Back in May, former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), now running in New Hampshire, thought he’d uncovered a potent new line of attack: he blasted Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) for having raised the debt ceiling and preventing U.S. default.
There was, of course, a rather serious problem, aside from the Republican’s confusion about finance policy: Scott Brown also voted for the exact same measures that raised the debt ceiling. The former senator had apparently forgotten his own record when he criticized Shaheen for casting the same votes he did.
This week, it’s happened again.
New Hampshire GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown has been making immigration into a key campaign issue, attacking Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on border security in an ad and criticizing President Barack Obama for falling down on the job in an op-ed. But he has found himself in a bit of a bind, since one of the reforms he’s campaigning against is something that he once voted for.
In an op-ed in his newly adopted home state, Brown condemned “pro-amnesty policies that have encouraged people to come here illegally.” What kind of policies? The Republican specifically blasted “in-state tuition for illegals.”
Putting aside the fact that Brown still seems confused about the fact that “illegal” is not a noun, Amanda Terkel reports that the GOP candidate actually voted for state legislation that would make undocumented immigrants “eligible for in-state tuition rates and fees at the University of Massachusetts, or any commonwealth state or community college.”
In other words, Scott Brown is once again disparaging Jeanne Shaheen for agreeing with Scott Brown.
For context, let’s again note that Brown isn’t some political novice. He’s a former U.S. senator. Indeed, he’s run for statewide office three times in four years in two states, giving him plenty of time to hone his skills as a candidate and answer glaringly obvious questions about the major issues of the day.
With this in mind, why is he so very bad at this?
This latest incident on immigration policy is a setback, but what matters is the fact that it’s the latest in a series of missteps.
Brown, for example, recently hid in a bathroom to avoid talking about contraception policy. Before that, he was forced to resign from the board of a suspicious Florida firearm manufacturer that doesn’t actually manufacture firearms. Before that he successfully lobbied to kill an energy-efficiency bill for no apparent reason.
And before that he made remarks about the Affordable Care Act that contradicted his own platform on health care policy.
Is it any wonder the former senator is struggling?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."