THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Republican Scott Brown’s legislative vote is a key to deal makers on both sides of the aisle
As captain of his Senate office softball team, Scott Brown wears the number “41” on his uniform. But the figure applies only episodically to the Massachusetts Republican’s batting record in Congress.
Instead of hewing faithfully to the Tea Party forces that fuelled his January election as the 41st GOP senator needed to block Barack Obama’s ambitious legislative program, Mr. Brown can regularly be found lining up with Democrats – or at least talking to them – to become the critical 60th Senate “yea” in favour of the President’s agenda.
In today’s Washington, where rabid partisanship rules, that makes him highly unorthodox. It also makes him indispensable to deal makers on both sides of the congressional aisle, not to mention the head honcho in the White House.
“He is definitely one of the most powerful people in government right now,” Gabriel Lenz, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in interview. “If you put senators on a spectrum from the most liberal to the most conservative, the 60th most liberal member just has so much power. And he’s that person.” >>> Konrad Yakabuski | Tuesday, July 2010
Related articles and video here, here, here, here, here, and here
