Brown Votes For Senate Jobs Bill

Rachel Slajda reports for Talking Points Memo that Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) is already catching flak from Tea Party supporters for his vote for the Senate Jobs Bill.

That didn't take long. Just weeks after Sen. Scott Brown's (R-MA) victory was heralded as the first shot in a Republican revolution, with Brown himself signing "41" after his name, the magic vanished. On Monday, Brown voted yes on a procedural motion on the Democrats' jobs bill -- and many of his supporters turned against him.

Christen Varley, for example, the president of the Greater Boston Tea Party who a month ago took credit for Brown's win, plans to give the senator a piece of her mind. "He's going to hear from us," Varley told the Boston Herald. "In the end, this is stimulus spending -- and it's a disappointment."

This is a fascinating bit of political positioning on Brown's part. He clearly does not want to end up as a short-term GOP place-holder for a traditionally Democratic seat once the Massachusetts Dems can line up a more competent and appealing candidate than Martha Coakley to oppose him in the next election. Even Glenn Beck gets that this is still Massachusetts and wonders why his Tea Party supporters are surprised. Brown's future votes in the Senate bear watching.

--Ballard Burgher