom Ashbrook’s On Point examines the high cost of prison.
Black Mass authors Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill release the second new Whitey Bulger biography in two weeks. This one claims Bulger had former Boston City Councilor Jimmy Kelly on his payroll, at the sum of $100 per week, in the years before Kelly entered City Hall. Lehr dissects Whitey’s efforts to be a “good bad-guy” in a Globe op-ed.
Thieves steal at least $50 million worth of diamonds off a jet sitting on the tarmac in Belgium, the Wall Street Journal reports.
MEDIA/LITERARY WORLD
A federal jury in Boston awarded crime novelist Patricia Cornwell $50.9 million in her suit alleging she was bilked out of tens of millions of dollars by a financial firm.
The Globe’s Scot Lehigh lets readers know he once belonged to an NRA dedicated to the “outdoors and to safe, courteous, sportsmanlike hunting.”
A New York Daily News reporter identifies himself as the unwitting source of a viral Internet claim that Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, gave a speech to the Friends of Hamas.
