According to one of the bobbleheads on Face the Nation, Scott Brown is a moderate. Here is Brown’s website: other than lip service to a right to choose, show me how he is in any way a moderate.
About the only way you could claim he is a moderate is if you define moderate as “someone who does not come across as a hater.” Other than that, issue after issue he strictly follows the right-wing company line.
mousebumples
Well, if he wants any shot at being re-elected in 2012*, he had better start moving towards the center. Somehow, I doubt that votes in MA will continue to vote for someone who continually goes against the Dem agenda.
*Presuming that the DNC can find a better quality candidate to run against him in 2012, of course.
Incertus
In their formulation, any Republican who gets elected state-wide in Massachusetts has to be a moderate, because no one could slip past their thorough media screen and be something other than what the media has deemed them to be, dontchaknow.
aimai
Well, I think the right wing and the punditocracy has, in fact, defined a “Moderate” as someone who has extremely fringe political beliefs, is a stone corporate shill, is a John Bircher/gun toting, bible thumping racist fundamentalist but who has a full head of glossy hair, a complete set of shiny white teeth, a presentable wife and children, and doesn’t have a grating southern accent. Democrats, by definition, can’t be moderates because we are all fringe lefties who want to destroy the country, or old bitchez with botox, or something.
aimai
Mike E
He could be a Specter Repub–talk sense, vote lockstep.
baldheadeddork
“Scott Brown – Moderate” is a frequent theme at Nate Silver’s place, too.
Bobzim
Personally, I think Scott Brown’s mentoring of Levi Johnson, showing him that a nude layout can be a stepping-stone to good things, is admirable.
rootless_e
Dude, he’s a moderate because he does not sign up to the welfare loving, islamoterrorist, communist, anti-family, tax-and-spend, anti-american, pro-kenyan extremism of the Democrat party.
If you don’t know that by now, the Koch family needs to donate a little more to AEI.
cat48
Someone at Pajamas Media wrote about him being a “RINO” already. I’m sure he’ll decide he’s no longer prochoice soon.
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El Cid
Any Republican is by definition a moderate, as is any Democrat who backs Republican policies; any Democrat who recommends things Republicans don’t like is a Marxist-Soshlist-Stalin-Hitler extremist.
Like all of you here.
David
Beware of a nude model in sheep’s clothing.
matoko_chan
Beck has already called for a chastity belt on Brown.
I presume that is a teabagger ideological purity chastity belt, but given Mark Sanford, one never knows.
He is already being called a babykiller, and the teabaggers are plotting to replace him at the first opportunity.
He voted for Romneycare, which is pretty isomorphic with HCR….the “people” in Mass voted for Romneycare.
He swears alligiance to President McCain, the Emperor of the RHINOS.
enuff?
General Winfield Stuck
Brown’s speculation that Obama could well be a bastard, squarely puts him in the moderate GOP camp. So long as he doesn’t endorse Obama born to witchdoctors in Kenya, he is good to go.
Well, at least Mass electing Brown will likely knock Conn/Holy joe off the dem state idiot thrown.
MattF
Well, he hasn’t compared government assistance to poor people with feeding stray animals. Yet.
darryl
In English, please?
Lisa K.
That is how Huckabee positioned himself, too, until Fox came a-callin’.
Skepticat
I believe that they’re referring to his intelligence.
And aimai is soooo spot on.
Micheline
What does this say about Obama? See below:
“I love the president. I love him a lot. I think he is a terrific guy.”- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on Meet the Press
The Grand Panjandrum
@MattF: In South Carolina that guy is a moderate.
On a more serious note, if Brown has any national office ambitions I suspect he will “reposition” himself on choice by April. If he does, that is a clear signal he’s looking to move on and seek higher office.
ominira
He did vote for universal healthcare in Massachusetts but has no problem voting against it for anyone who is not a Masshole.
Let’s put it this way – he won’t be a Massachusetts senator for too long if he consistently votes the right wing line. There’s a reason Joseph Cao was the lone Republican vote for healthacre reform. He has a good idea of who is constituents are.
I suggest that Dem voters in MA call Brown to give him a good idea of just who he’s representing.
