Hey, there! Log in / Register
Stodgy life as an academic not for Scott Brown; he resigns as law-school president
By adamg on Wed, 08/11/2021 - 12:34pm
WBZ reports the plucky Senate candidate and former ambassador to New Zealand has resigned as president of New England Law less than a year after taking the job. He said he wants to get back into the political arena, so now the question becomes: Will he try to set a record and find a third state to run for Senate in?
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
NH governor?
Isn't Sununu going to run for Senate?
That appointment surprised me. Brown never
impressed me as smart or hard-working enough to hold an administrative post in the academy. Roles I see as more Ex-Senator Feckless Himbo's speed:
-- Corporate spokesperson for herbal ED remedy that doesn't work
-- Senior-division CrossFit trainer
-- Hypeman for younger, more relevant racist GOP do-nothing hacks
-- Failed candidate for US Senate from Maine
“No one wants to work anymore!”
I was less surprised at Brown’s appointment. It’s PR.
Often appointments such as Brown’s are less about deft administrative acumen and much more about fundraising and recruitment. Ambassador Senator Brown looks a lot better on flyers and banquet daises (at least in the eyes of NE Law’s Board) then a professional law school administrator. Hire other “Vice Presidents” to manage around Brown and let him do the TV hits and alumni donation cold calls.
Dumb regardless
Yeah, it's not uncommon to make a Big Name the University President for fundraising and PR (Looking at you, Larry Summers) but Brown wasn't a big name. He won a special election once against a very weak candidate and was subsequently one of the few GOP candidates to loose in otherwise banner year for that party.
He couldn't even blame it on "Liberal" Massachusetts voters since NH showed him the door too.
My money is on him looking to land a Fox News, etc gig. It no doubt pays better and is a lot more fun for a dope like Brown.
Barncoat
He wasn't able to play the Truck and Barncoat game, even if he sewed on elbow patches.
Does he still have the barncoat?
I thought he had had it made into a carpetbag...
— Centerfold in AARP magazine.
— Centerfold in AARP magazine.
He is easy on the eyes
He should look for PR/spokesmodel positions hawking anti-aging potions.
Perhaps he can star in another Karl Rove production of an anti-weed ad as Kevin's father?
In it for the relocation money
I too never saw barn coat as an administrator, but I assumed they picked him for his fundraising skills?
Maybe they just don’t see many checkbooks opening anytime soon for ex-“best people” from the Donnie Two Scoops administration.
Did NE Law pay move him back from New Zealand?
Setting up a PAC is a pretty lucrative grift, perhaps that’s on the horizon too.
Jinx
Looks like we both had the same idea about fundraising and posted at the same time.
As for moving costs—and don’t quote me—but I believe the State Department has a speration/return home allowance to compensate those of all ranks leaving posts overseas to return to domestic civilian life. I know this is true for the Defense Department as well.
Not just Senate Candidate
Brown was elected and served as US Senator from MA starting in 2010. He won in an upset in blue MA over Martha Coakley and the first elected person to hold former Ted Kennedy's seat.
If you mention his senatorial candidacy, you should tell the whole story.
And how long did he serve ...
Before he lost to a better candidate? That might be worth noting, too.
Better Candidate?
In 2012, Warren got 53.7% of the vote and underperformed Obama by nearly 7%.
Her approval ratings in MA have always been lower than Markey/other Democrats.
Warren being a better candidate than Brown is very debatable....She just is lucky to have ran in MA where Obama's coattails carried her across.
And yet, in the end ...
She took the oath of office in DC, not him.
Seriously?
In 2018 she won 60.3% of the vote, with no one's coattails to ride upon.
Wait
She got less votes than Obama and still "won" the election? Sounds fishy to me.
Oh really?
Scott Brown backed into a Senate seat that he failed to hold onto as an incumbent, running against a candidate who had never held office before and who was virtually unknown outside of wonk circles. If he'd lost by only a single vote, that would still mean he got beat like a dusty rug.
Scott Brown fanbois are the strangest demographic ever. They get positively emotional about him. I think he triggers their strong emotional connection to their former frats, when things were simpler and they were the unquestioned kings of the universe.
