Thread by @HoarseWisperer

According to fairly wide reporting yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren listed her race as “American Indian” on a State Bar of Texas card when when she was in her 30’s.

I’m still of a mind to see the issue of her heritage as more distraction than real but it’s getting messy.

1/

There does not seem to be any benefit or advantage from listing American Indian on a bar card.

So, it’s hard to see an ill intent here.

The rub is that this story has been like a stream of paper cuts and that makes me anxious there might be more shoes to drop.

2/

If Warren claimed Native American heritage at times when it provided an advantage, that would possibly be material.

If not, dragging this out is just more “but her emails.”

Whatever the answer, would seem good to have a conclusive answer.

New discoveries prompt distrust.

3/

The one thing that frustrates me most about where this is going is that no matter how unfair the coverage is, it started with an unforced error on Warren’s part.

She made a high-production video a month b4 the midterms and spotlighted the issue.

I was pissed then. SMH now.

4/

To me, it was a transparent, calculated strategy to gain some “message control” before announcing.

It was a 2020 strategy when the rest of us were worried about 2018.

Whoever thought it was a good idea should have Googled the Streisand Effect.

5/

I hate things like this. Dems staring at an oppo liability and engineering hamhanded tactics that turn into slow-burning smoky fires.

Let’s hope there are no old applications out there with “Native American” checked - whether that mattered or not.

More smoke helps no one.

6/6