Free Republic

<p>Former senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was so busy picking a new state that he forgot to pick a party.</p> <p>Whoever filled out Brown’s formal statement of organization for his campaign exploratory committee left blank the small gray box asking for the candidate’s party affiliation.</p>

GOP Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) said Monday he won't support Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget when it comes up for a vote in the Senate. Brown, a centrist who is running for reelection in 2012, said that Ryan's plan helped jumpstart a necessary debate, but that Ryan's Medicare reforms go too far. "While I applaud Ryan for getting the conversation started, I cannot support his specific plan — and therefore will vote 'no' on his budget," he wrote in a Politico op-ed. "Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path," he added. "But I do not think it requires us...

Republican Scott Brown shocked the political world early last year with his victory over Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley. Brown is still well-regarded in the heavily blue state but his re-election prospects appeared to be in some doubt. Brown is still one of the only major Republican officials in the state. Now it appears that Brown's chances of a full term are increasing. The Democratic Party appears to have no first-line candidates to challenge him, and he carries the power of incumbency. Not only that, but most voters appear to have accepted a Republican Senator from Massachusetts. A poll was...

Gov. Deval Patrick is absolutely right: Don’t blame Cleve Killingsworth for your insurance premiums going up so high, so fast. Blame the man who’s truly responsible — Deval Patrick. Killingsworth is the Miami Heat of Massachusetts health care. It’s hard to believe someone that expensive could suck that bad. But as offensive as Killingsworth’s $11 million buyout may be, AFL-CIO president and Blue Cross Blue Shield board member Robert Haynes had it right: “With $13 billion in revenue, it’s like pennies,” he said of the board’s compensation. Complaining about Killingsworth’s incompetence is like complaining about a leaky bathtub on the...

WASHINGTON — Candidate Scott Brown campaigned as the potential 41st GOP vote to halt President Obama’s health insurance overhaul. Now, after his first full year as a US senator, Brown is helping the president make the new law more palatable to its critics. Although Brown insists he still opposes the overall health care measure, his bipartisan plan embraced by the president is one of the most visible examples of Brown’s willingness to rebuff his Tea Party movement roots and work in the Senate as a compromiser. With a voting record similar to those of Susan M. Collins and Olympia J....

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is crediting so-called "Reagan Democrats" for helping him win the seat once held by Democratic stalwart Edward Kennedy The Republican made the comments Friday at the Reagan Presidential Library in California. Brown said Reagan Democrats, who crossed party lines twice to elect the former Republican president, also turned out to back his candidacy. He said Reagan Democrats are still a force in Massachusetts and without their support he would not have been elected senator.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said he has no plans to run for president next year, but will support Mitt Romney if the former Republican Massachusetts governor jumps in the race.

BOSTON (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Scott Brown defended his decision not to pursue a criminal investigation against the camp counselor he said molested him when he was a child, saying Tuesday that he's not looking to settle old scores. Brown details the encounter in his autobiography "Against All Odds," which tells the story of the Republican's troubled childhood and his election to the Senate seat held for decades by the late Democrat Edward Kennedy.

"You're talking about being an ideologue? If you're looking for one, I'm not it," said Sen. Scott Brown. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) said he doesn't consider himself a member of the Tea Party movement and would welcome any primary challenger. Brown, the Republican senator from deep-blue Massachusetts whose win in a special election last year in part catalyzed the Tea Party movement, said he considers himself just a Republican, though one with sympathies toward some Tea Party issues. "Hey, nothing wrong with a primary. I welcome all challengers," Brown said Tuesday morning on MSNBC. He said Monday evening that he...

House Republicans say they’re all on the same page about wanting to choke off funding for President Barack Obama’s health care law, but in their first real spending bill of 2011, it looks like they’re leaving that priority on the cutting room floor. As the GOP writes a continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of the year, it is likely to leave out language that would shut off funding for new mandates and programs under the health care law, according to Republican aides and lawmakers. They’ll still have a shot at killing health care funding — using...

