Elizabeth Warren is running hard left in her rhetoric, but the reality is she served big companies in her extensive private legal practice and got paid big, big dollars for it.
At the first debate, Brown scored big points on Warren’s representation of Travelers, for which she earned $212,000 but which resulted in asbestos workers getting screwed. That also sparked the inquiry into Warren’s failure to obtain a Massachusetts law license, an issue which has percolated widely for a week, and may yet break into the Boston media. (The Globe has decided not to cover it, more on that in a later post.)
But it’s more than about Warren’s hypocrisy. As someone who is running hard to the center, sometimes Brown needs to hit Warren from the left as well, not just from the right on taxes and jobs.
That’s where the lastest Brown ad about Warren’s representation of LTV Coal comes in.
The ad has the feel of the anti-Bain ads run against Mitt Romney. This fits with Brown’s overall strategy of peeling off union workers from the union bosses who are in the tank for each and every Democrat. It’s a strategy which worked for Brown in 2010, when everyone was surprised that the union workers, some of whom were paid to picket for Martha Coakley, backed Brown.
Brown needs to keep hammering Warren.
A recent poll shows that a quarter of the electorate says that the Cherokee issue makes them less likely to vote for Warren. While WaPo spins that as good for Warren, in a race which is dead even, an issue which makes a quarter of the electorate less likely to vote for a candidate is big. Even 10% of Democrats say it makes them less likely to vote for Warren, along with 30% of independents. (See page 44 of cross-tabs)
Warren’s law practice and the companies she represented have just as much potential.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
That’s one seriously devastating ad.
The KILLER was the clip of Warren, talking about how “the cupboard was bare”.
Ironically, Warren was doing her job well.
The main difference between this and the Bain attack ads is that the basis exists in the truth.
When people talk about industries where unions might possibly make sense, they ALMOST ALWAYS bring up coal miners.
The look of smug, self-satisfied joy on Warren’s face when she’s discussing the tactic of legally hiding assets so that her client, LTV, could screw retired coal miners out of their pensions is just devastating.
OUTSTANDING ad!
Professor Jacobson:
You must continue to investigate Warren’s legal practice, no matter what the Globe does.
Reporters won’t spend any time investigating anyone unless there’s some official action by an agency, like an arrest. Then they’ ll investigate. In Warren’s case it would take something like an investigation by the Bar to get reporters to do a story.
I used to work for a very mainstream publication and I know how they work. Forget about what they will or will not do and keep plugging. I hope you can get people to help you.
You’re at the forefront here and you must keep plugging along. If you take a step toward the evidence, and continue to do so, the evidence will present itself to you.
I am still interested to know if you have received a response to your written request to the New Jersey bar concerning Warren’s inactive status.
Please do not underestimate the stupidity of the average Massachusetts voter. Need I remind you of Ted “Manslaughter” Kennedy’s epic run in the Senate.
Brainwashed State. Nothing matters as much a “D” next to the candidates name
If the Globe wishes to render itself irrelevant on state and local news, so be it.
Knuckle-dragging bitter clingers cannot understand Hegelian dialectics as implemented by Karl Marx:
Elizabeth Warren is running for the Senate to keep people like Elizabeth Warren out of the Senate.
If an agency which one? And who will submit the evidence?
Ironicly, it is out of MA Bar’s jurisdiction since they only discipline MA attorneys, so evidence needs to be submitted to the AG in MA.
NJ seems to be the correct jurisdiction at this point as well.
Warren’s problems got me thinking about all those working for Obama who avoided scrutiny through his “czar” system. How many of them of have problems akin to Warren’s? Will we ever know?
Many years ago I did tax work for someone who moved in the most upper circles of his profession. The younger brother of our most senior partner, he was co-author of a leading text in his field, held chairs at universities on each coast, did the visiting scholar thing at foreign universities and had a consulting practice on the side. It was very complicated tax work and I was always being reminded that since he may someday accept a position that required Senatorial approval he didn’t want to be too aggressive in his tax positions. That kind of prudence doesn’t seem to have ever weighed on the minds of these people.
It was good to hear your voice this morning on WRKO, you right-wing blogger, you. Is this becoming a late career switch? You’d better watch out, practicing investigative journalism without a license!
Thanks, BTW. MA owes you.
I totally disapprove of Elizabeth Warren, but this Scott Brown ad is appalling, way over the top!
The unions brought down LTV Steel because of unrealistic contracts that provided forever health care and defined -benefit pensions for retirees. Warren was correct that the cupboard was bare, except for the fees that the bankruptcy lawyers would siphon from the remaining assets. The steel mills closed, the workers went elsewhere and the retirees bit the bullet.
Our country is going through this very process right now and the cries will become much louder when our entire economy crashes. It is time to take control of our debt.
Sorry, but what’s good for the gander is good for the goose. (Had to change genders around here)
gad-fly: your take on it sounds entirely plausible, it is a story that has been repeated so many times that it has basically destroyed private-sector unions as a player in the market place. It is even close to destroying public-sector unions which, even backed by the taxing power of the government, are on the road to self-destruction.
But. Not all bankruptcies were due to unions, not all that were were conducted fairly, and if it’s mostly true the ad is not remotely over the top. There are plenty of cases of terrible deals, and usually workers were the ones who got screwed the worst.
Warren is running on her record, so she needs to account for it, just as Romney has accounted for his actions at Bain, just as, hell, Brown had to explain being a male model.
Exactly why 99% of liberal democrats are hypocrites who feather their own nest first.
Exactly why she should be defeated hands down in November.
Exactly why Massachusetts voters need to apply some common sense to their decisions…
[…] Jacobsen continues to hold Warren’s Fauxchahontas feet to the fire (Legal Insurrection) Elizabeth Warren is running hard left in her rhetoric, but the reality is she served big companies […]
Liberal NPR declares Scott Brown clear debate winner http://www.wbur.org/2012/10/01/grading-second-senate-debate-domke
I love these ads. I don’t see any political ads where I am so I have to get them online, but I wish Mitt had the balls to hit Obama like this for his betrayals. When are we going to see something slamming her practice? I don’t think she can take much more of this.
Coming from NJ where most elected Republicans are just as squishy, and understanding this is Massachusetts we’re talking about here, it still galls me that conservatives and libertarians have to support Scott Brown.
Certainly he’s better in the Senate than Elizabeth Warren, but we need to keep reminding ourselves that his support for most of our beliefs is tenuous at best. The lesser of two evils is still evil, though unfortunately, I don’t think we can do much better than this and still have a chance at getting elected.
Rich