Aaron Goldstein has a fine piece on conservative disappointment with Scott Brown on the main site. But let’s not forget that Tea Party conservatives were only part of the center-right coalition that elected Brown in Massachusetts. There were a lot of independents and disaffected Democrats who voted for Brown too. While they may have shared Brown’s opposition to Obamacare, these voters did not necessarily want him to be an automatic vote against the Obama agenda in the same way the Tea Partiers did. I think Brown could have gotten away with voting against the financial reform and “jobs” bills, but he sided with the Democrats to appeal to the”post-partisan” voters in the Bay State.
