Timmy Cahill is the treasurer of Massachusetts. He is, scratch that, was a powerful Democrat from the powerful vote-rich city of Quincy. He bailed on his party.

Personally, I like Tim, a lot. But he hasn’t earned his bones yet, so I’m on the fence.

Tim left the “D” party because it became too liberal and is now running for governor as an independent. His pick for Lieutenant Governor is the most conservative person to be on a gubernatorial ticket in decades. Cahill, an old school conservative Democrat, was exuberant when Scott Brown won.

Why does this matter? Because those who break free from the chains of Democratic machines are worth noting, and when they make make front page of Drudge Report, it is certainely worth noting.

From the most liberal of states, boosted by Scott Brown’s victory, Timmy Cahill speaks truth to power and tells everyone ObamaCare will bankrupt the country. Check drudgereport.com.

Another message from liberal Massachusetts that ObamaCare sucks.

You hearing that Mikey Capuano, Stevie Lynch, and even you Dickie Neal.

Robert J. Samuelson wrote an excellent op-ed on health care today. As much as we may wish otherwise, the conservative echo chamber only has so much reach.

Samuelson is an editor for both Newsweek and the Washington Post, and he is no conservative. So when he eviscerates Obama and the health care bill at this critical juncture, I must reply, well done sir.

Beltway insiders will read Samuelson and the Washington Post. I hope his op-ed is published on Tuesday. If I were a GOP staffer, I’d buy dozens of copies of the Washington Post and strategically fold and place them around the Hill; the cafeteria, the gym, ….

It seems most of Democrats on the fence are concerned with two things, abortion and cost control. Samuelson’s op-ed destroys any notion that this bill will control costs.

I really don’t have much to write. Time is of the essence and I just wanted to get this article into heavy circulation.

Samuelson starts:

One job of presidents is to educate Americans about crucial national problems. On health care, Barack Obama has failed. Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong. Great simplicities and distortions have been peddled in the name of achieving “universal health coverage.” The miseducation has worsened as the debate approaches its climax.

Samuelson concludes:

“If not now, when? If not us, who?” Obama asks. The answer is: It’s not now, and it’s not “us.” Pass or not, Obama’s proposal is the illusion of “reform,” not the real thing.

Ouch. Get the drift. In layman’s terms, the independent and respected Samuelson tears Obama a new ***hole.

— Read it and pass it along —

Its no coincidence that President Obama chose to stump for his health care legislation in Ohio on Monday. There are at least seven important undecided Democrats from Ohio including Marcia Fudge.

According to WKYC, Marcia Fudge, who voted for the health care bill in November, is now undecided. Fellow Ohio Democrats Zach Space, Mary Jo Kilroy, Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Betty Sutton, John Boccieri and Steve Driehaus remain on the fence as well. Ohio is developing as a key battleground state for Obama and his health care bill.

As Air Force One landed at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport this morning, guess who exited the plane with Obama? Marcia Fudge. Fudge, along with Dennis Kucinich, rode the flight from Washington to Cleveland with Obama. While this may not be inappropriate on its face, it reinforces the public perception that this legislation cannot pass without special favors and backroom deals. This is bill is rotten to the core.

Obama is working every angle, and so must we.

If winning seats in November is the end game, I have an awesome strategy for the GOP. Let the Dems pass cap and tax. After that, let them pass amnesty. If we have time, let them pass card check. By then, the electorate will be really irate. We’ll win lots of seats.

Forget any consolation prizes regarding November. The end game isn’t beating Democrats, it is saving our Republic. And I fear some conservatives suffer myopia. There is one more week in this critical fight. Still, some seem focused on reaping the benefits of ObamaCare in the November elections. Others seem focused on strategies such as repeal or litigation. The vote is this week, and that energy is misplaced.

Besides, in the long run, as Mark Steyn notes, elections may not matter much. This is what Steyn understands better than most, the difference between the long war and the short war. He has been warning conservatives that there may be no redemption if Obama’s transformational agenda takes root. Contrary to conventional conservative opinion, the Democrat pursuit of ObamaCare is not suicidal. It is only suicidal if one cannot look past next November, and it is that short-sightedness that helped destroy the conservative movement in the Twentieth Century.

