As I mentioned the other day, Marisa DeFranco is challenging Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary. In light of Warren’s three-week long Cherokee disaster, I reached out to DeFranco to get her take on the controversy and the primary race.
While several other high profile candidates dropped out in the face of Warren’s national momentum gained after her “factory owner” speech, DeFranco has soldiered on. DeFranco expressed surprise that the other candidates ceded the race to Warren so early on, saying her reaction was:
“Hold on a minute, we don’t know anything about her as a candidate … we only know this one aspect of her career … We need to have candidates who are vetted, who go through the process.”
DeFranco called it
“mesmerizingly incomprehensible that everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon before vetting the candidate and the issues”
DeFranco recently filed the necessary 10,000 signatures, but still needs to get 15% of the delegate vote at the June 2 nominating convention to move on to the September 6 primary.
As to Warren’s handling of the Cherokee issue, DeFranco stated:
“We need a Democratic nominee who has a clear and consistent response when controversies come up. The campaign was slow in response, and didn’t have a consistent response.”
On the issue of whether Warren knowingly misrepresented her background, DeFranco stated:
“I’m not going to go into her mind and what goes on there. All I can speak to is what everyone else sees.”
“The question also is with Harvard. If Harvard were better at having a diverse professorship, it would not have to put someone who appears as white as I am out there as minority.”
“Let’s assume the facts in evidence, that she’s 1/32 [Cherokee], that’s not the problem. The problem is how she responded.”
“Even if she is 1/32 [Cherokee], diversity is about people being discriminated against based on what we see. You can’t say someone is a diversity hire if everyone in the general public would not identify the person that way.”
As to whether Warren should apologize to the Cherokee Nation, as Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes, demanded, DeFranco was not willing to take a position:
“That’s the Warren campaign’s mess to deal with.”
DeFranco did say, without taking a position as to whether Warren engaged in any wrongdoing, that it’s important to own up to one’s problems from the past:
“Stand proud for your history and defend yourself …. If there is something that should have gone the other way in the past, you own up to it.”
DeFranco is not taking a campaign position on whether Warren should authorize Harvard and prior employers to release records, “it’s not my call as to whether she should release those records, that’s the voters call … ”
DeFranco is not intimidated by Warren’s war chest:
“If you have all the money in the world but can’t respond to a crisis, it doesn’t do you any good.”
DeFranco says that fundraising has picked up lately, although she’s not sure if it is due to the publicity regarding her petition filing or the Cherokee controversy, and that she’s gaining support from rank and file Democrats.
The Warren campaign is working to eliminate the need for a primary by depriving DeFranco of a 15% vote at the nominating convention, but DeFranco’s response is:
“You should give voters a choice. 10,000 voters said my name should be on the ballot.”
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“…diversity is about people being discriminated against based on what we see.”
That is MADNESS…!!!!
“Warren’s national momentum gained after her “factory owner” speech,”
This, for me, is the ultimate irony of the Fauxcahontas scandal. How dare she wag her finger at anyone who achieved success on the roads she built? This from the woman who would step on the good nature of the middle class white folks who believe diversity is about giving a boost to the discriminated and disadvantaged. This from a woman who would steal the identity of the very people she claims to protect. She is the ultimate hypocrite.
Speaking of “diversity”… I’ve been nosing around this afternoon looking at the Muslim reaction to the first U.S Gay President.
…Not looking good for Mr. Preezy.
Of course the LSM isn’t interested in that; they would rather focus their liberally gay attacks on Black Minsters.
“Let’s assume the facts in evidence, that she’s 1/32 [Cherokee], that’s not the problem. The problem is how she responded.”
Huh? The “facts in evidence” don’t support a claim to any Cherokee ancestry. And why isn’t that a problem — that the facts and claims are at odds? As for the problem being “how she responded,” if she means that Warren lied, I agree. But is that what she means?
OK, I have to admit…
I’m starting to kinda like this woman.
