I know the Tea Party was active in getting Scott Brown elected, but had they spent time looking at his record then, they wouldn’t be so surprised now. He is acting exactly like he said he would: as a center-right pragmatist, and The Moderate Republican couldn’t be happier to have him as its senator. The Worcester Telegram has a similar viewpoint.
His voting record indicates that Mr. Brown is exactly what he promised he would be: an independent senator not beholden to his party’s line, Congressional leadership, or special interests. To be sure, his embrace of free markets, a pro-business stance, deep concern over rising debts, and a belief that Americans at all levels have had plenty enough of taxes and regulations, do mark Mr. Brown as a fiscal conservative true to his Republican roots.
But Mr. Brown’s story to date is not primarily about party politics, and far from an ideological island isolated from the pressing concerns of real Americans. In alliance with moderates from both sides of the aisle, and with the sometimes grudging respect of heavyweights from both parties, this freshman senator is helping forge a new centrism that holds great promise for breaking the tired paradigms that have marked political life in Washington, D.C., for far too long.
Crossposted at The Moderate Republican, now on Facebook.
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Provide some commentary, please
civil truth (Diary) Tuesday, June 8th at 6:00PM EST (link)A few quotes does not a diary make. Original thought-analysis-reasoned argument: that’s what we expect from a diary like this.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Brown has been a great moral voice against the president and his only "bad" vote
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Tuesday, June 8th at 8:33PM EST (link)was his vote to invoke cloture to extend unemployment benefits. I was for that vote. He is a great GOP asset in the Senate.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Breaking the fillibuster of Dodd's financial "reform" bill was no minor thing
JSobieski (Diary) Wednesday, June 9th at 9:26AM EST (link)but I agree, on the whole, he is a great asset.
I am surprised by his vote on the Dodd bill. This is the kind of issue where I expect people like Corker and Brown to shine, but instead Brown buckled for reasons that do not make sense.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
ah yes, it was the Dodd bill. Yes, that was not good, but
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Wednesday, June 9th at 12:18PM EST (link)I doubt that bill was going to be killed had he not and I doubt it was going to be watered down much more waiting on another cloture vote.
But yes, that is worse than the unemployment extension.
What some here don’t get is that but for Brown, it would a rubber stamp vote for all of Obama’s agenda, and to boot we get Brown’s moral voice that has twice called out Obama for lying and not caring about working people and the poor. That is priceless.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Brown didn't exactly get anything for his vote
JSobieski (Diary) Wednesday, June 9th at 11:43PM EST (link)at least, nothing that the public is aware of.
I agree with what you are saying in general, but unless there is something we don’t know about his Dodd vote, that was a signficant disappointment.
The bill could have at least been held up until it was improved. I don’t necessarily fault giving in as I do giving in without getting anything in return.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
If he can be swayed by OFA I don't consider him a centrist..
ladyimpactohio (Diary) Tuesday, June 8th at 7:14PM EST (link)http://www.redstate.com/ladyimpactohio/2010/06/01/the-ofa-peril-ignore-at-our-own-risk/
922 phone calls by OFA changed his vote. Not much fortitude there.
We the people tell government what to do, it does not tell us.–Ronald Reagan in his farewell speech
I still go back to the sham
Scope (Diary) Tuesday, June 8th at 8:04PM EST (link)at least that’s how I look at it, that Brown would be the 41st vote against Obamacare. The House and Senate had already passed their versions of the bill. I guess it was assumed that it would come back for another vote in the Senate when the bills were married. Reid and the O had to make every backroom deal known to man, to get the Senate vote to begin with. There was no way that it was ever coming back to the Senate. I think any thinking seeing person would have realized that. The talk of the House accepting the Senate version, just to get it passed, was out there all along.
I personally believe that Scott Brown used the 41st vote meme to get elected. And, many many fell for the trap. Probably his most convincing and supported statement during the election that won it for him- “This is not the Kennedy seat, this is the peoples seat.” That was already in a time when incumbency was unpopular. Even though the Liberal Lion had nothing to say about it- that sentiment was already brewed and steeping. That’s what happens when anything with an R after their name gets elected. Then again, Coakley would have been a 99% O supporter as opposed to a Brown 60-70% O supporter. He doesn’t have a 6 year term. He will be judged, and I believe harshly, when he comes up for re-election. Then again when I think of it- the Maine twins, that he has now made the trifecta of the upper east coast, will probably coast. He, and the Maine Twins brought the Financial Reform bill to a point of all but passed. What happened to the fiscal part of his promises?
Most fiscal conservatives/social liberals are really just fiscal liberals
JSobieski (Diary) Wednesday, June 9th at 9:30AM EST (link)who give low taxes a nod of the head, but I don’t put Brown in that category. Brown is a JFK Democrat, which is the best we can expect from Mass. He is still far better than any Democrat.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!