Brian, you are wrong and Menino was right. "These times" are what we make them.

Everybody has a skeleton or two. Can anyone, including you, claim his integrity is without blemish? It's a question of how long ago and how important. Bill Clinton was one of the better recent Presidents despite lying about his extra-curricular activities. Ronald Reagan was once a union leader, but his conservative supporters overlooked that. The current history of a person is far more important than something in the distant past. Menino was correct, and you are not.

normally sage mayor.mcgrory, only in your mind . maybe things might get a whole lot livelier around this place if people named mcgrory, cullen and lehigh went back to the good ol days and started becoming journalists once more. on the other hand that would mean having to ask questions of the status woe that deserve and demand answers and it's obvious you and your colleagues and you can throw in wedge and gelzinis from the tabloid have a total aversion to upsetting certain peoples applecart. i'm not sure if it's gutless or just afraid of losing access but it sure as hades ain't journalism. ma

The fact that she is still even in contention, let alone remaining in the contest, proves the fact why Massachusetts will continue to be the laughingstock of this country.

It is a question of character. Unfortunately, by November it will be old news.

Affirmative action was designed not only to promote racial fairness, but to correct historical wrongs committed against an entire racial group. Few Americans would deny the justice in paying this societal debt. This withdrawal from a real account with a real balance to be distributed among those owed this advantage is a real, tangible theft. It makes Ms. Warren a real malefactor, a thief, a less than honorable person. It is not whimsical in the least to decry her posture to the public that she is a benefactor of these wrongly gained opportunities and now purports herself to be a righteous defender of the public. She is in fact a thief.

Having a hard time coming up with a topic this morning, Brian? Only plausible reason for the one you chose. IT DOESN'T MATTER! No more than it mattered whether Martha Coakley knew who Curt Shilling played for or who he was! This whole story is insinuation. Keep saying that something of importance happened as a result of a person claiming a certain ancestry and pretty soon it seems like there is something wrong. Many people are fascinated about their past - and yes - given the opportunity - will choose to check off as many boxes as may apply. Many people are not, and view all the box checking business with suspicion. Can you point to something that Elizabeth Warren got as a result of claiming Cherokee ancestry? No - let's move on. Has Harvard acquired the reputation of a melting pot of students and staff from a wide cross-section of ages, genders, races and socio-economic groups? Definitely No! Here are a couple of ideas for columns that will ADD to the debate over who is the best candidate: EW is a passionate advocate for financial reform - how will she handle being part of the dysfunctional Senate. SB served as a state legislator - what issues did he promote - how have they had an impact on what he does in the Senate. Why can't a woman get elected in Massachusetts? You might have to do a little homework - they won''t write themselves.

The geography book my mother used in school less than 100 years ago does not show the state of Oklahoma. It is still called only "INDIAN TERRITORY". Nearly every family I know in OK has some Native American heritage. What is the problem?

If she was told she an American Indian from the time she was a small girl then why shouldn't she believe what she was told and put it on government forms? Senator Sidelines was handed a gift and the Glob just continues to swallow in some blind attempt to look unbiased. Oh well! Cheers!

The character flaws being displayed here is the lack of journalistic integrity. If the search for truth to either indict or clear someone's scruples then a more evidentiary search is required. Elizabeth Warren was told by her MOTHER and GRANDMOTHER of her heritage just like most of us. Her applications that accepted her into institutions of higher learning or on entry to faculty have been displayed. No check off other than caucasian and more telling no check off that she should receive special treatment as a recognized minority. In reality it is only a small number of individuals that researches their genealogy with documents and DNA. Further this was the 1990s not a time when this was the rabid pastime it is now. The cadre of onlookers who are beefing this up with no real beef act like people who like to watch houses burn down. Put into context it is Harvard University who was struggling to rectify their lily white image. Perhaps in that spirit which Prof Warren has so stated it can be characterized as a feeble attempt. On superficial examination this seems most logical. If the harpies want to go deeper then let them present something more substantial before they denigrate someone whose professional and academic life was and is exemplary. If they think she lied, which is highly doubtful, it gained her nothing. If it was a device of affirmative action, she was already a respected Professor when it first popped up. On both counts this does not amount to a hill of beans. Even present day Native American academics have pointed out that they were so scarce in numbers that someone touting this heritage would have been known to them. No one among this community of professors was aware of her designation as a Native American. The gist of the matter is it was not something she was flaunting and quite frankly had no need to. It is also a slap in the face of Native American academics since it says, like those entrenched in the Obama Birther Movement, that the cry for excessive and humiliating documentation is legitimate. Anyone can brand someone else unfit just because they think so. No amount of regular human explanations will satisfy those who have awkward notions of the history of this country especially if is obvious it played no part in whatever achievements or public integrity they have shown. Is this the way we are going to choose people to represent us? Does Scott Brown think over the top vilification of an exceptional opponent makes him worthy of his present office? Decidedly not. He should be spending his time explaining his voting record and what he hopes to do to advance progress in this country. Have you no shame sirs or madams, have you no shame?

