New senator Scott Brown sure gets down to Republican business

By Dana Milbank
Friday, February 5, 2010; A02



Great. Here comes one more model prone to sudden acceleration.

Another Toyota? Actually, no. This one is Scott Brown, as of Thursday the junior senator from
Massachusetts.

Brown, the surprise victor in last month's special election, had raised no objection to taking his
oath of office on Feb. 11. But then conservative commentators complained that he was dilly-
dallying; the Boston Herald's Howie Carr accused him on Wednesday of taking "a three-week victory
lap."

So, in one of his first major decisions since winning election, the Republican made his choice:
He would cave in to his conservative critics.

He requested -- no, demanded! -- that he be seated promptly -- no, immediately! -- so that he could
start to do the important work of being a senator.

Democratic Senate leaders complied with his demand (they even let him have Ted Kennedy's primo office
suite), and Vice President Biden made time to swear in Brown on the Senate floor at 5 p.m. Thursday.

"It's really time to get to work," the new senator announced, certification papers in hand, as he got
out of an SUV -- he left "the truck" at home -- outside the Russell Senate Office Building.

And so Brown got down to work. His first official act after taking the oath: holding a news
conference. The Senate, having no business left to conduct, went into a quorum call. Senators had
already taken their last vote of the week and most were hurrying out of town for three days ahead of
the snowstorm.

Welcome to the Senate, Mr. Brown.

Brown's surprise victory impressed many people, none more than Brown himself. He went on ABC
News's "This Week" on Sunday and declined to rule out a run for the presidency. "I don't have any
exploratory committees started," he demurred.

The host, Barbara Walters, also showed him the three-decade-old copy of Cosmo in which he posed nude.
"Do I regret doing that?" Brown asked. "No."

Senator Centerfold's looks landed him in a "Saturday Night Live" skit over the weekend in which Brown, played by Jon Hamm, set off fantasies among Democratic leaders, and led House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi's character to exclaim, "Oooh, Mama like."

But they don't like the way he votes, so hours before Brown's arrival, Senate Democrats used their 60-vote majority one final time, breaking a Republican filibuster and confirming Patricia Smith to be solicitor in the Labor Department.

Still, the urgency requiring the hastily arranged swearing-in ceremony was something of a puzzle.

Democrats had already agreed that their health-care reform bill was dead, so that couldn't
explain it.

Was he rushing to town to vote against a jobs bill? That would be awkward, because Sen. Orrin
Hatch, a Utah Republican, is a co-sponsor of one of its main provisions.

He may have been in a hurry to block Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, but this was hardly top priority for Massachusetts voters.

Brown's flight from Boston arrived about 2:30 p.m., and he sped to the Senate building, where he
was met by the Capitol's official greeting party: CNN's Dana Bash, Fox News's Trish Turner and a
huge media scrum.

"Let's just step over a little bit and get everyone settled and we'll just do it the right way," the senator-elect told the mob. "Don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Just so you know, we're live here," Bash warned him.

"Oh, hi. Hi, everybody," he said to the TV audience.

An hour before Brown's swearing-in, Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), the placeholder who had filled
Kennedy's seat, gave his farewell on the Senate floor, an emotional appeal for "bipartisan comity." Eighteen Democratic senators stood and applauded.

But Republicans let the majority know where they stood on the whole bipartisan comity thing: Not a single one of them came to hear Kirk's farewell.

At 5 p.m., 21 Republicans ushered Brown, carrying his two daughters' bibles, out of the cloakroom and onto the floor, where eight Democratic senators and a trio of Democratic congressmen were good enough sports to participate in the swearing-in. Biden, who once teased Chief Justice John Roberts for bungling President Obama's oath of office, stumbled over the oath as he read it to Brown from a laminated card.

"You're in," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told his new colleague.

A few minutes later, after his wife got a chance to admire his new Senate lapel pin, Brown entered the jammed TV studio in a hail of camera flashes.

