Posted on 11/11/2010 5:48:27 AM PST by GOPsterinMA
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. senator representing my state.’ ”
Brown dismissed the Tea Party’s influence on the U.S. Senate despite national claims that self-described Tea Party candidates such as U.S. Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) represented wins for the growing grass-roots movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Brown ran on an anti-ObamaCare platform not because he was necessarily against it, but because MA already has RomneyCare, which Brown helped write and get passed. Brown didn’t feel that the people of MA should pay for a federal healthcare plan in addition to their own state healthcare plan.
Brown was against healthcare plans; he was against the citizens of his state paying for other states to get a plan similar to what they have in MA.
I don't live there but if I did, I wouldn't have voted for him in the first place. I remember seeing him on TV saying; "I will vote with the Democrats if it benefits Massachusetts."
Ya know Scott Brown if you are going to go down in 2012 might as well go down fighting on the conservative message.
Instead you can be relegated to the worthless RINO dustbin.
Then again you can always be a shoe salesman and name your wife Peg.
Scott Brown tries to reach out to non-TEA Party moderates for his next election in Massachusetts.
Yeah. What a shocker.
“I’m not sure who they are,” said Brown when asked about the election of senators with reported Tea Party ties.”
Guess this guy will be another ‘won’ wondering what happened after his next exam before the electorate.
That wasn't my point, but since you brought it up. Sadly, there were quite a number of posters who called Scott Brown a conservative in one way, shape or form.
Outstanding. You get to the heart of the matter in words and pictures.
Scott Brown got elected by the Tea Party donations and if you hadnt noticed all elections especially Senatorial have become national elections.
Socialist states like Massachusetts California will be begging for a bailout from the rest of us in due time.
In addition when he signs a bill like the financial overhaul it effects the future of the country do you have any idea what is in it? Scott Brown doesn’t yet he voted for it.
So kind sir I have every right to trash a guy who votes with marxists not for the future of Massachusetts or America while during the election he rapped himself around as a Tea Party conservative guy with a truck.
Scott Brown got elected through Tea Party donations.
If you hadnt noticed all elections especially Senatorial have become national elections.
Socialist states like Massachusetts California will be begging for a bailout from the rest of us in due time.
In addition when he signs a bill like the financial overhaul it effects the future of the country do you have any idea what is in it? Scott Brown doesn’t yet he voted for it.
So kind sir I have every right to trash a guy who votes with marxists not for the future of Massachusetts or America while during the election he rapped himself around as a Tea Party conservative guy with a truck.
There ARE conservatives in MA.
We just all need to move into one place so we can elect someone to something.
Scott Brown is worth electing again and again. He has his purpose. Goosing him because he’s not where we want him to be is naive.
He's not a Tea Party candidate, and he's not a conservative. He's a moderate who leans to the right sometimes.
You are aware that he won in Massachusetts? The same Massachusetts that just elected a whole slew of Democrats? Were these voters all Tea Party voters who, after getting Brown in, just suddenly CHANGED and voted democrat?
The Tea Party is the big story politically, but it's not heresy to admit it's not the only story, or the only point of view, and that anyone who's a success owes it to the Tea Party. Brown was appealing to Tea Partiers because there was an opportunity to take "Ted Kennedy's seat" away from a liberal dem. THAT is why he won, and that is what he owes to Tea Party voters--their votes within a larger bloc.
"I’ve always been a Scott Brown Republican. And that’s an independent, clear-thinking, honest, straight-talking person. That’s why I get overwhelmingly re-elected in a very Blue State."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/06/interview_with_scott_brown_99794.html
Look at his web page and you'd think he's a traditional Republican: he supports the surge in Afghanistan, lowering taxes, and the death penalty. He opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants and believes marriage is between a man and a woman.
But Brown insists he's not a conservative:
"For example with the Metco program, I am the co-chair of the Metco Caucus, is that a liberal or conservative issue? No, it’s an issue that affects kids," Brown says.
Put his positions together and what does he say you get?
"I'm a Scott Brown Republican," Brown says.
Which may mean not really a republican at all:
"People shouldn’t look at the letter after my name, because I never do, there are many issues that are supposedly traditionally Democrat or liberal issues and I vote for them," Brown says.
All of which has not impressed the National Republican Party, which you'd think--given a chance to win a senate seat in Kennedy country--might send an army and a bank here to help Brown win:
Brown: "I am satisfied with what we've received so far.
Hiller: “What have you received so far?”
Brown: “Technology, phones, advice...”
Hiller: “Money?”
Brown: “Yeah, a little bit of money, but it is what it is."
Hiller: “But what if I said to you that the reason they are not giving money is the reason they don’t think you can win?
Brown: "i don't think thats accurate...i'd say you're wrong."
"I am proud to endorse Scott Brown for the Senate," Senator John McCain said.
Brown received a statement of support from Republican John McCain, but it came on a video--instead of at a well-attended campaign event.
Hiller: “But what about coming here personally?”
Brown: “He doesn’t have enough time."
And Brown is running out of time, too:
"If I win is it an upset? Of course it's an upset," Brown said.
A Scott Brown victory could kill national health care. In almost any other state, that alone would make this race big news day after day.
The relative lack of excitement surrounding the election here is just more evidence that--for better or worse--Massachusetts remains out of the political mainstream.
http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/hiller/MI4732/
As a resident of MA, I support the Tea Party, but I didn't see the Tea Party bringing him this victory. It was Coakley's stupidity and Brown's attractiveness to moderates in a liberal state.
It's also disturbing seeing the Tea Party starting to act like just another party, which I thought was the whole point, that it wasn't any such thing.
Brown isn't and never was a conservative, and he was always very open about it. Which makes me wonder why the Tea Party is acting so shocked, shocked now. If they didn't know he wasn't a conservative, they're in no position to complain.
“We are stuck with him”
One strategery in supporting Scott was the fact that he’ll be easier to replace if he does not work out than Coakley would have been.
She’d have had the weight of the dem machine to work to keep her in power.
Brown, though, is vulnerable to all the times he’s gone biking with Kerry, which is a liability to an R (but not a D).
I think the Mass GOP should look for a replacement that is a real republican. It will be easier to win than if they go up against a favored Dem in “Kennedy’s Seat”.
After all, Kerry has the actual desk, not Brown. Hm, I wonder who’s desk he actually has, once Kerry swapped it out?
“We have somebody who will vote with us 70 percent of the time.” But how will he vote on the important issues? Snowe, Collins, etc............
Brown is good buddies with McCain. I would be happy to donate to anyone credible running against Brown.
I despise the weak sister.
Christie knows what he has to do and how he got there, but he also knows how to tread the line between being the kind of ass-kicking go-getter that NJ likes and becoming the conservative stalwart that would scare them.
Brown, well, I don’t know what he’s doing, but then again, I don’t understand Massachusetts either.
States like CA, MA, MD, NY, CT, and, to a lesser degree, OR, WA, NJ and RI, won’t ever elect true conservatives until the very nature of the voters is changed. Which CAN be done, but is not something we can do, it has to happen over time.
After all, those states changed to become liberal cesspools, technically, they could change back, but I won’t hold my breath.
CA might though if Jerry Brown is as much a disaster as I think he’ll be.
In a state like Mass, I can accept a Scott Brown.
In a state like Texas though, there’s no reason for a RINO. We have to consider where the person is running, and whether conservatives in the Senate can overcome them or not. Right now the answer is maybe - we have enough conservatives and even RINOs with some common sense to probably stop most of Obama’s agenda in the Senate, even without a majority.
Well, there are, a few, here and there, but they’re not elected (or electable) to office.
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