"Many people are fascinated about their past - and yes - given the opportunity - will choose to check off as many boxes as may apply. Many people are not, and view all the box checking business with suspicion." Yes, but she is in trouble right now because she likes checking off boxes so much, she checks off ones that don't apply! She also claims that she was "the first nursing mother ever to take the bar exam in New Jersey." I don't think her grandmother told her that growing up. Instead, I think she is so enamored of her own view of herself, she just makes stuff up. A bad character trait and not one I want in our senator. Vote for Marisa DeFranco!

How can we complain about Elizabeth Warrens questionable claims to Native American heritage? The president himself is being questioned about the validity of his own US citizenship. Whether anyone likes it or not,these questions are valid and need to be answered. Warren does not appear to be a strong candidate anyway from all appearances, she comes across as weak on all issues including appearances, looking like ''a deer in the headlights" . Mayor Menino has been in office way too long, and believes his opinions and actions are the last word on just about everything.Mr Mayor get down off your high horse, the rules and laws are not yours to change. You need to go. Hopefully the citizens of Boston will never elect you again! Elizabeth Warren you need to answer all questions that the people of Ma. need to know about you. Stop acting so entitled, because you are subject to the same rules, and laws as everyone else!!!

a simple DNA test will end all speculation

A decent article until you turn on Scott Brown regarding his integrity etc. The Globe and all the main- stream media had check him out over and over again before and certainly after he won the senate. If there are issues like Warren's, your media outlets would have hounded him to death. The Globe wants this seat to go back to the Democrats. This paper has make no bones about being for the corrupt Democrats of this State. The first part of your article is right on. It starts with Warren's character. It would probably be over if she pleaded guilty that she did not check on her Indian heritage and that she took the words of women in her family and yes she took a slight advantage of the Indian issue for her career. What keep it going was the denial and the poor answering or not answering questions regarding this. The Globe certainly did not really go after her until this started to hit various National news outlets. The part you did not go into is how bad the Democrats are in this state. The party has over a year to find a good candidate to challenge Brown. It knows only about 10% of the registered voters are Republicans and not all of them even support Brown as they considered him to be too liberal. The Democrats know that for Brown to be elected or re-elected, he needs the independents as well as democrats to cross the party line. Yet all they can come out with is a Harvard Law professor who is one of the 1%, elitist, mentor of the occupiers, and in general someone most of us that are moderate voters don't like.

Is this supposed character flaw really what we, the voters, should be focused on, given the very limited evidence that Elizabeth Warren either did benefit or presumed she would benefit by "misrepresenting" herself? Really??? If so, and this particular flaw is deemed so vital and important that we should continue this witch hunt and potentially discount her candidacy over it, then let's turn up the volume on Scott's most presumed (but underreported) character flaw: his not publicly identifying the person who was responsible for molesting him as a child: the same person who, apparently, later went on to molest other children. Assuming "guilt" in either situation, which is the more egregious ethical failing; that of overt ambition or that of moral cowardice? Like the mayor, I say "stop this." Move on. We've all made mistakes in our past, intended or otherwise. Hopefully, we learn from them. And THAT, is what we should be looking for in our candidates.

