TIMES ONLINE: After months of political paralysis, Washington’s showdown between Democrats and Republicans has given way to an unexpected truce called by the very senator who was hailed by radical conservatives as their new hero barely a month ago.
In a dramatic demonstration of independence, Scott Brown, the new Republican senator for Massachusetts, defied party whips to support President Obama’s latest job creation initiative — and was swiftly condemned by activists of the libertarian Tea Party movement as a traitor, a sell-out and a coward.
Mr Brown wasted little time endearing himself to readers of glossy magazines at the start of his career, posing naked in Cosmopolitan as the “Sexiest Man in America” when he was 22. He has been as quick to set pulses racing since his arrival in Washington, promising to bury health reform as the Republicans’ 41st senator, then stunning his supporters with a “yes” vote on Monday night when Democrats expected solid Republican opposition. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
