We've catalogued some of Scott Brown's television errors for you in the past, but this new one takes the cake. Via Talking Points Memo, Brown went on CNN and seemed to compare his supporters to the terrorist who flew his plane into an office full of federal employees yesterday:
Brown: ... And I don't know if it's related, but I can just sense not only in my election, but since being here in Washington, people are frustrated. They want transparency, they want their elected officials to be accountable and open and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives. So I'm not sure that there's a connection, I certainly hope not. But we need to do things better.
Cavuto: Um, you know invariably people are going to look at this and say, well, that's where some of this populist rage gets you. Isn't that a bit extreme?
Brown: Well, yeah, of course it's extreme. You don't know anything about the individual. He could have had other issues, certainly. No one likes paying taxes, obviously. But the way we're trying to deal with things and have been in the past, at least until I got here is, there's such a logjam in Washington. And people want us to do better. They want us to help solve the problems that are affecting Americans in a very real way.
Equating the frustration before his election with frustration that resulted in a suicide attack on innocent government employees doesn't speak well of Brown, nor of his respect for the men and women who work for the federal government. And, as for the logjam in Washington, I wonder if he realizes that it is the constant filibustering of his own party's leadership that creates gridlock in the Senate. If that's the problem he's identified, he can start voting for cloture.
Steve Benen also chimes in.
-- Tim Fernholz