Senator Centerfold laid out his positions. How might he work with Democrats? "I need to see what
issues are coming up." His stance on gays in the military? "I want to speak to the generals in the
field." A filibuster of the labor board nominee? "I'm going to look at everybody's qualifications."
The jobs legislation? "I need to see what's in the bill."

The one declarative position Brown did take -- "The last stimulus bill didn't create one new job"
-- was demonstrably untrue.

The self-styled "independent" senator spent the rest of the session repeating GOP talking points
about tax cuts for all, going "back to the drawing board" on health-care reform, and being "the 41st
vote" to sustain filibusters.

Among reporters in the room, the judgment was widely shared: Brown will fit right in.
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© 2010 The Washington Post Company
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0404009_pf.html
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1

there you go.
thanks a lot massachusetts!

Give him some time. Just you wait, he's going to make wondrous things happen for our state. Then you will wonder why we put up with Kennedy for so long!

like WHAT, exactly?

I don't kiss and tell. Just you wait.

that's what i thought.

I don't see anything negative about him in this article. What's your problem?

You think nothing.


But constant thoughts. Of. Me.


Satan.


Continue with this as you go about your day, with the lights ON.

you didn't see!?

they called him senator centerfold!

scathing.

great. now we are going to get daily updates about how much scott brown sucks.

DEMS you are just as bad as the REPS with this shit, don't kid yourself

did you see what happened to the stock market since he got elected ... the guy is killing us

Scott Brown would impress me mightily if he speaks out and votes against THIS:


February 5, 2010 11:27 AM
Richard Shelby Holds Up Senate for Home State Pork
by Brian Montopoli
CBS News

The White House is slamming Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama for blocking Senate action on at least 70 of President Obama's nominations because he wants money for two projects in his home state.

In a gaggle with reporters this morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said "if you needed one example of what?s wrong with this town, it might be that one senator can hold up 70 qualified individuals to make government work better because he didn?t get his earmarks."

"It boggles the mind to hold up qualified nominees for positions that are needed to perform functions in a government because you didn?t get two earmarks," he added.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has confirmed to reporters that Shelby had put a "blanket hold" on most pending nominations.

The reason? He wants to make sure his state gets money for a pair of lucrative defense contracts.

One is a $35 billion contract to build an Air Force refueling tanker (more on that here), and the other an FBI explosives testing center that has not been built despite Shelby earmarking $45 million for it in 2008.

A spokesman for Shelby called the projects "unaddressed national security concerns" in a statement to reporters.

"Among his concerns is that nearly 10 years after the U.S. Air Force announced plans to replace the aging tanker fleet, we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward," said spokesman Jonathan Graffeo, according to the New York Times. "The Department of Defense must recognize that the draft Request for Proposal needs to be significantly and substantively changed."

A so-called "blanket hold" is exceedingly rare and perhaps unprecedented.

Mr. Obama and Democrats have been calling on Republicans to work with them on behalf of the American people in the wake of Scott Brown's election to the Senate, and Shelby's maneuver supports the White House's suggestion that the minority party is obstructionist and overly concerned with politics.

It also cuts against the tide of fiscal conservatism that has risen on the right in the past two years and become associated with the Tea Party movement.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/05/po...ry6177399.shtml

Translation...

we only buy democrat votes asshole...so if you aint' from Nebraska and don't represent a union...get out of the way!

His campaign ads said he had a PLAN to solve our fiscal problems. So where's the ACTION?

Yes this is exactly true!

Translation: I has no problims wit Republicin Pork

Jesus, nothing has gotten better yet since this guy took office, what a failure.

Liberals desperate bid to attempt to tar Scott Brown. Laughably pathetic.

I have a huge problem with this...I just think the outrage is a bit disingenuous given the buyouts you made for healthcare not more than a month ago.

No shit.

buyouts meaning funding expanded Medicaid?


Oh yeah, the union thing too



keep reaching - that is chicken feed compared to the favors the GOP wants to do for the insurance and banking industries.

