Free Republic

Former Sen. Scott Brown said Friday he would not run in a special Senate election in Massachusetts, dealing a setback to Republican hopes of winning the seat being vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. Brown, who electrified his party with an upset win in a 2010 special election but lost his re-election bid in November, ended weeks of intense speculation about his future with a written statement announcing his decision. … GOP officials in Washington and Massachusetts widely considered Brown the strongest possible Republican candidate in a state that traditionally favors Democrats. With Brown out of the running, potential...

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...

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown — an upstart Blue State Republican in the cross hairs of national Democrats — is lashing out at the party’s opposition researchers, accusing them of prying into his family’s private health insurance records, and demanding that they stop fighting dirty. (snip)A DSCC spokesman insisted the request was only for public information and never sought private medical information about the Brown family. “Obviously, the commission has made a mistake. Now Brown is trying score cheap political points to distract from his record, voting in lock step with Republicans in Washington, D.C.,” said spokesman Matt Canter. “Brown votes...

Really irritating, and I say that knowing it’ll damage my cherished RINO cred. From his letter tonight to Reid and McConnell: I am disappointed that despite passing six different FY 2011 Continuing Resolutions, each with the understanding that passage would move bi-partisan negotiations further along, that we are once again faced with the likelihood of a government shutdown. A government shutdown absolutely serves no purpose and is in no one’s best interests. I stand ready to work with each of you, to do what it takes—and to put politics aside—and work on behalf of a greater good to ensure that...

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....

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...

Tea Party activists are now talking openly about backing a Republican primary challenger against Mass. Sen. Scott Brown. "I think the significance of that is –- I don’t know if he’ll get a primary challenge or survive in 2012 - but that is what every Republican in the Senate and the House up for re-election in 2012 has to be thinking about," said Salon's Steve Kornacki. "It’s going to have that threat hovering over them on every key vote for the next two years."

Republicans were forced to "back down" from blocking Wall Street reform, according to a fundraising letter sent by the president. In the e-mail to his supporters, President Barack Obama wrote that pressure on lawmakers forced Republicans to "back down" from blocking the legislation, which the Senate passed Thursday. "This movement proved again that the strongest special interests, who for so long have called the shots in Washington, can be beat," he wrote. "When opponents in Congress tried to block the legislation altogether, you stood up -- and they backed down. When the lobbyists pushed for loopholes and exemptions just before...