I doubt many in Congress truly understood the long term ramifications of the Social Security Act of 1935 like the socialist and communist weasels embedded in the Roosevelt Administration. That Act changed more than the role of government and the economy; it changed the American psyche. This will too.

Yeah, conservatives will do well in November. But Conservatives should not fool themselves. Repeal is highly unlikely. If it were, the GOP should make repealing Medicare and Social Security part of its platform. Thoughts of repeal may appease a conservative’s conscience. It may help stoke enthusiasm in some elections. But it is not going to happen.

I’m not going to list the myriad of reasons why repeal will not likely happen, but I will note that conservatives are long way from having a conservative in the White House and having conservative super majorities in the Senate and the House at the same time. By the time that happens, if it ever does, uprooting this bill will be harder than uprooting Medicare and Social Security combined.

Furthermore, once ObamaCare passes we will lose some of our most powerful allies, the health care and insurance industries themselves, for once ObamaCare becomes law their very survival will depend upon obedience to the state. If people are worried about 2,700 pages of legislation, wait until they see the implementing regulations. The marriage between the health care industry and the insurance industry with the state will be cemented.
Some of these far flung strategies being bandied about are becoming the opiate of the conservative activist. It is sucking energy from the urgent fight at hand. Don’t look to the future for reassurance; the future is now, this week.

When liberals obtain power, they do what they always do; they institutionalize their power. I’m sure Obama would love to work on initiatives like gay rights and gun control, but he understands that such issues do little to institutionalize liberalism and he can’t afford to waste political capital on them. The backbone of all political machines and statist governments is controlling jobs and the economy, and Obama is putting all of his chips into initiatives that do just that. Losing House and Senate seats is necessary collateral damage. He doesn’t care.

Those short term political losses will eventually be redeemed by the burgeoning dependent classes and shifting demographics. ObamaCare is about changing the relationship between the state and the individual. Steyn brilliantly understands not only the long term economic implications of ObamaCare, but also the long term psychological implications. Conservatives must not fool themselves and find solace in potential electoral landslides and dreams of repeal.

Read it and digest it. The lesson is not defeatist. The lesson is — fight! One more week.

John Patrick Bedell, the person responsible for murder spree at the Pentagon, was a 9/11 Truther. This will leak out the mainstream media like molasses in Siberia. This is the second Left Wing nut in a row to go psycho on the American public. Yet, the press is still itching for someone associated with the Tea Party to become unhinged as they dig for evidence of extremism.

File and save this and keep Joe Stack on file too. Someday, someone associated with our side may do something stupid and the press will pounce. We must be prepared to expose their hypocrisy and double standards. Until then, we must dig through the clutter and expose the truth about Joe Stack and John Patrick Bedell.

The race is on. The Democratic Leadership is eager to get a health care bill passed before the next round of Tea Parties and Town Hall Protests, which are being scheduled for Easter Recess and Tax Day. Congress bolts March 27th and returns April 12th. Traditionally, this is a time for them to do district work and hold town hall meetings.

Everyone already knows how this game is played. Its just a battle of wills. Are conservatives too tired to muster another grass roots revolt. Are they content waiting for November? Its not enough to wait for November. This bill may be irrevocable if passed. This recess presents another opportunity for conservative activists to influence legislators. We changed the game last August. We can do it again. The Democratic Leadership dreads this upcoming recess for obvious reasons. They prefer to keep their minions sequestered in the Beltway Bubble while they twist arms and iron out health care legislation.

But moderates must not think they can vote for this bill and wait out the storm. They must approach their meetings with Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Rahm in the upcoming weeks with full knowledge of the whirlwind that awaits them at home. Come Easter Recess, Blue Dogs and moderate Democrats will have reckoning and they must know that before they cast their vote. It may be time to break out the Town Hall calendar. If they refuse to hold town halls, we should hold them accountable for their cowardice as well.

Who needs statistics, empirical evidence, actuarial data, logic or reason, when you have anecdotes? I once knew a lady who had to use her dead sister’s dentures. That should never happen in America!!!

