Scott Brown’s rough week

Not a great week for former Sen. Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts, hoping to become Sen. Scott Brown of New Hampshire. He is currently running, in his brand-new state, about five points behind the incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), who happens to have served as governor in the “Live Free or Die” state, in addition to being a former state senator.

{mosads}A former U.S. senator from New Hampshire, Bob Smith (R) — running for Senate again — this week publicly declared that not only would the GOP lose the race to Shaheen if the party nominates Brown, but that Republicans would “deserve to lose.” Not many people notice what Smith says these days, you might think, yet former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tweeted out this on Tuesday: “Former Senator Bob Smith should feel very good — today’s New Hampshire poll showing him running about as well as Scott Brown against Shaheen.”

What could be worse, though, than a double diss from Smith and Gingrich is that everyone is talking about a new book by former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. In it, he writes of Brown that “Dealing with Congress, to put it mildly, did not feel like a careful, deliberative journey in search of the best public policy. I remember going to meet the personable Senator Brown who had arrived in Washington after a campaign spent attacking the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ … We talked about our kids and about triathlons,” Geithner writes. “When the conversation finally turned to substance, he said he liked the idea of financial reform and expected to be with us. But without any irony or self-consciousness, he said he needed to protect two financial institutions in Massachusetts from the Volker Rule’s restrictions. Then he furrowed his brown and turned to his aide. ‘Which ones are they, again?’ he asked.”

Okie dokie.

WHAT IF JEB DOESN’T RUN? AND CHRISTIE DOESN’T EITHER? AskAB returns Monday, May 19. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-stage.thehill.com. Thank you.