# Congrats Scott Brown! Massachusetts Has A Great New Senator! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 20, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650 "2010-01-20T02:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/41 "2010-01-20T13:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > He is conservative and really a Republican but he ran as an independent. Not at all true – he ran as a Republican – that’s what it says on the ballot. Kennedy (no relation to the more famous family) was the only Independent on the ballot. Brown tried to hide his Republican status, though, calling himself “an Independent thinker” in radio and TV ads that didn’t announce his REpublican status, in a gambit to grab the Independent and Undecided vote. Which apparently worked. I wonder how they’re going to feel when they learn they’ve elected a Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/42 "2010-01-20T13:29:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not at all true – he ran as a Republican – that’s what it says on the ballot. Kennedy (no relation to the more famous family) was the only Independent on the ballot. > > Brown tried to hide his Republican status, though, calling himself “an Independent thinker” in radio and TV ads that didn’t announce his REpublican status, in a gambit to grab the Independent and Undecided vote. Which apparently worked. I wonder how they’re going to feel when they learn they’ve elected a Republican. Well, considering I (in Canada) know that they’ve elected a Republican, I would say that’s not a valid point. It sure is making the news here too. It makes sense to me: the Republican victory that is. Health care in Mass. is already at a fairly decent level, and given the state of the economy ANY thought of a tax increase to support the federal proposal is scaring the crap out of people. Hell, I probably would have voted Republican in this election, given the opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/43 "2010-01-20T13:39:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, considering I (in Canada) know that they’ve elected a Republican, I would say that’s not a valid point. As I’ve mentioned before, and in another post on this topic, Massachusetts has a very peculiar tradition of not putting the candidate’s party on campaign posters and ads. If I drive through a town and see the names of candidates for local office, I will have absolutely no idea which party they’re with. Neither Coakley’s nor Brown’s stuff identified them by party. The radio commercials I heard for Brown that called him “an Independent thinker” didn’t say he was Republican, either. I’d say the strategy was perfectly effective. Yeah, you may know in Canada that he’s Republican – they certainly note the parties on your news broadcasts and print. But the campaign materials here don’t. And too many people pay no attention. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/44 "2010-01-20T13:43:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > He drives a pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it, he has two very good-looking daughters, one of which was on American Idol, and he modeled semi-nude in college for Cosmo or some other girly magazine in college to get extra money. He is very good looking. His daughters look like normal girls. The brunette is attactive to me, the blonde less so. Neither is what I’d refer to as very good-looking - maybe you just have lower standards in Massachusetts? Ditto Scott Brown himself. He’s good looking enough for a politician and his age, but he’s not the sort of guy I’d expect women to throw their panties\* to. Maybe his charisma or power add something for you. Ditto for the Obamas. Neither Michele or Barack is super model material, but people tend to fawn over their looks. Not saying that any of them are ugly, I just always find it amusing that politicos and other celebs seem to get a few points added to their rating. \*If the word panties squicks the mild-mannered reader out, please substitute your own word here. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/45 "2010-01-20T13:53:42Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > For certain definitions of “bipartisan”, such as “I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking.” No. As in a core competency of the GOP is obstruction of anything that Obama wants to do. > [@](#): > > Whatever happens, the best part of this is the slap in the face to Obama Which number is this on the Republican “stock comments” page is this one? ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/46 "2010-01-20T14:29:11Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > He was one of the few Republican state senators in the Massachusetts State House. He is conservative and really a Republican but he ran as an independent. Not to sound dumb but this is a very important for his win in terms of public perception. He drives a pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it, he has two very good-looking daughters, one of which was on American Idol, and he modeled semi-nude in college for Cosmo or some other girly magazine in college to get extra money. He is very good looking. He is also a Colonel in the Massachusetts National Guard Reserves. It gets ridiculous. But the real question is, would I want to have a beer with him? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Booker\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@Happy\_Booker\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Booker_1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/47 "2010-01-20T14:34:33Z")
There is some good news. Joe Lieberman’s fifteen minutes is over. His sorry ass is now officially useless. Fifty-eight votes is as good as fifty-nine. The Democrats should be able to find the stones to expel him from caucus and from his ‘majority’ committee assignments. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/48 "2010-01-20T15:01:35Z")
Here is what cracks me up regarding what passes as a pale excuse for “bi-partisanship.” Apparently, for all the checks and balances to check and balance, Democrats need 60 of 100 seats, but Republicans only need 41 0f 100 seats. Nice fuzzy math … 50/50 is no good; and 41/59 is a backbreaker for the 59 and a clear majority for the 41. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/49 "2010-01-20T15:39:18Z")