(snip) Other Republican leaders such as Ron Kaufman, the longtime confidant to President George H.W. Bush, believe 2012 could be a banner year for the state GOP. He pointed to Brown’s upcoming reelection campaign, last November’s gains by Republican state representatives, and the possibility of having former governor Mitt Romney on the presidential ticket. "For us, it’s about getting the message out," said Kaufman, who added that GOP candidates would focus on the economy and their opposition’s record next year. "If you look at the last three speakers of the House in Massachusetts, they’ve all been indicted for one problem...

The National Republican Trust spent nearly $100,000 last year to help Scott Brown win the U.S. Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, but now the conservative political group wishes it had that money back to help kick Mr. Brown out of office.

Washington is replete with idiots, but Senate Republicans seem to have the highest incidence of political idiocy in the entire capital.

Senator John F. Kerry, laboring to achieve a foreign policy victory that would be a highlight of his career, gained crucial support yesterday for a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia from his Republican counterpart, Senator Scott Brown. Brown’s backing gave Kerry additional momentum heading into a possible vote today. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry is President Obama’s man in charge of trying to lock down the two-thirds support of the Senate — 67 votes if every member shows up — required to ratify the New START pact. Kerry and other senators have predicted passage but...

After basically evading reporters all day, the Massachusetts Republican recently announced that he will support the arms reduction treaty. Brown told reporters following a closed-session intelligence briefing that he had given the issue “due diligence” and hoped see the treaty ratified. “I believe it’s something that’s important for our country, and I believe it’s a good move forward to deal with our national security issues,” he said. A cloture vote is expected on Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown — a sometime Tea Party darling who’s been tagged as a potential 2012 target after the Bay State’s Democratic landslide in last week’s elections — yesterday downplayed the importance of the controversial conservative movement and its new foothold in Washington. “I’m not sure who they are,” said Brown when asked about the election of senators with reported Tea Party ties. Brown said he’s known U.S. Sens.-elect Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) before the election and, “They don’t come and say, ‘Hey, I’m a Tea Party member.’ They come and say, ‘Hey, I’m a U.S....

Just got an email from Scott Brown, asking me for money. LOL. I emailed him back immediately, telling him that when he voted for that fascist Finance Bill, he voided any future monies from me. If he had held firm against Hussein, we wouldn't have government controlling our banking industry.

Six months have passed since Scott Brown shook the world with his upset victory over Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election to fill the people's seat once held by Ted Kennedy. Brown was elected to the United States Senate in no small part due to the energy and enthusiasm of Tea Party activists. In the intervening 180 days, the euphoria of sending a Republican Senator from Massachusetts to Capitol Hill has waned amongst Tea Party enthusiasts. Some thought the election of Brown would spell the death knell of Obamacare. As the 41st Republican senator, he put Republicans in a...

Scott Brown, with some justification, makes frequent claims to bipartisanship. But as the Republican senator from Massachusetts prepared to cast another vote next week against an extension of benefits for jobless Americans, he expressed frustration. Democrats, he said, never gave his alternative plan to extend benefits a serious look. “Why is it that I’m always the one that has to vote with the Democrats?’’ Brown lamented. “Bipartisanship is a two-way street, you know? Why can’t they also work together to pay for these things within the budget, within the monies that we already have? Why is it that we always...

Sen. Scott Brown's last-minute support for President Obama's sweeping financial overhaul legislation has put him in the crosshairs of Tea Party activists who have sharply criticized the bill and could dim his re-election hopes for 2012. Brown announced Monday he would support the regulatory overhaul despite initial misgivings, joining fellow New England Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, a triple play that appears to give Democrats the required 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles facing the legislation. The Greater Boston Tea Party said it was "greatly disappointed" in Brown's announcement. "After weeks of debate and a thorough investigation of...