Whataboutism response
Adam, your response is silly. My point is you minimized Brown's Senate experience in what I believe wasn't a mere oversight. Further, I don't think you're making the point you think you are stating Warren is a better candidate. Brown's win and albeit short tenure wasa seismic upset. Liberal Senators like Warren is what MA does over and over and over.
Not as seismic as you might think
It's not like we never elect Republicans, although I'll grant you, the election of a candidate who got pretty racist was a bit of a surprise, but perhaps speaks more to just how bad a candidate Coakley was.
Refresh my memory...
...just what did Senator Brown accomplish in his two years in office?
The real story
Is how utterly horrible Martha Coakley was as a candidate.
At least she didn't have to shake any hands at Fenway.
it was short lived
And hardly earned. A bunch of tea partiers had man crushes on his barn coat and truck. Not a good candidate, not a good senator. It takes more than a haircut to lead and legislate. I was shocked that a law school would associate with someone so unqualified. so there's the rest of the story that was only implied at - he failed up until he failed.
Senator Spaceholder
I know several people who hated Coakley and didn't want her to have a lifelong job, and looked hopefully to Brown's experience and record in the Great and General Court when they scrubbed in the bubble.
It was only for a couple of years, so what was the hurt?
Then Senator Brown decided to be Senator Brown, R-KarlRovesButtplug rather than R-Massachusetts and got a tidy brooming from the office by the vastly superior Liz Warren. That would have been far more difficult if Chokely the Craven Corporate Bully and Scapegoater were permanently entrenched.
I think that having Liz Warren as our senator was way more than worth the trouble of two years of Senator Spaceholder's bad judgement handicapped by low seniority.
(FTR: I was out of town on business and was past the absentee ballot deadline, and didn't vote)
While you were away
Coakley and me voted at the same location and as luck would have it, right as I was going to vote she was there with special guest Deval Patrick who had come along for moral support or something.
The mood at the Brooks school was somber -- I think everyone knew she had screwed up big time by that point. It really felt like "dead woman walking" even among others in West Medford.
Bqhatevwr.
Bqhatevwr.
Oh, Scott
We'll always have our Twitter exchange where I wondered aloud if he, as the man on the ground in New Zealand, had spoken to his president about how NZ successfully weathered the first round of Covid last year, and got a DM from him asking why I wasn't mad enough at China.
The NZ strategy is no secret.
The country is (primarily) two big islands and they locked down the borders hard. They took actions that were decried as xenophobic when implemented in this country -- like refusing entry to persons entering from China (apart from citizens/permanent residents) -- on February 3, 2020. And they locked down the entire country hard for a month -- to a degree which likely would have led to revolts here.
Let me see if I understand it
They decided to acknowledge and respond forcefully to the virus threat instead of blindly denying their citizens faced any threat. They used all the tools at their disposal in the interest of public health even at the risk of being politically unpopular.
Interesting.
Nah, that would never work
.
NZ has had 26 total deaths.
NZ has had 26 total Covid deaths. Grand total, all in.
By contrast, Alabama and Louisiana have averaged 22 Covid deaths per day for the 516 days since the original quarantines began. 11,648 deaths in the state of Alabama alone.
Also, the US could have refused entry from people traveling from China but we all know that the major explosion of Covid cases in NYC+New England began with travelers entering from Europe and spreading it around our cities.
NZ knew what they were doing whereas “the greatest nation on earth” has looked like a oppositional defiant disorder clown show amateur hour since day 1 thanks to free-dumb loving MAGA cultists and nihilistic Republican “leadership”.
~ same populations
(I forgot to include that I chose Alabama and Louisiana because their populations are roughly the same as New Zealand.)
Shutting down access to Chinese Nationals
Was literally the only thing that Trump did do. He didn't shut down travel from China, just travel by Chinese Nationals - everyone else could still come and go there. He didn't shut down international travel to and from the US until it was almost too late and then he gave everyone (airlines, airports, citizens and residents abroad, embassies) 5 days to make it happen. Resulted in hours long lineups at customs with not testing - another version of his super spreader events. So he was xenophobic for no particular benefit and wasn't even good at it.
Barncoat?
Barncoat? Is that you?