I’m moving this from MPSIMS to Great Debates, since it’s turned into a discussion about the implications of the election for both a couple of immediate issues, like health care reform, and the nature of the electoral landscape in general. twickster, MPSIMS mod ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/50 "2010-01-20T15:43:03Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > You’re slightly off the mark there with that link. For example, Chicago has approximately 3 million residents, while there are roughly 8 million in the greater Chicagoland area and collar counties. More than half of the people in this area are from what they would consider ‘small towns’. I don’t think 4 million people in Chicagoland consider themselves as small towners. Sure there are suburbs that have small populations, but the the non-stop patchwork of suburbs and the city itself mean that you have to move pretty far out to recapture that “small town” feel. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/51 "2010-01-20T15:43:39Z")
> [@Wheeljack](#): > > But the real question is, would I want to have a beer with him? Despite the bazillion ads of his I’ve seen, I don’t know anything about the guy. I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what his positions on various issues were. The only think I gleaned from the ads is that he’s an “independent thinker”. How towing the party line qualifies as “independent thinking”, I’m not sure, but Ol’ Scott has lots of it apparently. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/52 "2010-01-20T15:59:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As I’ve mentioned before, and in another post on this topic, Massachusetts has a very peculiar tradition of not putting the candidate’s party on campaign posters and ads. If I drive through a town and see the names of candidates for local office, I will have absolutely no idea which party they’re with. Neither Coakley’s nor Brown’s stuff identified them by party. The radio commercials I heard for Brown that called him “an Independent thinker” didn’t say he was Republican, either. > I’d say the strategy was perfectly effective. Yeah, you may know in Canada that he’s Republican – they certainly note the parties on your news broadcasts and print. But the campaign materials here don’t. And too many people pay no attention. But if you saw or heard any of the Brown ads, you absolutely also saw or heard Coakley’s ads, which were very, very clear in identifying Brown a Republican. If you’re saying voters will be surprised that he winds up voting straight Republican in the Senate, I can agree with that. If you’re saying voters will be surprised that he’s a member of the Republican party, that’s just crazy talk. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/53 "2010-01-20T16:03:17Z")
Coakly blames Obama’s capitulation with the bankers more than anything else. It was not about health care as much as mixing everything up in the sausage grinder of politics. Mass. has a better health care system than the one we spent a year on ,making no one happy. except Pharm and Insurance Companies. Was it a repudiation of Obama or the horrible process that politics has become? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/54 "2010-01-20T16:16:45Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Mass. has a better health care system than the one we spent a year on ,making no one happy. That Brown voted for. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/55 "2010-01-20T16:19:30Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I lived in Falmouth while my dad was stationed at Otis Air Base in the 60’s. Even then the Kennedys dominated that state. It’s incredible such a heavily democratic state went Republican. > > Congrates to Scott Brown. Now that the super majority is broken, maybe we’ll see some bipartisan solutions to the nation’s probems. What makes you say that? Are the Republicans going to stop pouting and whining and suddenly start to participate in government instead of just elections? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/56 "2010-01-20T16:21:44Z")
When asked about that, his replies have been along the lines that it should be a state-level matter, and other states can do the same. What that omits is that the MA system was implemented by reallocating the state budget money _already being appropriated_ to compensate providers for treating the uninsured. A state that doesn’t already have something like that will, like Congress, run afoul of the “taxes bad” contingent. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/57 "2010-01-20T16:27:48Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Very interesting. I never understood how much some U.S. politics travels all over the world because we don’t have much of the reverse here. You entertain us. Watching people try to defend Bush and Palin was particularly entertaining. The torture, less so. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Joe\_Meager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Joe_Meager)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/58 "2010-01-20T16:31:55Z")
\*: happydance : : happydance : : happydance :\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![akwally1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akwally1/32/3220_2.png) [@akwally1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akwally1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/59 "2010-01-20T16:38:20Z")
Fuck it. I just don’t give a shit anymore. Enjoy your victory Senator Brown. Give the whole damn thing over to the republicans and let them run it for awhile, the democrats sure as hell can’t get their shit together to get anything passed. Let the pubbies have it, some of the stuff they’ll pass will be good, most will be bad overall for the public, but it’s apparently what much of the public wants, so go for it. Maybe the democrats need to get our asses handed to us in the next election so the NEXT batch that gets in will nut up and actually GET SOMETHING DONE and not just argue amongst themselves while the opposition builds. I think I need a vacation. At least from American politics. Mark ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650/60 "2010-01-20T16:43:00Z")
Those of you celebrating, can you please share with us some fuller explanation of exactly what you think you’ve won? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/congrats-scott-brown-massachusetts-has-a-great-new-senator/525650.md?page=4)