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One can wail all he wants that the people of Maine or Massachusetts or wherever have elected a liberal Republican, but if the people of that state are generally liberal, this is the way it should work.

Sometimes the people of liberal states get so fed up the elect a real conservative, like Chris Christie.

But that isn't possible with a liberal Republican in office in those states. Thus, the liberal Republican is worse than a Democrat holding the seat.

Not sure I get the Christie to Brown comparisons.

First, Christie has a heck of lot more to build on. From 1994 to 2002 New Jersey had a Republican governor and Republican majorities in the Legislature. The Republican delegation in the U.S. House has always been substantial, including one of only two of NYC area districts to stay Republican (the other being Peter King's) as the suburbs and outer boroughs swung strongly Democratic over the past decade. There have always been powerful Republican organizations in many of the biggest counties with strong and capable GOTV groups.

By contrast, Scott Brown had nothing to build on; the string of Republican gubernatorial victories from 1990 to 2002 were isolated and left no base, and were the result more of the Democrats making a string of inexplicably weak nominations and Republicans lucking into very (individually, not organizationally) strong ones at the same time, and being able to run in Republican-momentum midterms in 1994 and 2002. That Mitt Romney had to surrender his office without a fight in 2006, despite high personal popularity, is evidence of this. He knew that Patrick's resume and competence (as a campaigner, if nothing else) together with anti-Republican trends in that mid-term, assured his defeat.

Second, Christie ran as more or less of a moderate -- certainly no more of a fire-breather than Scott Brown -- and his swing to the (rhetorical) right has been a complete surprise. Lots of people on FR were denouncing him as a RINO in the run-up to the 2009 primary. (I didn't do so in so many words, but I certainly foresaw him being a Pataki-type go-along-to-get-along guy).