Did Elizabeth Warren exaggerate her Cherokee roots?

Incumbent Sen. Scott Brown's supporters say his Democratic challenger falsely claimed to be a minority to boost her career

Elizabeth Warren says her great-great-great grandmother was Cherokee, presumably making the Massachusetts Democrat 1/32 Native American.
(Image credit: Ann Heisenfelt/Getty Images)

Progressive hero Elizabeth Warren, who is challenging Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts' headline-grabbing Senate race, is in hot water after Brown's campaign accused her of exaggerating her Native American heritage so she could claim minority status to advance her career. Warren's campaign has since produced documents to prove at least one relative — a great-great-great-grandmother — was a Cherokee. Is this a phony controversy, or does it put Warren's integrity in doubt?

Warren is totally busted: "Goodbye, principled liberal Liz Warren," says Michael Graham at the Boston Herald. "Hello Princess Pinochio-Hantas." Warren played "the Cherokee card" to get on the list of minority law professors at the University of Texas in 1986 and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. When she arrived at the promised land, Harvard, she dropped off the minority lists, probably because she knew how "laughable" her claim to be a Native American really was.

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