Sen. Scott Brown Disavows 'Crazy Khazei' Controversy

Sen. Scott Brown has publicly distanced himself from a social media prank by one of his senior advisers that's turned into a political flap, of sorts.

Veteran Republican adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, has revealed himself as the man behind the curtain of a fake Twitter account, called @CrazyKhazei. It pretends to satirically speak for Democrat Allan Khazei, who is running again for the U.S. Senate, against Brown, the incumbent.

Democrats have strongly criticized the prank. But Fehrnstrom — a longtime strategist for Brown and fellow Republican Mitt Romney — is brushing off such criticism after he accidentally sent a "Crazy Khazei" type tweet from his personal Twitter account.

Brown said he was unaware of the account's existence and has now told his staff that such antics should not and will not be part of his campaign. Meanwhile, the account has disappeared from the Web.

Tufts University political science professor Jeff Berry joined Morning Edition Friday to explain just how big of a controversy this is.