I watched the whole health care summit and that pretty much sums up the Democratic argument; sentimental anecdote, after sentimental anecdote, after sentimental anecdote and some talk about closing donut holes with a lot of people making little donuts with their index fingers and their thumbs.

Two teams played a game today, but one team had the home field advantage and owned the referee. It didn’t matter; they still lost. I wanted the GOP to attend this summit because I didn’t want Obama to have a six hour infomercial; I knew the media would look for an opportunity to paint Republicans as obstructionist troglodytes; and I thought the Democrats would use a poor Republican response as a platform to launch reconciliation.

Now the summit is over, I don’t see what the Democrats gained. Obama, using his bully pulpit, managed to score some points and may have helped his image a bit. But the real story is the performance of the Republicans. O ye, of little faith, why did so many conservatives fear this attack of the lame anecdotes when we had the winning talent and the winning arguments? When Democrats are getting whipped by Lamar Alexander, Charles Grassley and John McCain, its a pretty good sign things are going poorly for them.

I have to wonder who assembled that awful Democratic panel and whether they will get the Martha Coakley treatment. Is that really their best? And if so, how do we ever lose anything to these people? Next time, to make it fair, maybe we should just send Paul Ryan.

But Republicans could never really win in such a forum with the mainstream media spinning the story. Still, they stood tall and prevented a public relations trap. Conservatism is about more than anger and general platitudes. Today, people got to see our professional, articulate, principled, and informed leaders shine. The Democrats have no reason to use the excuse of Republican obstructionism to pursue reconciliation now. Too many people saw the truth; we care, we have great ideas and we have great arguments. We also proved that we will sit down with Democrats and that we will work with them if they are serious about real reform. I repeat, real reform.

For the most part, the Republicans stayed true to their principles, acted professionally and did the people’s work. The battle is over and they kept the high ground. That’s not compromise. That’s leadership.

While the Democrats in Congress prepare for reconciliation, the GOP is measuring the value of Obama’s health care summit. Let’s not get mixed up here. The health care summit is a public relations stunt, nothing more. It is being used to provide the Democrats in Congress some leverage to pursue reconciliation. That is the real battleground.

The GOP has the higher ground on two crucial points in the health care debate; substance and process. Conservatives understand the importance of the former, but they cannot afford to underestimate the importance of the latter, especially amongst conservative Democrats and Independents. That’s whom the Democrats covet.

Conservative Democrats and Independents have been disgusted with the process so far; the Cornhusker Kickback, the back room deals, the lack of transparency, the phony deadlines, the last minute legislation dumps, politicians voting on bills they had not read, the lack of responsiveness to the concerns of the people, the arrogance of the Democratic leadership, and, yes, the lack of bi-partisanship.

But the leaders are ideologues on a mission and they were not about to let process impede their great left wing march. However, they underestimated the public backlash over the abuse of process. In this new internet age of voter engagement, their shenanigans were exposed and widely reported. They were rattled by the bumpkins who excoriated them for their transgressions, which had, up until now, gone largely unnoticed.

After Scott Brown’s election, the Democrats knew they needed to change their strategy. They would prefer not to compromise substance. So, they changed their tone. They tried to show some humility and admitted mistakes. They ended the false sense of urgency and stopped pushing phony deadlines. They’ve opened up the process and will post the bill online with proper notice. And they are trying to claim the mantle of bi-partisanship and have invited Republicans to a summit.

Yes, its phony. Its all about appearence. But isn’t their strategy obvious?

They are moving forward with reconciliation in an attempt that is a vile abuse of process. Obama will put on his dog and pony show, the mainstream media will cover it extensively and, if the GOP turns its back or acts cynically, the Democrats will pounce and the mainstream media will eat it up.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Congressional Democrats already have talking points and are making appointments to hit the talk show circuit en masse to declare that the GOP has no intention of negotiating in good faith and therefore they are forced to pursue reconciliation. Republicans shouldn’t cede the high ground on process. They should co-opt the summit and make their case to Obama and the people. They should put tort reform on the center stage. Regardless of the outcome of the summit, it will cripple the Democrats attempt to subvert the reconciliation process.

