Chef Scott Brown

As a Republican seeking reelection in a Democratic state and facing a strong challenge from Elizabeth Warren (a woman), Sen. Scott Brown is trying hard to appeal to women. Retiring Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is doing her best to aid him, appearing at a "Women for Brown" kickoff event. At that event, she highlighted issues like reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, on which Brown has done the right thing, while downplaying his vote for the Blunt amendment, a bill about which she said at the time, "It’s much broader than I could support." Now, it's all an "honest disagreement" and Scott Brown's heart is in the right place, says Olympia Snowe, even when it comes to voting to let employers deny birth control coverage or just about anything else they want.

Brown is going to need a lot more help than that, though, since when he speaks for himself, he tends to say some pretty dumb shit. Because he doesn't have much in the way of legislative support for women's issues to cite, he tends to fall back on personal appeals about being surrounded by "strong-willed women." And that isn't always the strongest argument to make:



Monday, when [Brown's wife, Gail] Huff was asked for an example of something she and her daughters had taught her husband, he cut in. “How to cook,’’ Brown joked. Huff continued: “How to cook, how to sew, how to clean.’’ When pressed by a reporter for a policy issue, neither came up with an example. “I can’t point to a specific policy issue,’’ Huff said. “I can only say we talk about things around the table and the girls, now that they are 23 and 21, have very, very specific ideas about what they do and don’t believe and they chime in with a lot of great ideas.’’

Boy, that is some serious admiration for strong women that when Brown's wife is asked what she's taught him, he couldn't even let her answer and instead made a joke about how she's taught him women's work.Influencing him on policy issues? Pshaw. The man can cook—what more do you want? That there is really the measure of a strong-willed woman, that her husband has basic competence at feeding and caring for himself.

No word on how Scott Brown's ability to scramble an egg helps the women of Massachusetts get birth control or fair pay.

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