I wonder if she feels the same about our President…
[…] … what you’d expect. As further reading, check out William Jacobson’s interview with Marisa DeFranco, who’s challenging Warren in the Massachusetts Democratic primary. Can we get some bipartisan […]
It won’t make a bit of difference in the long run what Lizzie Warren calls herself, Indian, Hispanic, African American, the reincarnation of Cleopatra or the Empress Josephine. She carries the (D) after her name and that’s all that matters in the state of Massachussets. How many times did they send Teddy Kennedy back to the Senate? The same Teddy Kennedy who waited 12 hours to report an auto accident in which a woman passenger drowned and whose lifeless body was still in the submerged car, or the same Teddy Kennedy who repeatedly, year in and year out, found the bodies of lifeless females on his or some close relative’s front doorstep, the same Teddy Kennedy, who, when the US Amassador in Mexico City wouldn’t round up all of Mexico’s angry Leftists for the then fledgling DA from Massachussets to interview, the fledgling DA then rented an entire Mexican bordello for the evening to work out his frustrations.
Its all been good theater for the opposition Right, who hate and despise what the Left has become, especially this administration, but on the very same day that Candidate Romney signalled his tacit surrender to Obama, it appears that it won’t amount to anything more than an exercise in futility in the end.
…he carries the (D) after her name and that’s all that matters in the state of Massachussets. How many times did they send Teddy Kennedy back to the Senate?
And Barney Frank, and John Kerry, and Gerry Studds, and…. – Who’d I miss?
So, it is Massachusetts, but, hey, if that were all that mattered it would be Martha Coakely running for reelection, not Scott Brown.
It won’t make a bit of difference in the long run what Lizzie Warren calls herself […] She carries the (D) after her name
But does she? That’s the point of this thread, isn’t it? She hasn’t got the nomination yet, and with this mess she might not get it.
Has anyone tried her Pow Wow recipe? Michelle Malkin suggested it might be boiled goose.
But hey, it is not like the Democrats haven’t presented other candidates as things they are not…
1. I’m guessing that somebody at the White House or DNC made those dropped-out MA pols an offer they couldn’t refuse. Whoever it was didn’t expect Warren to become truly vulnerable, and/or didn’t realize that DeFranco has nothing to lose.
2. It takes some reading between the lines because her Web site and record are so thin, but DeFranco could be as extreme as Warren if not more so. I’m basking in Warren Schadenfreude, but…be careful what you wish for.
It might be a good time to introduce The Stolen Heritage Act. The Stolen Heritage Act could establish penalties for those who falsify their heritage in order to take advantage of affirmative action or preferential hiring practices.
How ’bout we just 86 ‘affirmative action’?
I’m with you on that one.
If DeFranco manages to get the nomination away from Warren, the election will probably go to Brown. While we usually send Democrats to DC, MA often elects Republicans to statewide office, and Brown hasn’t done anything that has angered all but the most die-hard of the Democrats, and he does that just by breathing. The rest of us either like him or don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. Turnout in MA is likely to be low. While Obama will take MA, there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for him here this time around. Although you would never know it from the endorsements for Obama from our other politicians, Hillary took MA handily in the primaries in 2008. DeFranco is relatively unknown in the state. I signed her nomination papers because I’ll sign anyone’s who asks me, but other that knowing that she’s an immigration lawyer, I know nothing about her, and I’m a pretty well-informed voter.
Odd, isn’t it?
Warren’s genealogy under the utmost scrutiny…
Yet, Obama’s is unquestionable?
Calling me a “birther”?
Go for it…
I accept the challenge, and/or debate-
Totally off topic, but did you ever notice how many people have dog pics for their avatars?
She is a down-the-line Democrat but very well spoken; articulate, focused, unafraid, and not at all intimidated by Washington; what many Democrats may be looking for. Functionally, she sounds a bit like a Democratic Tea Partier (that’s a compliment, if I may). She’d have been a formidable opponent all along but for Warren’s support from DC’s Democratic establishment machine. With Warren’s current embarrassment – a most sincere thank you, Professor – I think we’re going to see this woman push Warren, hard. Warren will be very much put to the test.
The video of a very good interview can be accessed through her website. About two thirds of the way down on the right hand side of the home page there’s an obscure link that will let you “Watch to (sic) Marisa’s interview on WGBY Springfield.” Watch it all. Scott Brown, be careful; I think she’s going to clean Warren’s clock.
she sounds a bit like a Democratic Tea Partier
Yep, she sure does.
Sounds good. Real good.