CLG
It says he is messing with your mind and only you can let it work.
jcricket
He’s a moderate the same way Snowe and Collins are moderates. That is, they say they are moderates and everyone buys it.
Yet they (Snowe, Collins) vote with their party leadership against anything the Democrats propose, no matter how “moderate” (or even center-right) the proposal is. Collins has been this way for a loooong time, and Snowe is catching up.
Brown will be the same way. He’ll claim to be a moderate, but he’ll vote right-wing all the time. Just like McCain is a maverick.
I’m not sure who said it, but what we have in the Senate is a parliamentary system, but without the majoritarian rule that makes it worse. In England and other parliamentary systems everyone votes party-line, but that’s fine, since the majority party can get stuff done. The opposition party can force some debate/slow down, but not an interminable one and they can’t block legislation or appointments.
Sadly, if we’re the minority party in the Senate in the future I fully expect us to “cave” and vote with Republicans to help them pass whatever tax cuts, gutting of social security, environmental regulations or tax cuts (or tax cuts) they want, since we think “working together” is the most noble of callings – not, you know, supporting an ideology that voters can associate with you; one that hopefully leads to better outcomes for the people you serve.
jeffreyw
@General Winfield Stuck:
Sure, call it a typo, but I for one welcome the new sport of idiot throwing.
SiubhanDuinne
@matoko_chan: Beck’s comments went WAY beyond the chastity belt remark. His very next sentence (I won’t link but you can find transcript at Media Matters) was to the effect that before long they’d probably find a dead intern in Brown’s office. Then, in case we might have thought he misspoke, he repeated it: “A dead intern.”
I’m no fan of Brown but nobody deserves that kind of horrible insinuation made about them, especially over the public airwaves. Beck went from being merely disgusting and outrageous to being a danger to himself and others some months ago.
General Winfield Stuck
@jeffreyw: My illiteracy always acts up on Sunday mornings. But i agree with the idiot throwing. My best idea for this young week. Even if serendipitous grammar FAIL.
KC
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how Brown votes and acts. I hope the Dems grow a pair and start forcing some difficult votes on jobs, healthcare, etc. We’ll see where Brown stands then (I think we all basically know though.).
After a disappointing week, I am trying to stay positive now. I’ve seen a lot of reaction in the liberal blogosphere that I don’t think is helpful. It’s clear that Obama realizes something needs to change, hence the elevation of Plouffe. It may not all be what I want him to do, but at this point, I’ll be happy if he starts getting out there, connecting with people, and explains his initiatives. Inside baseball in DC is ugly.
Max
I’d be willing to be a Kennedy runs for the seat in 2012. Vicki has already said “maybe”.
SiubhanDuinne
@El Cid #9
Thanks! We like you, too!
jcricket
@SiubhanDuinne: Uh, Ann Coulter spent years talking about how she wished McVeigh had blown up the NYTimes building, saying the only way to talk to liberals is with a baseball bat, etc.
And the widespread outrage is where? Anyone?
Sadly, this is the only thing that will save Democrats. Republicans can’t help but embrace and promote their worst instincts (violence, xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia, “Christian” zealotry). This turns enough people off that, despite Democratic fecklessness, Republicans aren’t growing their brand/base/support.
I think Sarah Palin really embodies the future of the Republican party. Totally excites the base (25-30% of the US population), but freaks everyone else out – who will either vote Democrat or stay home. Still bad for the country, but likely acts as a “brake” on unchecked Republican rule. I used to fear Palin – in that others wouldn’t see through her act – but the polls are pretty solidly against her, so I’m not as worried.
ominira
Here’s an interesting take from the comments section here from a Mass voter (I won’t attempt to blockquote; it never works for me):
“As a Mass voter, I can say that a lot of the frustration here was that we already have near universal health coverage. Why would we support a plan that would take away the option to by a better health plan, outlaw Health Care Savings Accounts, and would make Mass taxpayers subsidize the rest of the nation – especially when we pay the highest rates in the nation? Mass also prohibits an insurer from rejecting someone based on a pre-existing condition. And while it doesn’t have true tort reform isn’t one of those states with outrageous court settlements. (Admittedly this is something we could do better – because fear of malpractice drives up costs with defensive medicine.)