Oh, is that the spin they put on it?

ha ha ha again

is true

WHY HASN'T SCOTT BROWN BALANCED THE BUDGET YET?!?!?

I hope they don't repeal "Don't Ask. Don't Tell". I need an out in case I ever get drafted. I'd show up to boot camp wearing a tutu.

I'm surprised terrydactyl hasn't been dry humping this thread to death yet.

he hasn't woken up yet

Incidentally, I heard an interview with a Marine in Afghanistan on NPR last night whose dad is gay, and he doesn't think that the military is ready for this yet.

once they begin - it's supposed to take 2 years to phase out DADT. that should be plenty of time for sensitivity training for homophobes.

I hope so.

well too fucking bad. I heard that same interview last night and i know that they were just trying to get a feel for how the troops themselves feel about it, but soldiers are pretty much conditioned to follow orders no matter what. They do not make policy. The only reason (aside from homophobia) that there is such anti-gay sentiment in the military is precicely because of policies like DADT. They have been told that being gay is a violation of orders and they react accordingly.
Change the policy and i think you'll be surprised how quickly attitudes change.

well hello, thailor!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-sept...gled-up-in-bleu

The Scott Brown Note

You could have just said "I'd show up to boot camp".

Hey! That was fairly clever for you. Good one!

"I try not to think about it. I try to just be myself. Like today I got up, I rode the bike for an hour, watched TV, read the newspapers, you know, and then spent a little time with the dogs, got them all settled up, gave Gail a kiss and went to the gym, did a swim, and then I came in here, I've been meeting with you guys, I'm going to caucus -- the only different thing is, I'm doing Leno. So yeah it's certainly humbling, and I'm honored out of all this -- I've been honored. And everybody's been so wonderful. Even people who didn't vote for me. The thing that's been different about this election that I think is important for people to know, I get letters from people with checks in them from people who didn't vote for me. It says you know 'I didn't vote for you, [but I] love your race, you did a great job and I think you need a good start so here's a check.' I'm like wow, OK so people have been very, very gracious even if they didn't vote for me, cause they appreciate the good race we ran, how it was classy, it was above board, it was issues oriented, it was fun, and it was energizing. And it really uplifted everybody, not only in Massachusetts but throughout the country and some parts of the world. Just that whole feel of a guy, a regular guy can make a difference and go up against the machine and win. And that underdog thing, they really -- it just really -- they feel it, I feel their energy, I'm feeding off their energy."

More Kennedy-like eloquence here

Kinda like how Obama pronounces Corps, as Corpse.

HA! teleprompter strikes again!


/nookular

"And it really uplifted everybody, not only in Massachusetts but throughout the country and some parts of the world. "

Doesn't sound very humbled here...

He's just a regular guy with a truck, y'know?

I don't know who should be more ashamed, Brown or the people who fell for this scam.

Brown has been elevated to celebrity status. He's loved across the country. Were the election to be re-held in MA tomorrow, he'd win by a bigger margin.

Every Scott Brown voter should be brimming with pride.

He means having the rest of the country pay for Nebraska's expanded Medicaid, in order
to buy Ben Nelson's vote.

You do realize that the bill the Senate passed was going to mandate that everyone get
insurance from those evil insurance companies, right? That's sure sticking it to them!
"You guys suck so back we're going to make everyone buy your product!"


When was Kennedy every eloquent?! Maybe when he smeared Robert Bork?

That's much more accurate.

Comments like this are what I find particularly repulsive about liberals. They're a despicable bunch of backbiting, duplicitous, wanna-be character assassins.

Howie Carr is Scott Brown's biggest fan. He just this minute had him on his radio program, praising him and wishing him well. Carr is even printing up "Scott Brown for President" t-shirts.

Yet scumbags like the author of this article will misquote Carr in a cheap attempt to make Scott Brown look bad.

Uh, he did not misquote Howie - I heard him say it.

I just had a vision of a gold medal Special Olympian in my mind when I read this. Thanks.