Scott Brown: If I can't shut up the widow, I won't debate

Sen. Scott Brown Scott Brown failed in his effort to slap a gag on Ted Kennedy's widow, Vicki, as a condition of appearing at a debate sponsored by the Kennedy Institute. The Kennedy Institute rejected those demands in the grounds of "duh," so Brown petulantly withdrew.

The Brown campaign was unpersuaded, answering, 'We respect Vicki Kennedy's decision but we regret that we cannot accept a debate invitation from someone who plans to endorse Scott Brown's opponent. The Kennedy Institute cannot hold itself out as a nonpartisan debate sponsor while the president of its board of trustees gets involved in the race on behalf of one of the candidates.'

Ah, hypocrisy. The debates Brown has agreed to, unilaterally, are two wingnut radio debates, one hosted by Dan Rea who "espouses conservative views and openly describes himself as Brown's friend," and one sponsored by the Boston Herald, the conservative rag that has all but endorsed Brown by virtue of it's ceaseless sexist and racist attacks on Elizabeth Warren. Brown also agreed to a televised debate, limited to one station, hosted by political analyst Jon Keller, "a veteran media personality and debate moderator known to be especially tough on the state's Democratic political culture."

Brown's camp refuses to negotiate on any other debates, other than to issue the out-of-bounds demand that Vicki Kennedy shut the hell up. Scott Brown doesn't want any "partisan" debates, unless they're partisan on his side. It's no wonder. He's going to need as friendly crowd as possible if he stands a chance to not be utterly humiliated by Warren.