SCOTT BROWN’S IGNOMINIOUS STUMBLES…. Maybe the Senate Armed Services Committee isn’t the right place for Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.).
US Senator Scott Brown is retracting statements he made earlier today, when he told several news outlets that he had seen photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body as part of an official briefing.
Brown made that assertion in an interview with NECN today to bolster his argument that the photos should not be released to the public.
“Let me assure you that he is dead, that bin Laden is dead,” Brown said. “I have seen the photos and, in fact, we’ve received the briefing and we’ll continue to get the briefings.”
Brown echoed the sentiment in a separate interview with Fox-25 TV. “Listen, I’ve seen the picture,” Brown said. “He’s definitely dead.”
It seemed odd that Brown had seen the images before anyone else in the Senate. As it turns out, he didn’t.
The Massachusetts senator apparently saw doctored photos that were circulating on the Internet, and assumed they were true. They weren’t. When he told reporters, “I have seen the photos and, in fact, we’ve received the briefing and we’ll continue to get the briefings,” the clear implication was that the images were part of the briefings. That wasn’t true, either.
Brown just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
In the same interview with the local Fox affiliate, Brown expressed frustration that “someone” leaked word of his request to be deployed to Afghanistan, and complained that he has to “talk about it now.” And who, pray tell, leaked the story to the media? That would be Scott Brown — the same person now complaining his own leak.
Brown has only been in office a little over a year, and during that time, he’s made demonstrably ridiculous remarks about the stimulus, financial regulatory reform, health care, economic policy, energy policy, and foreign policy, among other things. It’s tempting to think, at a certain point, he’d develop an unflattering reputation.
I’m sure Brown is a nice person, but it’s hard to deny the fact that as a member of the Senate, he’s in over his head.