By far them most fair and balanced thing the Globe has published on Prof. Warren's cynical gaming of affirmative action policies to advance her career, and Harvard's equally cynical decision to look the other way because it desperately needed, in the post-Derrick Bell period, to pad its diversity stats. Not exactly "Veritas", was it? It is regrettable if probably inevitable that Brian had to end the column with a lame slap at Scott Brown. Yes, he had a big year financially in the year after he won the senate race and published a book. For most of his adult life, however, the Browns lived a solid middle class existence in a modest ($500K assessed value, hardly a McMansion) Wrentham home. His wife, Gail Huff, was the primary breadwinner. And when did Tufts and B.C. become elite institutions to be mentioned in the same breath as Harvard. It's a stretch, Brian, a very long stretch, and it's beneath you, really.

It's unfortunate that Mr. McGrory decided to use the "a plague on both their houses" approach. It suggests that either he is afraid to say if he thinks one candidate is preferable, or he decided to succumb to laziness. Which is it?

The single greatest advantage for getting a job in the US has, for decades, in fact for centuries, been to be a white male. How many white men try to hide their identity in order not to take advantage of their advantage? None that I know. In fact most do not even admit that they have a built-in advantage. Efforts made to level the playing field should be applauded - not made fun of. As for schools like Harvard - they never lower the standards anyway - they just spend more time trying to find the best in every category. We should be grateful that discrimination was overcome sufficiently so that Elizabeth Warren - as a woman - white or minority - was able to GET a job at all - something that was impossible until the Civil Rights act and Title IX and VII. Instead, this article stoops to the lowest level to yet again try to pretend that white males were not born with such a huge advantage that efforts had to be made to level the playing field. This is a mean-spirited article. We should be grateful that half the talent in the world is no longer excluded from the competition and that we have a candidate like Elizabeth Warren as a result. I had thought Brown was a nice guy but his going after Warren over this issue has convinced me he isn't. Makes it easy to vote against him.

No, a simple DNA test will not change anything regardless of the result. Cherokee genealogists find no Warren ancestors in the extensive tribal rolls, the Dawes List and other source documents. Everywhere they check going back to the early 1800s, Prof. Warren's ancestors are living where white people live and doing what white people did. Even if she really is 1/32d Indian, she has never had or sought any involvement with native americans. The head of the Cherokee Nation is a blue-eyed 1/32d Cherokee but he's been publicly involved with tribal business his whole life. Now, we know that Prof. Warren sought no minority preference at her earlier academic endeavors so those records are public. Penn and Harvard are refusing to produce her job application, citing "policy", but Prof. Warren apparently hasn't asked the universities to waive the policy and release the applications. One wonders why. The fact pattern is not consistent with her lame explanations. She wanted to "meet people like myself, be invited to luncheons" but she never sought out other native Americans at any of her university posts or sought any involvement in the native American communities. The fact pattern is consistent with a cynical and successful attempt by Prof. Warren to take advantage of affirmative action policies to advance her career. She's a very capable lawyer but there are lots of very capable lawyers who don't get tenure at Harvard. Only one member of the Harvard Law faculty did not graduate from a top ten school: Prof. Warren. That's a lot of coincidences, isn't it? Wouldn't you be a little curious? Wouldn't you like to see the job application and see if she checked the native American box? I would. And, if she got a hand up from affirmative action, since affirmative action policies exist to remedy discrimination and Prof. Warren has never faced discrimination, that's pretty cynical, isn't it? And she could settle all of these open questions by asking Harvard to waive its policy and release the job application, and she hasn't. Why?

You were always going to vote for Warren and you know it, and so do we.

My mother told me that we are direct lineal descendents of Brian Boru, the last High King of Ireland, so you can address me as "Your Majesty" from now on.

So now it's about character. By any litmus test neither gets my vote.

Brian, You've reduced your column to a low level of "Irish-American and Swamp Yankee Sociology". Elizabeth Warren is being haunted by a perfectly innocent agreement in her past to volunteer her connection to a proud ancestry. How many people out there actually understand that former secretary of state and former General Colin Powell is NOT African American according to the criteria established by EEO. Colin Powell is not a member of any minority group under EEO guidelines. Imagine that? A blond blue-eyed Spanish speaking person with German ancestry who happened to be born and raised in Argentina is a minority if they migrate to America and join the workforce. Anyone who has applied for a job (especially in the defense contractor, civil service and academic world) has been asked to check off their ancestry for statistical reasons. I've known several people who were proud to speak of their Native American ancestry and did not have the physical characteristics. We now see an extraordinary person like Elizabeth Warren being haunted by those who know next to nothing about EEO.