Heard on the Hill: Beating Up on Scott Brown

• By Warren Rojas
• Roll Call Staff
• Oct. 12, 2011, Midnight

Dear lawmakers: It turns out that NOT ogling the opposite sex can just as easily hurt your career.

At least that’s the lesson being pounded into Sen. Scott Brown’s skull after the Massachusetts Republican, who is up for re-election, expressed no desire to see his challenger, Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren, in the buff.

A quick recap: During a debate, the moderator informed Warren that Brown had taken it all off for Cosmo to help pay for college and asked how she managed to fund her education. Warren quipped that she “kept her clothes on.” (Advantage: Warren.) When a Boston radio station later asked about Warren’s apparent disdain for disrobing, Brown glibly stated, “Thank God.” (Advantage: Brown.)

Brown’s zinger has subsequently taken on a life of its own, commanding comment from across the political spectrum and even seeping into mainstream infotainment.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Brown’s cluelessness on ABC’s “This Week.”

“It really spoke volumes about, really, disrespect for women that he may not even realize,” Pelosi posited.

Massachusetts Democratic Party Executive Director Clare Kelly was equally incensed, charging Brown with delivering “a terrible message that even accomplished women who are held in the highest esteem can be laughingly dismissed based on their looks.”

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh proved much more sympathetic to Brown’s plight.

“Warren started it with a cheap shot at a debate ... and now the feminazis are livid. And why? Because he nailed it,” Limbaugh told his national radio audience, adding, “It was great comedy ’cuz it had an element of truth in it.”

Talk-show vet Joy Behar, for one, felt compelled to act.

“Just for that stupid comment about Elizabeth Warren, I’m taking down the Scott Brown centerfold in my garage,” she tweeted.

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