Then again, the values of Massachusetts Democrats in choosing Senate candidates has a certain consistency…

95.7 percent of the 3,500 delegates attending the Massachusetts state Democratic convention in Springfield, Mass. endorsed faux-Cherokee Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senator.  Since Warren’s support exceeded 85%, Marisa DeFranco, the only declared opposition to Warren’s nomination to oppose Republican Senator Scott Brown’s bid for re-election, will not have the chance to test Warren in a primary.

Since no Democratic candidate had ever won more than 86 percent of the vote in the 30 years of the state party’s endorsement process, the party’s doubling down on the thoroughly disgraced Warren is a stunning rejection of ethical principles.

Warren, just this week, admitted that she had told Harvard that she was a Cherokee after she had been hired, prompting the University to list the blue-eyed, blonde-haired scholar as “a woman of color” in its diversity statistics. She had explicitly denied this for months. She has shown to be a plagiarist, a liar, a fake, and a hypocrite, and an inept politician as well. Her party’s response to all of this was to make it impossible for its members to reject her at the polls, and to nominate a candidate of integrity to oppose Brown.

What does the conduct of Massachusetts Democrats demonstrate?

• It shows the party rejects character, honesty and integrity as a prerequisite for holding high elected office, an attitude that undermines public trust, democracy, and good government.

• It insults the members of the party who not proven liars, by indicating that they are less qualified to be Senator than  woman whose lack of candor and willingness to cheat has been in the headlines for many weeks.

• It cheats all Massachusetts voters who would like to have an alternative to Brown whom they can vote for without retching, holding their noses, or girding themselves for the scandals and corruption to come.

• It sends the message to future candidates that lying in public carries no consequences in the Democratic Party. (Democrats have, of course, sent this message in other states, such as Connecticut (Sen. Blumenthal), New York (Rep. Rangel), and nationally, with President Clinton.)

Laughably, at least if one can stop from weeping, a victorious Warren (I’m quoting the New York Times) “invoked the spirit of Senator Edward M. Kennedy Jr., who is still lionized by activists here and whose death in 2009 led to the special election in which Mr. Brown captured the seat,” saying, “It’s a long way from Ted Kennedy to Scott Brown.”

That’s surely true. Sen. Warren never committed unpunished manslaughter like Ted Kennedy, who avoided prosecution by, yes, lying to the public and with the help of his father’s generous payment of hush money to the family of the young woman he killed through drunken recklessness and cowardice. The Democratic Party showed the same crass disregard of decency and character when it nominated him, too.

At least Elizabeth Warren understands the tradition her nomination embodies.

She must be so proud.

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Source: New York Times

Graphic: Wikipics

Ethics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts. If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work was used in any way without proper attribution, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at  jamproethics@verizon.net.