Also, this is not about the elections. Stopping the health care bill as it is written remains priority number one. We don’t play games with legislation to win elections. We play games with elections to win legislation. Conservatives who would burden our nation with this monstrosity to win a couple of extra Congressional seats are misguided. But even if one were to consider its effect on the elections, the summit is not entirely a bad thing. This is not about Obama. Obama is not up for re-election in 2010. His fate will be decided in future years. This may bruise him, but he has ample time to recover. Congressional Democrats do not. It is they who will suffer for this bill.

There is a fault line is erupting between Obama and the Congressional Democrats. The GOP could exploit the summit. They can use the forum to blame Congressional Democrats; Obama’s team won’t object. That would further undermine the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, create further divisions and make Congressional Democrats even more impotent and vulnerable.

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The Tea Party movement draws its strength and its relevance from its spontaneous, organic and populist nature. That is also the source of its greatest weakness. Because it is a fledgling, leader-less and platform-less movement people are tempted anoint themselves leaders and project their own values upon the rest of the movement. Every faction thinks they own it, but no one really does.

The Tea Parties are best understood and used as a force of opposition. It is a broad coalition of anti-big government forces. It is comprised of many factions that have united to fight the radical, socialist agenda of the Obama administration. But uniting those factions in opposition to something is much easier than uniting those factions in support of a single platform or a single candidate. This is the difference between 2009 and 2010.

As we’ve fought Obama’s radical agenda, we’ve joined concerned Democrats, libertarians, populists, paleocons, independents and some tin-foil-hat-wearers. We needed their help to amplify our outrage. But the elections are near and conservatives must start promoting their own candidates. Some of those candidates may have warts, long voting records, ties to the establishment and specific policy positions that run contrary to many in the Tea Party movement. I fear that the populist fire that was lit in 2009 may turn into a conflagration that consumes important GOP candidates.

It is folly to assume that the Tea Parties simply represent frustrated Republicans who will fall in line if presented with a good conservatives. These factions agree on a couple of broad principles involving limited government and have united to fight a grave threat. But we cannot assume those same factions will automatically unite behind specific candidates with specific policy positions on foreign affairs, wars, social issues, cultural issues, trade policy, big corporations…

I started to write this last week on a whim, but canned it. And then I read about the events in Nevada; a Tea Party candidate is threatening to split the anti-Democrat vote and save Harry Reid. This is not the first time this has happened, and it wont be the last. Again, people tend to love the movement because they get to project their own ideals upon it because it has no platform. To many, it is a populist uprising of real conservatives “just like me”. The Birther eruption helped quash that notion. But that is just one split. On libertarian sites, they are irate that Sarah Palin “hijacked” the movement to promote a “neocon” foreign policy. There will be other splits. But as long as the focus remains on the radical, big government agenda of Obama and the Congressional Democrats, the Tea Party coalition may hold. We cannot allow ourselves to become distracted with other issues.

The founding fathers are often referenced as inspiration for the Tea Parties, but it often forgotten that the original Boston Tea Party leaders turned against the populist mobs after the Revolution because those same mobs undermined our young Republic. Famed Tea Party leader Samuel Adams led the movement to suppress the uprising of his former patriot brother Daniel Shays. George Washington led the march against the Whiskey Rebels. The founding fathers realized it was time to contain the populist fire. It had outlived its purpose.

This is not an anti-Tea Party diary, just another cautionary note. The torch lit by the Tea Parties still belongs to conservatives, but playing with fire is dangerous. Raw populism is difficult to control. The Republican Party should work to take ownership of the Tea Parties or they should dismiss it. I think Sarah Palin tried to initiate the former option at the Tea Party convention, but this process will require alienating some in the Tea Party movement. Otherwise, conservatives should recognize the Tea Parties as a great moment and not a long term movement. Well before November, conservatives must start rallying around all decent GOP candidates and support the GOP brand with or without Tea Party fervor.

As the world outside of Barack Obama’s self-absorbed bubble turns:

Polls show former communist apparatchik Viktor Yanukovych holding a slim lead over Yulia Tymoshenko in the Ukraine presidential election. Yankukovych is a bad guy, like he could be cast as a villain in a James Bond movie type of bad guy. The former convict, thug and accused rapist is the Kremlin’s lapdog and has no respect for the West or democracy. If he wins, look for dissent in the Ukraine to be crushed ‘Putin Style’. The Orange Revolution will become a historical footnote.

