Scott Brown’s plagiarism flap gets a little worse

[ProSense]

Scott Brown’s plagiarism flap gets a little worse

By Steve Benen

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) didn’t have an especially good week. A day after he voted to kill a popular jobs bill, Brown’s website was found to have plagiarized a speech Elizabeth Dole delivered nearly a decade ago. In this case, the senator’s office lifted verbatim a large section of text about his upbringing, which turned out to be about Dole’s upbringing.

Brown initially blamed a summer intern for a technical mix-up, arguing that Dole’s website had served as a template for his own, and this was an inadvertent holdover. This did not explain, however, why two sentences from Dole’s speech — one about her parents’ names, and one about her husband — had been carefully removed from the copy-and-paste job.

Making matters slightly worse, a one-day story turned into a three-day story when Brown’s version of events drew scrutiny.

Marcie Kinzel, a spokeswoman for Brown, told Reuters on Thursday that the senator’s website hasn’t been updated since around Feb. 2010 when her boss took office.

One Democratic source told POLITICO that this timeline clearly doesn’t match up with the senator’s claims, since February would have been “well before any ‘summer intern’ would have been onboard.”

“It seems Sen. Brown’s office is so busy trying to cover their tracks that they forgot to get their story straight before talking to the press,” the source said.

Remember, when we talk about Brown’s strengths as a politician, we talk about his likability and authenticity. No one is especially impressed with the senator’s inability to grasp public policy; Brown excels by way of his personality. But these qualities have taken a hit recently, first with a cheap shot at Elizabeth Warren’s appearance, and now with this flap over Brown’s memories that turned out to be someone else’s memories.

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[Old Codger]

1. Learn from the past

They never do though do they, the coverup attempts always cause more problems than anything that may have come from owning the original screwup...

[Chipper Chat]

2. Nixon, Weiner, etc:, and.....

Murdoch maybe - hopefully

[Mist]

3. Plagiarism always looks so damn cheap. And easily caught, seemingly. nt

[tanyev]

4. A likable guy who offered up his 'available' daughters in his Senate victory speech.

Seems pretty socially inept to me.


Ayla, Arianna Brown endure awkward moment at Scott Brown's Senate victory speech in Massachusetts


"Just in case anyone who's watching throughout the country, yes they're both available," Brown shouted.

As the crowd started to hoot - and a look of extreme annoyance crossed the face of daughter Arianna and his wife Gail let out a mortified gasp - the future senator did his best to reel in his comment.

"No, no. No. Only kidding, only kidding. Only kidding, only kidding," he said. "Arianna... Arianna's, definitely not available."

"But Ayla is," he added, eliciting a gasp this time from Ayla.

Concluded Brown: "I can see I'm going to get in trouble when I get home."


http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-01-20/news/17943595_1_kidding-ayla-brown-american-idol-finalist

[CoffinEd]

5. Brown was always a loser

But the Boston press gave him a free pass all the way up to the day of the election. Then the Globe printed an 'unflattering' article about Brown's "aggressive" supporters. Outside money and a lackluster (and some might say arrogant) Democratic candidate propelled Brown to victory.

[polichick]

6. This guy is going to have a tough time now that E.Warren is on the scene...

...and idiocy like this plagiarism won't help.

[11 Bravo]

7. K&R - Good find, and thanks for sharing!

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Elizabeth Warren should walk away with this thing.

:kick:

[karynnj]

9. Watch the video at the link from the group that discovered the plagerism

It is an understatement to say that this was a bad week - something Brown has had many of. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-o3H0bX5uI&feature=player_embedded

Given his reputation for having a temper and being thin skinned, one wonders how he will act if the media shifts to covering things that embarrass him.