text: Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) Thursday said he was glad that one of his Democratic opponents, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, didn't "take her clothes off" to pay for college. Brown, who won his seat in a 2009 special election, was speaking on Boston radio station WZLX. 
   
   Brown made his comments when asked about Warren's response in a debate Tuesday to a question about how she paid for college. The question referenced the fact that Brown posed nude for Cosmopolitan in 1982 to make money. 
   
   "I kept my clothes on," Warren said, adding that she borrowed money to go to a public university and worked a part-time job. 
   
   "Have you officially responded to Elizabeth Warren’s comment about how she didn’t take her clothes off?" the host asked Brown Wednesday. 
   
   "Thank God!" Brown said, laughing. 
   
   The host got a kick out it, too. "That’s what I said! I said, 'Look, can you blame a good-looking guy for wanting to, you know…” 
   
   "You know what, listen: Bottom line is, you know, I didn’t go to Harvard, you know, I went to the school of hard knocks, and I did whatever I had to do to pay for school," Brown cut in. "And for people who know me, and know what I’ve been through … mom and dad married and divorced four times each. You know, some real challenges growing up. You know, whatever. You know, let them throw stones. I did what I had to do. But [if] not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn’t probably be talking to you, so, whatever." 
   
   Warren did not go to Harvard either, as Brown seemed to imply. She graduated from the University of Houston, a public school, though she spent her first two years at the private George Washington University on a debate scholarship. She later attended law school at Rutgers, a public university in New Jersey. Brown graduated from Tufts University and Boston College Law School. 
   
   Brown reminded the host that they shared equally in the blame for the Warren crack. 
   
   "That’s funny, you throw that jab," the host said, before Brown interjected: "You said it, too!" 
   
   It was fair game, the host pointed out. "Well, they said it about you! And not being in shape. You know, 'if you’re going to take your clothes off, next time, be in shape.' That’s what they said about you!" 
   
   Brown said he'd be happy to compete "anytime they want to have a little road race, or a triathlon, or anything." 
   
   Warren, a Harvard law school professor, was instrumental in establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Obama did not nominate her to serve as the permanent head of it, fearing a contentious Senate confirmation battle; he instead nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who cleared his first hurdle in a Senate subcommittee Thursday. 
   
   READ MORE about Elizabeth Warren: 
   
   PHOTO GALLERY BEFORE YOU GO Elizabeth Warren PHOTO GALLERY Elizabeth Warren 
   
   Scott Brown: 'Thank God' Elizabeth Warren Didn't 'Take Her Clothes Off' Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren 1 / 9 Introduces Financial Product Safety Commission Elizabeth Warren <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/financial-product-safety_n_173691.html" target="_hplink">announced</a> a bill creating a Financial Product Safety Commission with House and Senate Democrats in March 2009. The body was designed to have oversight over mortgages and other financial instruments to protect consumers against predatory practices. She said if the agency had existed before the subprime collapse then "there would have been millions of families who got tangled in predatory mortgages who never would have gotten them." HuffPost's Ryan Grim <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/financial-product-safety_n_173691.html" target="_hplink">reported</a>: Without all these toxic assets on banks' balance sheets, the institutions wouldn't be on the brink of collapse and the recession would be more manageable. "Consumer financial products were the front end of the destabilization of the American economic system." Sen. Charles Schumer's cosponsorship of the bill is notable because of his proximity to Wall Street. The bill's merit, the New York Democrat said, is that it regulates the actual financial product rather than the company producing it. AP 
   
   WATCH Scott Brown's legendary flu game performance on the Senate floor: ||||| Sen. Brown: 'Thank God' Elizabeth Warren kept her clothes on 
   
   By Josh Lederman - 
   
   Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and leading Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren scrapped Thursday over a nude photo shoot Brown participated in decades ago, with Brown thanking God that Warren never took any such photos. 
   
   During a debate Tuesday for Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts, Warren took a shot at Brown, who posed for Cosmopolitan in the 1980s to help pay for college, saying she had chosen to keep her clothes on and borrow money to fund her education instead. 
   
   "Thank God," Brown said on Boston-based radio station WZLX 
   
   The host laughed and agreed. 
   
   "I didn't go to Harvard. I went to the school of hard knocks," Brown elaborated. "I did what I had to do, and but not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn't probably be talking to you, so whatever." 
   
   Warren did not study at Harvard, but is a member of the faculty at Harvard Law School — a position Brown has argued makes her part of an out-of-touch class of intellectuals. 
   
   Warren's campaign declined to comment on Brown's remark, but the state Democratic Party called it gutter campaigning and a dirty trick. 
   
   "Sen. Brown's comments are the kind of thing you would expect to hear in a frat house, not a race for U.S. Senate," said Massachusetts Democratic Party Executive Director Clare Kelly, who added that Brown's comments "send a terrible message that even accomplished women who are held in the highest esteem can be laughingly dismissed based on their looks." 
   
   Warren is at the head of a pack of Democratic candidates vying to take on Brown, who won a special election in 2010 and will face reelection to his first regular term in 2012. 
   
   
   
   Despite being a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, Brown has remained popular in Massachusetts — but his recent comment is unlikely to help him with women voters.
target: – Aren't Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren supposed to be debating the social contract and other lofty things? Their Senate race just took a low detour: Warren made a point during a debate Tuesday to take a jab at Brown's old Cosmo cover, saying that when she was a college student, she took out loans to pay the bills and kept her clothes on. "Thank God," Brown told a local radio station in response, reports the Hill. He and the host then laughed. "I went to the school of hard knocks," Brown said. "I did what I had to do, and but not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn't probably be talking to you, so whatever." The Warren camp did not respond today to his retort. Click for more details on Brown's back and forth with the host on WZLX.