One byline not being reported is the relationship between Georgia and Ukraine. Ukraine is the muscle amongst the former Soviet Bloc Republics. A shift in power in the Ukraine towards Moscow will tighten the noose around Georgia’s neck. An emboldened Russia, Ukraine under the Kremlin’s thumb, an alienated Poland, and a helpless Georgia on the brink; brilliant diplomacy Team Obama. Oh yeah, this week it was also announced that Nicolas Sarkozy, when he wasn’t criticizing Obama, permitted the sale of a state of art aircraft carrier to the Russians.

…

By the way, have you seen Yulia Tymoshenko?

Good Lord. No comment.

According to The Hill:

Arguably the nation’s most prominent openly-gay lawmaker this week slammed Defense Secretary Robert Gates for opening a year-long review of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell policy” against gays in the military, saying it is merely causing delay.

“As quickly as we can do this it will be toward the end of the year,” Frank said in a raised voice. “So Gates has plenty of time to study whatever the hell he wants to study.”

Barney Frank is upset that Gates opened up a year-long review to study the effect of openly gay men serving in the military. A review seems like a reasonable endeavor. For example, one topic of analysis is the impact on housing, which seems perfectly legitimate to me. You can call Barney Frank anything you want, he deserves most of it. But he’s not a dumb man. He’s shrewd and knows the end game here.

Gee, I wonder what could happen in a year that would make any difference to Barney Frank. Hmmm. What could happen this year? What could happen this year? Oh yeah, those little elections happen in November. All the more reason to fight for that year long review. Thanks for the heads up Barney.

Before the Tea Parties, before the Town Halls, back when Obamamania was all the rage, when the political pundits declared the GOP irrelevant, and gloomy conservatives were busy playing the blame game and pointing fingers, some kept the course and chose to fight.

November 2008:

That was fourteen months ago, after the 2008 elections, when an obscure state senator named Scott Brown, went above and beyond his duties to support a fight against an increase in pike tolls. That little rally was held in East Boston, which laid far beyond his district. But Brown wasn’t campaigning for anything; he was just a politician who chose to fight. Scott Brown was “Tea Partying” before the “Tea Parties” were cool.

Is this just another gratuitous Scott Brown post? No. It just made me smile a little to see that the new Scott Brown is still like the old Scott Brown. Brown started day one picking a fight with Obama over the jobs created by stimulus. Huh.

Blanche Lincoln? Other outlets have picked up on the testy exchange between Blanche Lincoln and Obama, but this little nugget caught by Glenn Thrush went unnoticed:

The seminal moment of this morning’s Q and A between Senate Democrats and President Obama was an extraordinary — and extraordinarily uncomfortable — exchange between Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Obama over the party’s left and right wings…

Lincoln, who faces serious competition in her ’10 reelection — and a 27 percent approval rate in Arkansas — practically demanded Obama “push back in our own party … for people at the extremes.”

She added that “no one in your administration” understands how to make payroll.

Obama shot back hard, warning Lincoln, gently but firmly, that he had no intention of adopting the previous administration’s policies, cautioning, “I don’t know what would differentiate us from the other guys.” [quickie transcript]

“We should not be spooked,” he added

Hmmm.

Lincoln’s numbers are tanking. As Obama continues his stubborn ideological march to the left, Lincoln has every reason to be “spooked”. As election season nears, things are going to get spookier for her. Here’s hoping that this rift becomes seismic.

Senator Judd Gregg schooled OMB Director Peter Orszag on the law and managed to put Bernie Sanders in his place during a hearing on TARP.

Judd Gregg has been a stalwart on budget manipulation and in this clip he is protesting the manipulation of TARP funds. This encounter is particularly sweet because Obama was in Nashua, New Hampshire today, Judd Gregg’s home town, promoting his new plans and this footage is stealing headlines in the Granite State:

Let me preface my comments by stating that Paul Kirk’s decisive vote on the debt ceiling bothers me, and if I had my druthers, he’d be gone. But there is a larger issue here.

