U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA.) seems to be growing frustrated about the media’s coverage of Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, who will be the Democratic contender for his senate seat in 2012, The Boston Herald reports.
“I just think that if you’re going to find out where people stand, you gotta ask them tough questions like you guys ask me every single day. Every single day of my existence I get tough questions from you guys,” Mr. Brown said Wednesday/ “It’s all fluff. It’s all fluff. Gimme a break.”
In a recent University of Massachusetts at Lowell/Boston Herald survey of Massachusetts voters, Ms. Warren was leading Mr. Brown, 49 to 42 percent.
The New York Times magazine recently wrote a profile that was greatly in support of Ms. Warren, and Mr. Brown claims he is not getting the same treatment.
“She’s going to have every advantage. … I don’t have a machine behind me like she will, and she does clearly,” Mr. Brown posited Wednesday.
“It would help if you guys would ask her some tough questions, too, and ask her about how she would vote on things and why,” Mr. Brown added.
The Massachusetts senator has been most critical of Ms. Warren’s role as the chairwoman of the congressional oversight committee in 2008 that ultimately created the Troubled Assets Relief Program and the $700 billion U.S. banking bailout. He claims there has not been enough focus on his own support of bipartisan legislation, such as the ban on gays in the military or his own votes for financial reform.
The Herald asked if Mr. Brown believes Ms. Warren is “too extreme,” and he pointed out her own connection to what he calls the “trouble” of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“Well I think the consensus out there is that she is obviously very very liberal. And especially when she’s stating that she’s created the intellectual foundation for the Occupy Wall Street — and you know all the problems we had with those folks here,” the Massachusetts Republican stated.
Mr. Brown succeeded Senator Ted Kennedy in 2010 in a special election following Mr. Kennedy’s death. He pulled off a suprise victory in the traditionally Democratic state of Massachusetts, which is possibly a reason why Ms. Warren poses a threat to take his seat in 2012.
Regardless, Mr. Brown is confident that with hard work and a series of debates against the Harvard professor, he can be re-elected.
““I’m going to spend every waking moment of my existence in the next 10-plus months trying to remind people why they voted for me and asking for their vote once again,” Mr. Brown said Wednesday.