Until you ask her what her solutions are…
Academics…
Operation Counterweight encounters additional moonbat…
WAJ just may have to endorse Scott “one of the most bipartisan RINO members of the U.S. Senate” Brown.
lol
If Harvard were better at having a diverse professorship, it would not have to put someone who appears as white as I am out there as minority.
That’s really it in a nutshell, isn’t it?
Many, many Americans support the idea of affirmative action. They understand that our country has a legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination. They recognize a need to fix past wrongs that have been passed down to the present generation. They support helping people who have been wronged.
But most Americans won’t support affirmative action that is unfair, nor will they support those who game AA to score for themselves.
That last one is what the good Prof. Warren did. She gamed it. She claimed Cherokee background knowing, knowing that no university would call her on it.
She graduated from a low second tier law school. Her scholarship is questioned by some. She has drive and ambition alright, and she might be a good classroom teacher.
But Harvard didn’t hire her for that. They hired her over many other qualified applicants because she was a minority. She said so. They bought it. I’m betting they didn’t even look.
She gamed it.
That’s what resonates. Americans don’t like cheaters, and they most especially don’t like people taking for themselves that to which they’re not entitled. It’s like taking money out of the collection plate on a Sunday.
She gamed the system and amazingly enough was caught. She sure didn’t expect it. She ran for the nomination knowing that the DC regulars and the MSM would cover — they would cover most by NOT LOOKING. They’d see the Cherokee reference and not go any further. They’d see that the Cherokee reference was removed once she arrived at Harvard and would clam up. She knew that even her opponents in the primary wouldn’t go there. Scott Brown? I’m sure she had a plan for him. But he was in the future.
She sure didn’t expect the new media (certainly not Prof. “1/32 honey badger” Jacobson). She didn’t have a plan for Ace and Reynolds and McCain and the others. She had gotten away with it throughout her career and figured she’d get away with it again. That’s why she’s been so unprepared these last few weeks.
Cheating. Lying. Arrogance. Pride. Those usually bring a person down. They did again.
Many, many Americans support the idea of affirmative action. They understand that our country has a legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination. They recognize a need to fix past wrongs that have been passed down to the present generation. They support helping people who have been wronged.
And, when will it be fair to say that we’ve moved past all this? When White Anglo-Saxon’s are claiming to be minorities to get ahead, isn’t it fair to say that affirmative action has run it’s course? After we’ve elected the first Africa American president, isn’t it fair to say the majority of people int he United States aren’t racist? Now that most people in this country check more than one box for race, can’t we stop trying to lump people into a handful of categories?
Many, many Americans support the idea of affirmative action. They understand that our country has a legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination. They recognize a need to fix past wrongs that have been passed down to the present generation. They support helping people who have been wronged.
Huh? What has what some people did to some other people 100 years ago have to do with anybody today? How does it fix a wrong 100 years ago to do another wrong to someone else today? How has any “affirmative action” hire been wronged, and how is the person they displaced, or the employer who gets less value for his money, responsible for that wrong?
Most of all, even if none of that were true, how is it “fair” to pretend someone is more qualified than they are, just because they would have been but for some wrong? Suppose someone were on track to win Olympic gold, before some criminal broke his legs. Is it fair that he’s been robbed of his chance? Of course not. But is it fair to “fix” that by awarding him the gold that he would have won but for the wrong done him? Of course not.
People who support “affirmative action” don’t understand anything, least of all fairness and justice. They support it either because they’re fuzzy-headed or because they hope to profit from it. That’s all.
1. Afaik DeFranco has never served in government. Warren has at least been a high-ranking federal appointee. In addition to his legal practice, Brown served in local government and the state legislature, and is in the National Guard. Even so, he was a long shot in 2009 against MA Attorney General Martha Coakley.
2. While researching the foregoing, I found a Wikipedia link to a report that part of Brown’s Web site had been plagiarized from Elizabeth Dole’s.
3. The Brown people acknowledged the error and corrected it. What interests me is that the Warren campaign has never once, afaik, alluded to the situation.
Maybe the Warren campaign is incompetent. Maybe they are too high-minded to raise the matter.
Or maybe they are planning an ambush, perhaps at the debates.
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