| Mr. Brown Goes To Washington | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 22 2010, 08:20 AM (1,298 Views) | |
| brittany | Jan 22 2010, 08:20 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/22/american_idolized/ American idolized By Brian McGrory Globe Columnist / January 22, 2010 E-mail this article To: Invalid E-mail address Add a personal message:(80 character limit) Your E-mail: Invalid E-mail address Sending your articleYour article has been sent. E-mail| Print| Reprints| Yahoo! Buzz| ShareThisText size – + WASHINGTON - He is now the star of his own reality show. Six months ago, Scott Brown was the essence of irrelevance in Massachusetts politics, one of just five Republicans in a chamber in which he didn’t exactly enjoy an outsized amount of clout. A month ago, as a Senate candidate, he could have held his campaign press conferences in a walk-in closet and still had plenty of room for his suits. When he proposed things like a state sales tax holiday, there were often just two reporters and a remote camera in the room. There’s no polite way to put this, but it didn’t really matter what he had to say. Not anymore. Brown was mobbed in the Senate Russell Office Building yesterday morning by 80 or so reporters, cameramen, and photographers, pushing and prodding to record his every word and move. There were boom mikes and strobe lights, sergeants-at-arms and harried security guards. Republican aides lined the hallways and cheered. Rock stars are probably saying today, “Wouldn’t it be great to be Scott Brown.’’ And for good reason. Never has a member of Congress, indeed, any political figure aside from a newly elected president, so immediately and suddenly tilted the balance of power in Washington and completely altered the national agenda. If Brown’s election was a huge event for Massachusetts for what it said, it’s almost incomprehensible in the capital for all that it means. Brown owned this town yesterday, and for the foreseeable future. He was shuttled from one Senate leader’s office to the next. He was the star attraction at a Republican lunch. He was the source of some very public presidential angst. At one point, sitting with John McCain in a photo-op, Brown said, “The reception has been extremely gratifying and made me feel special.’’ Gratifying? Special? In the glare of attention, that seems to be Brown’s practiced persona - the master of understatement, the consummate everyman. On Capitol Hill, he approached each police officer with the phrase, “Hi, I’m Scott.’’ He bantered with a tall bystander about basketball, then asked a group of clean-cut collegians, “What are you doing here, just hanging?’’ Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, announced at a photo-op that he had already given Brown a pet name - “41,’’ as in the 41st Republican vote. Senate majority leader Harry Reid gushed that the two men both had children with athletic prowess. McCain said, “He won this campaign because of who he is.’’ John Kerry had, by far, the trickiest task of the five senators who received Brown yesterday. Kerry joked that the two may take part in a triathlon together, but then delivered a minilecture on the importance of health care reform, a program that Brown famously opposes in its current state. Brown smartly kept quiet. By afternoon, you got the sense Brown could have popped in on the White House if he wanted. If Brown made an utterance about the economy, yesterday’s declining stock market might have reversed itself on the spot. But he did none of that. Brown was oddly serene at the center of the storm. He used words liked “overwhelming,’’ even while he seemed anything but overwhelmed. He summed up his philosophy as follows - “If I see a bill that’s good for my state, I will vote for it.’’ He said the best advice he’s received is, “Just be myself.’’ Which gets back to the reality show part. It is not outrageous to say that in the annals of US politics, never has one elected officeholder gone from so powerless to all-powerful in a single day. It’s like the pauper who wins the lottery, and sometimes that story doesn’t end so well. This isn’t normal. The attention may not prove particularly fair. We’re about to learn a lot about this man in a very short time. Right now, he’s being treated like an American Idol. It may end up seeming more like Survivor. Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. His email is mcgrory@globe.com. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. Start your week off right with in-depth coverage. Subscribe now to the Globe. READER COMMENTS » View reader comments (17) » Comment on this story » Edited by brittany, Jan 22 2010, 08:23 AM.
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| kbp | Jan 22 2010, 09:23 AM Post #2 |
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Thanks Brittany, That was a cheerful article, perfect to start the morning with. It focuses on the person and simply the record of his day, avoiding displeasure that politics can often bring with them! |
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| brittany | Jan 22 2010, 09:25 AM Post #3 |
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Thanks and it's the Boston Globe. There is a refeshing article about Ayla in the other thread.And she won her basketball game last night.
Edited by brittany, Jan 22 2010, 09:29 AM.
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| Sherp | Jan 22 2010, 04:04 PM Post #4 |
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Kerry showed Brown a picture of Ted Kennedy swearing him into office. That and the hard sell Health Plan along with Kerry's puzzled look (like who is this guy and where is Martha) was a little strange. Brown looked at the picture with an Okay look. See ya John.
Edited by Sherp, Jan 22 2010, 04:08 PM.