Although no date has been confirmed, it appears like Scott Brown will be sworn in around February 11th. Brown is trying to assemble his staff, get them housing, get himself situated, wrap up his state business, his family business, etc… Usually elected officials have two and a half months to do this. Brown has two and a half weeks. By all accounts, Paul Kirk has been extremely gracious towards Brown and his staffers. The transition process is underway and people are optimistic.

Scott Brown worked hard to persuade skeptical Democrats and Independents to vote Republican. His election has inspired a conservative resurgence in Massachusetts. The people voted for him, but it wasn’t a vote against Kirk. There is little hostility towards Kirk.

Sometimes in the law there are no right and wrong answers, only arguments and better arguments. Legally, I’m sure there are many liberal attorneys that could make the case for seating Kirk. But the legal issues are secondary to the larger issue of disenfranchising a state, and that’s exactly how it will be portrayed in the mainstream media. I can see The Boston Globe headlines already, “GOP Kicks Out Kirk”, “Washington Republicans Leave Massachusetts With One Senator”, etc … But more importantly, it will just look petty.

There was something of a gentleman’s agreement between all parties regarding a smooth transition. While I’m upset that Kirk was used as the decisive vote on one issue, most of his votes are irrelevant. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen again, but Brown doesn’t need to start his term embattled between the people of his state and national GOP forces, who don’t care much about the people of Massachusetts.

Kicking a sitting Senator out and leaving a state with one sitting Senator is no small matter. It will leave a negative impression in the mind of many, including some of the Democrats and Independents who crossed over to vote for Scott Brown. Its a risk/reward analysis. Whatever is gained by Kirk’s early departure will be accompanied by risk. Is it really worth the fight? Such a fight will take weeks to resolve, and Brown will be seated by then anyway. Why alienate people over a trivial pursuit.

Howard Zinn, an immensely influential enemy of our Republic, has passed away. I prefer not speak ill of the recently deceased, but I can’t ignore it either. A prolific writer and a history professor at Boston University, he helped root generations of unwitting Americans in marxist principles.

Zinn’s warm demeanor and charisma often disarmed the young and naive, who digested his palatable anti-Americanism. Few radicals have done as much to warp minds, promote revisionist history, and transform generations as Zinn. His vile and popular history book, A People’s History of the United States, stands as a blueprint for politically correct history.

John Silber, former Boston University president, once referred to Zinn as an example of a professor who poisoned the well of academia. I couldn’t agree more. He may be gone, but he left a legacy that will take years to destroy, and we will destroy it. Republicans must fight the Democrats, but conservatives must never relent in their fight against the Howard Zinns.

I’m not a science guy, but something caught my attention about Obama’s SOTU; the surprise and disappointment by many in the scientific community regarding Obama’s dismissal of the space program.

I’ve been absorbing the criticisms and something clicked. The scientific community is often tied to the government spending and sympathetic to government growth. Those who are infatuated by the cosmos tend to be idealistic and are often sympathetic idealistic liberals. Neither group particularly understands the insidious roots of modern liberalism and its hostility towards American exceptionalism. Neither group really understands Obama.

In his new budget, Obama takes an axe and whacked the space program. In may make some sense to some. During trying economic times, prioritizing farfetched space programs may seem frivolous. But this is the same team that has ambitiously prioritized farfetched environmental programs all year. So what’s the difference?

Perhaps the answer lies in understanding the young international Obama, the Harvard Law Obama, the Hyde Park Obama, the global apology tour Obama, the Barack Obama that, when asked if America was an exceptional country, responded that all countries are exceptional. The real Barack Obama.

Cap and tax, the green economy, and other similar intiatives ultimately handicap American industry; redistribute American wealth; and integrate America with international bodies. They are leveling initiatives that weaken America’s standing in the world.

Space exploration, on the other hand, remains a frontier that lies beyond the reach of almost all other countries and a symbol of American exceptionalism. Space exploration represents everything the radical hates. It is an endeavor reserved for the powerful. It lies beyond the scope of international law and oversight. It is a masculine display of power and might. It is imperialist and expansionist in nature. It humbles others. It is a remnant of that hated old fashioned ethos of manifest destiny.

