Friday, July 13, 2012

Scott Brown's muse on Stolen Valor Act endorses Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren in official portrait mode Elizabeth Warren So remember how Sen. Scott Brown found something of substance to campaign on? It's the Stolen Valor Act, a rewrite of a 2006 law making it a crime to impersonate a veteran. The Supreme Court struck down the law last month as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. Brown wants to bring it back, with the free speech concerns cleared up. But he's just hit a big political snag:
WASHINGTON -- Vietnam veteran Doug Sterner, the inspiration for Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown's recently introduced Stolen Valor Act, is endorsing Brown's Democratic opponent for Senate, he told The Huffington Post.
Sterner has worked for years to factcheck and debunk war stories of would-be heroes on his website, Hall of Valor. His wife wrote the original Stolen Valor Act, which Congress rushed through without even any hearings. Sterner is glad that Brown is resurrecting the law, and hopes he'll take the time to make sure it's constitutional this go-round. But he has a more important concern, that led to his endorsement of Elizabeth Warren:
During an interview on Stolen Valor the day of the decision, he said he had to suppress a "squeal of glee" when he heard in the background that Obama's health care law had been upheld.

"That weighs very, very heavily on my decision" to endorse [Elizabeth] Warren, the lifelong Republican said. Expanding access to health care, he said, is "very much a matter of humanity."

The "independent" Scott Brown is of course in lock-step with fellow Republicans on repealing the Affordable Care Act. That's an issue of real substance, where once again Elizabeth Warren has him beat.

Please contribute $3 to Elizabeth Warren on Orange to Blue.


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