Driving on Both Sides
By Amit Singh | Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | PolicyOne day you’re speaking at CPAC bashing “big government spenders” and the next you’re voting for a counter-productive “jobs” bill. What were we to expect anyway? But Scott Brown wasn’t the only Republican to break the filibuster, Kit Bond of Missouri, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and George Voinovich of Ohio also voted in favor of the bill. Of course the media is only focusing on Scott Brown given his upset victory to be #41. What this vote does remind me of is Glenn Beck’s keynote speech at CPAC where he said Republicans still don’t understand that spending is the problem!!!
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Amit Singh
I'm left handed but right brained.
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9 Responses to "Driving on Both Sides"
Thing is, I don’t know why anyone should be “surprised.” He never claimed to be a conservative Reagan Republican. He does, after all, still represent Massachusetts.
Of course after his CPAC appearance, he does appear to be a bit inconsistent.
Moves like this from Brown is one more reason why the GOP should do what is necessary to tighten its membership rules regarding party nominations. What a shame that independent conservatives of MA look to quite possible have been hoodwinked. Of course, Brown did support Universal Healthcare in MA with Romney. A zebra can’t really change its stripes, can it?
Glad to see that Richard Steele and the RNC adopted the platform test requirement to better screen the bonafides of those seeking to run under the GOP tent. More local, district, and state committees within the GOP should push agendas that allow for greater control of the quality of candidates running as GOP nominees.
many TEA party members touted Scott Brown’s victory in MA as embattled conservatism beating giant Obama machine. I’ve read on blogs where these TEA party people want more of these candidates who are not establishment, who are not lawyers & who are “pure” conservatives ready to slay the liberal Dems.
Scott Brown was never a conservative; he is certainly an attorney & he held elected office in MA.
anyway, I’m not surprised by his cloture vote. but i sure hated for him to boost Harry Reid. troubling.
Folks: You don’t really think anyone who was a “real conservative” would have won that seat do you? Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I hope that Scott Brown doesn’t get much more Harry Reid stink on him. Reid’s latest comment about unemployed males filling up abused women shelters with battered women is something Brown should be running away from if he is going to keep “Kennedy’s” seat in 2012.
Robert,
This is to be expected… hes a moderate Northeast Republican. He may not turn out to be as liberal as Lincoln Chaffee was or even as much as the Maine ladies, but he isnt going to be a hard core ocnservative. And from Massachusetts, if you ever want to hold that seat, you can’t be. I dont have a problem with this being that its from MA. Brown is going to have to differentiate himself in order to win relelection and though he wont be perfect i wouldmuch rather have a person like him vote no on the healthcare bill and yes on this pretty minor symbolic bill than get a dem who votes for both (only 15 billion, which will do nothing for employment and will be only a marginal effect on the deficit). This is just so Congress can say they are doing something about jobs. Would you rather have him flaunt his moderate credentials in voting yes for this bill or would you rather have him vote yes with the dems on something bigger like the healthcare bill? If the party drives people like him out in the name of purity we’ll end up getting a dem in that seat who will vote yes on this bill and healthcare and everything else too and we will be back to onyl being a regional party. Don’t do what the left nut roots does with its own party and drives out moderates in the name of purity.
Remember what Buckley used to say. You vote for the most conservative candidate that can win in any given district. For Massachusetts hes more than a victory.
Much of this “spending” was actually in the form of Tax Cuts if I remember correctly. Time will tell is Brown uses this vote as a mandate to cut spending elsewhere.
Ridiculous. In the Constitution or in the Federalist Papers or any founding document, where does it require a super-majority vote on every piece of legislation that comes before the Senate? The man voted for cloture not the bill yet.
Also, what is so anti-Republican about the bill? Part of the bill is exempting employers from payroll tax for hiring unemployed workers. Isn’t tax cuts for new hires a signature proposal of one Bob McDonnell? The other parts are: extending tax credits for businesses making capital investments, additional money for Build America Bonds (subsidizing state infrastructure projects), and other spending for highway programs.
as a small business owner myself, I did not see one penny of the $787B “stimulus” help so I don’t expect a bill that less than 2% of that to make any difference other than add to the debt.
that being said, I don’t know what the ratio is on the bill of actual tax cuts/credits versus money for public works.
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