As far as I am concerned, because Mass already takes care of our citizens, we should be EXEMPT from the national plan because our plan EXCEEDS the provisions of the national plan. Instead, we are being penalized for it. No wonder the voters got angry.”
Task Force Ripper
@Micheline:
Absolutely nothing.
KCinDC
The “moderate” label comes from analyzing Brown’s voting record in the Massachusetts legislature in comparison to the national Republican Party. It rests on the seriously questionable assumption that his positions will remain the same in the US Senate, where he is subject to pressure from the Republican congressional leadership and from the teabaggers who got him elected and will certainly do what they can to defeat him in the 2012 Republican primary if he deviates from their craziness.
jcricket
@ominira: I don’t doubt the quote captures sentiment quite nicely. Too bad the federal government subsidized MA healthcare quite a bit (Medicare and Medicaid).
This whole pernicious myth that any state is wholly self-sustaining is what kills national (or sometimes state) efforts to make things better for the population at large.
But if voters want to get behind that, let’s start defunding the largely red states/areas of the country that suckle deeply from the tax teat, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
More seriously, I’d be happy to have a bill that said “nothing in this bill shall result in a reduction of benefits/regulations if a state has better benefits/regulations”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Micheline #17:
Ummm . . . I dunno, maybe McConnell’s coming out of the closet? “I love the president. I love him a lot.” The love that dare not speak its name except on Sunday morning teevee.
Tomlinson
We’ll see. I think that *if* he completely changes his stripes, works with the dems, votes moderately and supports things like, oh, say – health care reform, then he has a shot at re-election. There are strong dem candidates, believe it or not, and he’ll need to keep them in mind.
I doubt he will; I’m pretty sure he’s planning on the Palin Path to Greater Glory (or at least more cash), and he’s planning on being a one-termer.
It will be interesting to see how the republican party treats this. The smart thing to do would be to toss the teabaggers over the transom and have Brown vote centrist *dem* to prove to Northeast voters than republicans are worth having around. They could then use him as a wedge to get a toehold back in the New England.
Do I think they will do that? No fucking way.
In which case, you can stop calling Mass the Bay State and start calling it the Buyer’s Remorse state.
CalD
I guess the textbook definition of moderate would be someone halfway between the extreme left and the radical right. The problem is that the proverbial pendulum swung so far to the right in the last decade that what passes for a moderate these days is what used to be called a conservative.
I’ve actually heard members of our esteemed punditocracy refer to Dick Lugar as a moderate with a completely straight face and on more than one occasion. It’s one of the reasons I’ve sworn off consuming their products.
GregB
Shouldn’t the beltway gassbaggeratti be declaring that American is a center left nation because the GOP just put in a moderate to liberal Republican who didn’t even define himself as a Republican in his campaign?
-G
jcricket
@GregB: Remember, everything is good for Republicans. We could win an even bigger majority and it would prove we’re a center-right nation b/c someone a moderate Dem got elected and it would give the Republicans a chance to regroup and purify their party.
It’s always good news for Republicans and America is always a center-right nation.
SiubhanDuinne
@KC:
“Inside baseball in DC is ugly.”
Or in Vince Foster’s haunting words: “Here ruining people is considered sport.”
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Accoring to 538 he’s somewhere in the Ben Nelson/Olympia Snowe zone. By the standards of Face the Nation that certainly is “moderate”.
He has to run again in 2012, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if his record ends up being something other than 600 straight votes against cloture. I mean, it is Massachusetts after all.
matoko_chan
I’d like to point out that Chuck Todd just said on MTP that Pelosi’s claim to not have the votes was political kabuki designed to force the House dems to “look into the abyss of nothing.”
My kepler-trigo crystal ball says the reconciled bill hits Obamas desk within 1 month from today.
Any takers?
General Winfield Stuck
@matoko_chan: I will bet you one wooden nickel that something hits Obama’s desk within one month.
My crystal ball is in the shop.
TruthOfAngels
@aimai:
Oh sure, give away the sekrit plan, why don’t you?
jcricket
@General Winfield Stuck: I bet you Joe Lieberman’s withered nut sack that Democrats find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and pass nothing of substance this year, except maybe an extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Right or wrong, I win.