Why does Barack Obama hold such disdain for the space program? I’m just ruminating here, but I think know the reason.

Well, not maybe not serious, but I bet you’ve never seen Keynesian economics and Austrian economics debated like this:

Former Massachusetts governor Paul Cellucci walked through Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall one brisk winter’s day, when he saw a familiar face among the crowd. He spotted the man sitting at a table quietly eating a sandwich by himself. Cellucci worked his way over to the table and greeted his old friend.

Faneuil Hall bustles with tourists and shoppers and Cellucci couldn’t help notice the striking image of a senatorial candidate unassumingly sitting there, amongst the crowd, by himself. Cellucci politely asked Scott Brown how his campaign was going. Brown looked at Cellucci and told him, “you know, I’m really feeling something here”. As they parted ways, Cellucci reflected on the moment and kind of felt sorry for Scott Brown. It was the holidays. The general election was three weeks away.

…

Late to the party, the punditry has done a poor job analyzing Scott Brown, his campaign and its significance. But before the nattering nabobs and the nitpickers begin their hatchet work, lets put politics aside for a moment and remember Scott Brown’s personal triumph.

The Brown campaign should be celebrated an an American story of optimism, courage and perseverance. It is worthy of admiration regardless of political persuasion or regional bias. Andrew Jackson’s famous quote, that one man with courage makes a majority, is often quoted, but on this occasion it is appropriate; one man with courage truly became the manifestation of a majority. I am not one for sentimental pablum, but sometimes a little inspiration is welcome. If nothing else, Scott Brown provided that.

Some people may not realize that Scott Brown had never run for a state wide office. He had never run for Congress. There are forty senate districts in Massachusetts and outside of his little district, he was mostly unknown. When he started this campaign, he had little money, his campaign headquarters was his kitchen table, and his “advisors” were his buddies. The truck wasn’t a political prop. It was real. His opponent, Martha Coakley, who is the sitting Attorney General, had just vanquished three Democrats in the primary. After the primaries, Coakley held a thirty point lead over Brown. The machine that Brown fought was as big, brutal and powerful as advertised. It was a self-made man, raised in broken homes on welfare, against the machine and the Kennedy mystique in this bluest of states.

But now, because of Scott Brown’s indomitable spirit, his optimism, his sweat equity and some good fortune, Obama has declared that his agenda has run into a “buzz saw”. Chris Dodd is suggesting that Congress take up to six weeks off. Nancy Pelosi has admitted that ObamaCare is collapsing. The Democrats are scrambling and all around the country Republican recruitment is booming. One man sparked that.

No, he’s not going to be perfect. But let’s leave Scott Brown, the politician, alone for a while. He is a conservative leaning populist, who represents the people of Massachusetts. He has a lot to learn. He also has a large hostile flank in his home state. The same people who have been calling him a rapist and racist for the past month already have a bullseye on his back for 2012 and with Obama on the ticket, the loyal liberal vote will come out next time.

Scott Brown will have enough headaches in Massachusetts. He doesn’t need any oversight from the purists of the conservative movement. He will do the right thing often enough. But its not Scott Brown’s Republican story that we admire as much as it is Scott Brown’s American story.

Wow, that was fast. Apparently, voters in Arizona are already receiving the robo-call.

To his credit, McCain endorsed Brown early and remained a stalwart supporter, when few others took his campaign seriously. In the recorded message, Brown “praises McCain for supporting him when no one else would”. Brown also reiterates his commitment to fight a government take over of health care.

It’s a little surreal to see a Massachusetts Republican recording calls for an Arizona Republican. Brown’s “brand” is sky high right now, but he may be unable to live up to expectations. Regardless, he earned his moment in the sun.

I am more suprised by John McCain. He had some mediocre polls last year, but the public mood has shifted. Its one thing to be cautious, but does he really need Scott Brown and Sarah Palin to defeat J.D. Hayworth? Maybe he is trying to salvage his legacy. Or maybe Cindy needs to cut back on his ensure-viagra cocktails. Something has gotten into this new take nothing for granted, happy GOP warrior.