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| Carolyn says | Jan 22 2010, 04:17 PM Post #5 |
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This article by a Boston Globe reporter is proof of Brown's stunning win. Only something that big could force this paper to say anything nice about a Republican. Duly noted, however, that Globe nonetheless insists that the reporter kick Brown's ankle throughout. First, it's the snide observation that "six months ago...it didn’t really matter what he had to say..", sneers in the middle that Brown's ego is in danger of inflation, and ends with threat "This isn’t normal... Right now, he’s being treated like an American Idol. It may end up seeming more like Survivor." But no matter. In a short while the reporter will stop kicking and concentrate on carrying his office belongings out in a cardboard box as the Globe shuts off the lights for the last time. (Now that's MY idea of 'normal'.) Edited by Carolyn says, Jan 22 2010, 04:18 PM.
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| Sherp | Jan 22 2010, 04:28 PM Post #6 |
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I love their Sport Section but heard their are only 5 employees left. Edited by Sherp, Jan 22 2010, 04:29 PM.
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| Carolyn says | Jan 22 2010, 04:32 PM Post #7 |
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Well, that explains why Coakley called Curt Schilling a "NY Yankee" supporter. Poor little girl didn't have a Boston Globe sportswriter to set her straight. |
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| Sherp | Jan 22 2010, 05:13 PM Post #8 |
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I am a Blue Dog Democrat who also supports the Tea Baggers. It was wonderful to see Brown win. Like other Blue Dogs we are trying to wrestle the party from the Left Wing and hopefully get Bipartisanship going. Edited by Sherp, Jan 22 2010, 05:14 PM.
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| sdsgo | Jan 22 2010, 05:19 PM Post #9 |
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Mass. health model, not Obama's, pleases voters BOSTON – When Mary Foote cast her ballot in this week's special Senate election, she was thinking about how the national health care bill strayed too far from the Massachusetts model and would force her to shoulder the financial burden of expanding health care in the other 49 states. "I think we're paying enough for the health issue in Massachusetts without paying for the rest of the nation," said the 50-year-old cafeteria manager from Fitchburg, Mass. In staging his upset win for the seat that "liberal lion" Edward M. Kennedy held for nearly 50 years, Republican Scott Brown tapped into those fears. He vowed to blocking President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even as he defended the 2006 state law, which he supports and which continues to have the backing of a majority of Massachusetts voters. The state law requires everyone who can afford it to be insured or face annual tax penalties. It also requires all businesses with 11 or more workers offer insurance or face annual penalties. Brown said allowing the federal government to expand on the state law would result in higher taxes and deep cuts to Medicaid. "Right now people are disgusted at the health care bill and how it's going," Brown said in the closing days of the campaign. "Everybody deserves health care coverage, but we can do it better, we have done it better here in Massachusetts." It was a message that resonated with voters like Ann Feeney. The Boston insurance agent said that health care, along with unemployment, were the main reasons she voted for Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley. Feeney said that while she supports the Massachusetts law and thinks everyone should have health coverage, she didn't approve of the way the national legislation was being shaped. "I think it needs to be tweaked," Feeney said. "I agree that everyone needs health insurance, but I don't agree with the way they are doing it." Feeney wasn't alone. A poll conducted this week by The Washington Post of 880 Massachusetts residents who said they voted in the special election found that 68 percent support the Massachusetts plan. Even among Brown voters, slightly more than half backed the 2006 law. But support plummeted when voters were asked about health care proposals from Obama and Democrats in Congress. Just 43 percent of Massachusetts voters said they supported them. Among Brown voters opposition soared to about 80 percent in the poll, which was released Friday and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Yahoo News |
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| brittany | Jan 22 2010, 05:27 PM Post #10 |
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Thanks for posting. So many good democrats trying to do good things for people. Sad to see the party taken over by extremists. |
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| Joan Foster | Jan 22 2010, 08:36 PM Post #11 |
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WASHINGTON—Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race was lifted by strong support from union households, in a sign of trouble for President Barack Obama and Democrats who are counting on union support in the 2010 midterm elections. A poll conducted on behalf of the AFL-CIO found that 49% of Massachusetts union households supported Mr. Brown in Tuesday's voting, while 46% supported Democrat Martha Coakley. The poll conducted by Hart Research Associates surveyed 810 voters. The finding, disclosed during an AFL-CIO conference call about the poll, represents a fresh problem for Democrats, who count on union leaders and union members as a pillar of the party's base. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423204575017690900226982.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories |
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| kbp | Jan 22 2010, 09:07 PM Post #12 |
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If that's accurate, there must be quite a few liberal Democrats hiding behind the cloak of being Independents. Is that the "in" thing now on the East coast, being an Independent? |
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| brittany | Jan 23 2010, 08:24 AM Post #13 |
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Kerry's star eclipsed. http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20100123john_kerrys_star_eclipsed_upstart_seizes_limelight_from_senior_senator/srvc=home&position=0 |
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| kbp | Jan 23 2010, 12:40 PM Post #14 |
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The standard "me, me, me...", followed by the "it's not about me, me, me...", so all can see it is about "me, me, me...". A very fitting old quote to toss in, as all of America watches the class response of Brown to Kerry doing the exact same thing again, as he works to let all know he has "reached out to Brown’s in an effort to help the new senator-elect"! |
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| brittany | Jan 29 2010, 11:28 AM Post #15 |
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deleted
Edited by brittany, Jan 29 2010, 11:28 AM.
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