Kryptik
In Washington, ‘Moderate’ usually means to the left of Rush Limbaugh but the right of David Broder. Conservative means anyone to the right of Rush but to the left of Fred Phelps. And fringe right….doesn’t exist.
Meanwhile, ‘hippie’ usually means anyone who disagrees with the death penalty, abolishing Roe v. Wade, the necessity of tax cuts and possibly tax abolition, and/or the right to torture.
Obviously, we’re all under the bootheel of hippies and need to veer hard right to rescue the nation. Evan Bayh said so.
SiubhanDuinne
@jcricket #28:
Oh yes, I’m familiar with those Coulter lines. I didn’t for a second mean to imply that Glenn Beck was alone in his over-the-toppitude. But my sense of Coulter is that she’s deliberately pushing our buttons as hard as she can, maybe as a test to see just how much she can get away with, or maybe because she thrives on the attention and the gasps of shock. IMO she’s a terrible person who says and writes unforgiveable things, but at bottom I don’t think she’s pathological in the way I truly believe Glenn Beck is. With AC I think it’s just her shtik, and if it turned out that saying equally awful things about conservapubs paid better or got her more media oxygen, I don’t believe she’d hesitate for a second.
GB, though, strikes me as being seriously, pathologically unbalanced. Maybe it started out as an act, and he does seem to be able to turn the waterworks on and off at the drop of a hat, but it seems “realer” with him. In an odd way — and mind you, I can’t abide the man — I am actually kind of worried about him, whereas I think Annie can take care of herself just fine.
Not that I’m an expert on AC, GB, or psychopathological indicators.
But I do fear, with Ann and Glenn and their extended noxious media family, that someday one of them will say something, you know, just “entertaining” and OTT, and someone watching or listening will hear it as “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest!?”
That’s my fear and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.
Well. Now I’ve *really* managed to depress myself. Lunchtime, I think.
FlipYrWhig
@Tomlinson:
That’s my sense too. He entered a sexy-man contest. His wife is already a TV news presenter, and his daughter was on American Idol. He’s on the fast track to media superstardom, which is much more reward for much less work than actually governing. Like Palin, Brown doesn’t strike me as someone who _believes_ in anything. Anything he does only stands to reduce his “brand” as The Handsome Man Who Took Ted Kennedy’s Seat. I say he either runs for president, soon, or writes a quickie book, doesn’t run for re-election, and makes oodles of money on the convention circuit.
matoko_chan
Brown is a
moderategrifter.Fixed!
srsly…the guy voted for Romneycare and ran on stopping Obamacare.
quel hypocrite
Only the left side of the bell curve could possibly miss that.
SiubhanDuinne
@FlipYrWhig: It’s a damned shame the GOP already picked the person to give the Republican Response to the SOTU this Wednesday. Would have been a great opportunity for a national media rollout of their young champion.
FlipYrWhig
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m in Virginia, and I pretty much thoroughly loathe Bob McDonnell. Unlike Brown, McDonnell has the stink of earnest megachurch Christianity. Brown is vacuous. McDonnell is a true believer. I want him to crash and burn like Bobby Jindal.
SiubhanDuinne
@FlipYrWhig: I will be praying for that outcome ;-)
Jody
Everyone knows that a moderate is anyone that the village decides is a moderate, whatever his actual positions may be. Just ask sensible moderates John McCain and Joe Lieberman.
Mattsky
jcricket I think you called it right that Brown will be similar to Snowe and Collins. Many on the right fear he is a Rhino but they also know that from MA they couldn’t hope to do any better.
ominira I live in MA on Cape Cod and I think what you posted captured part of what people were feeling here.
Wile E. Quixote
@Micheline
Absolutely nothing but it does explain why he looks so tired, it must be really annoying to be woken up at 3 am by a drunken Mitch McConnell phoning you and begging you to “Take me, take me now and savagely roger me as if tomorrow will never come.”
Wile E. Quixote
@SiubhanDuinne
Hey, if they find a dead intern in his office what’s the worse that can happen? He’ll just end up with a media gig like Joe Scarborough’s.