He’s just not that into you (Scott Brown disowns the tea parties)
Scott Brown got the teabaggers all hot and bothered, and then dumped them.
One more nugget from that Scott Brown interview with Barbara Walters on “This Week.” He made quick work of quitting the tea party movement, before they even had a chance to anoint him their king. Per Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller:
“The Tea Party movement was important to your victory. How influential do you think the Tea Party movement is going to be?” Walters asked.
Brown rejected her premise.
“Well, you’re making an assumption that the Tea Party movement was influential, and I have to respectfully disagree. It was everybody. I had a plurality,” he said.
“But it was part of it,” Walters responded.
“Of course, it was,” he said.
(Watch here.) Brown also claimed he was “never approached by any supporters in Massachusetts claiming a tea party affiliation,” although a quick trip down memory lane reminds us that Brown attended a Boston Tea Party fundraiser, and even snagged an endorsement from the Tea Party Express,) not to mention eliciting sweaty, feverish devotion from the folks at RedState, and did so with that effervescent charm that slew Massachusetts voters from Worchester to Dorchester. Listen as Scott woos a teabagger by telephone (which may or may not count as being approached by any supporters in Massachusetts claiming a tea party affiliation):
And then he quit them. Ah, love…
Now, I’m not claiming that Senator-elect Brown is a teabagger. Quite the contrary, I think he is a smart politician, who played the bagger massive like a fiddle. But the tea people should be warned. Normal Republicans know how to get elected, and they’re more than willing to use rabid tea partiers’ passion to get into office. But at the end of the day, the kinds of Republicans who get elected (outside of a few hardcore red states) are moderates, or people like Bob McDonnell, who pose as moderates. So don’t look for Scott Brown to be calling Barack Obama a Marxist or stapling a teabag to his hat anytime soon.
And you might want to keep an eye on Rubio too.
Just sayin’ …
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