American Morning
Gut Check: Sen. Scott Brown still a Tea Party fave?
By Ronni Berke and Carol Cosetllo, CNN
(CNN) – Is the love affair over between Scott Brown and the Tea Party? Time for a gut check.
Brown, a Republican, won a special election in Massachusetts this year to fill the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat, in part, because of Tea Party financial and political support. Yet, he was notably absent at the Tea Party rallies held this week. He told a local Boston radio station that he was busy – working.
“We have votes that we’re working on,” he said. “That’s my job and I’m here doing exactly what members of the Tea Party and others sent me here to do.”
Some political observers say Brown is tip-toeing away from the Tea Party, because it may cost him reelection in 2012.
Tea Party favorites Sarah Palin and Rep. Michelle Bachman are beloved by the far right, but not-so-much in Brown's district. Political science professor Jeffrey Berry of Tufts University says Brown is simply being savvy about his future.
“He wants to be just conservative enough to attract Tea Party voters and not so conservative to drive away moderates. That's a subtle dance, it's difficult to do. You open yourself up to criticism."
And Brown has done that - he broke with most Republicans and voted for the February jobs bill - and he refused to go along with a Republican filibuster over extended unemployment benefits. Fans on his Facebook page went ballistic, calling Brown a: "hypocrite, a “sell out,” and a "fiscal conservative my *#$@".
Oddly though, Tea Party reaction to Brown's no-show at this week's rallies in Massachusetts was muted.
“I'm not going to ask him to postpone hearings on nuclear bombs to come talk to folks in you know, his own district,” said Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express 3 tour.
Sabato says conservative leaders know Brown is widely considered a Republican hero – one the Tea Party needs as an example of its political might.
“The Tea Party will never do better. He's so good-looking; he's a centerfold. They'll never do better.”
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The tea-baggers are a group of old,rich, white, disgruntled republicans who hate black people and the poor. I'm not surprised at anything they do except they're not going to influence any elections in November because the middle class and the poor outnumber them thank god!!!! Mark Montgomery NYC, NY
Scott Brown doesn't want to say what he is going to cut. He either has to raise taxes or cut benefits or both. Scott like the rest of the Republicans has NO CLEAR ALTERNATIVE! Is he gonna cut
Defense, Veterans Benefits, Roads, schools, food stamps, unemployment, the $1 Billion Embassy in Iraq (Biggest on Earth/80 football fields large,) Foreign Aid ($49 B), $2B to our ally Israel, $400 m to their enemy Palestine, Cut overseas defense? (Iraq & the Gulf alone is $148B. totaling$250B.) USA spends 47% of world defense costs. Tell the neo-cons and Scott Brown to cut that first not Social Security, Medicaid, Unemployment, and Student Loans for Americans!
I know I’m not going to get any solutions from you Tea Party people; only more crying about Obama and praying for him to fail. Between their anger and tears just remember not to blame me, I voted for Hillary. I knew the Republicans would cry and nick pick Obama because they refuse to accept him as president. I feel their pain, anger and disgust every time they see him on TV and regret that they have three more years of torture just looking at him and the first family. Stop crying about Obama say what they would do to clean up the financial crisis Bush left our country in.
Tea Party anger is a cover issue. If they were mad about taxes and debt, they would have been angry when Bush turned the Clinton multi-trillion dollar surplus into annual defecits from 2000 to 2008. That was when our deficit exploded and the Federal government got much bigger after Bush created the Dept. of Homeland Security. 1/3 of the Recovery Act went towards tax cuts. 98% of Americans' tax burden went down in 2009. Now the Tea Party pays less taxes under Obama than under Bush yet they are angrier than ever. Yet Tea Party folks and neo-cons follow polarizing figures (Rush, Shawn & Sarah) with vague rhetoric that reinforces stereotypes creating a feeling of being over taxed based on anger. Obviously, they are stuck on stupid and blinded by their hatred for Obama. God Bless America!
Brown is a good guy. His departure isnt an insult, because we know hes doing his job, he is listening to the people..wow somebody could take a lesson from Brown,.,.need a hint of who it is..ill give you one. it rhymes wish BARACK OBAMA. Unlike the dems we dont want a person who constantly just giving empty speeches, on tv, not answering questions 'uummmm–eeerrrr uuhhhh' ing everything. If we wanted a narrcicist who talks alot, says very little, and dosent listen to the people, we would support obama. We elected brown to do a job. and he is doing it.
Who cares? What is this slavish devotion of the media to the many front groups called "the Tea Parties"? Is it the latest 'shiny bright thing'? You've got people carrying signs that compare the President of the United States to Hitler. Isn't there some kind of maxim in debating that says when you compare the other guy to a Nazi, you've already lost the argument.
98% of these people got a tax cut courtesy of this administration, yet they protest taxes. Some 1.6 million jobs have been saved or created because of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, yet they complain. Gross Domestic Product is up, more complaints. The stock market is up, yet Obama is a socio-commie-Islamofacist. Fully half of the tea party participants admit to being on government assistance of some kind or another. Higher than 'the rest of us'.
They are a walking, talking, knuckle-dragging contradiction who have been organized by political action groups (just check sponsors on websites) and riled by the Republican Party for their own gain. Yet that is never talked about.
Is this slavish devotion only about ratings?