Free Republic

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....

Rudy Giuliani now comes in a new package. Social conservatives still aren’t buying it. “It’s a sleight of hand,” said Bob Barr, a former Georgia Congressman and champion of small government. “On issues that I consider extremely important to conservatives, such as respect for the Second Amendment, he is nowhere near even remotely in the ballpark of a conservative philosophy.” The famously resolute, plain-spoken and uncompromising former Mayor has unveiled new shades of nuance to go along with his historically liberal positions on abortion, gun control and gay marriage, which pose the major obstacles to his pursuit of the Republican...