From Ronald Reagan to Goat

Last evening, Senator Scott Brown announced that he would join 4 other Republicans to vote with Democrats against a Republican filibuster designed to stop a vote on President Obama's jobs bill.  As I predicted in my February 4 post, Brown may end up frustrating Republicans more than the President.  I just didn't think it would happen this soon.  In this story from the LA Times, James Oliphant notes that on account of this vote, almost overnight Scott Brown "has gone from being the darling of America's conservative activists to being their goat."  Oliphant notes that many of these activists were hailing Brown to be the next Ronald Reagan who could usher in a new era of conservatism, but now only days later they have exploded into the blogosphere with this:

"Cries of "letdown," "betrayal," "sellout," and "RINO" -- "Republican in name only" -- flew around Twitter. By late Tuesday afternoon, more than 4,200 people had left comments on Brown's Facebook page, most harshly negative."

Perhaps this says something about those activists who supported Scott Brown.  But it clearly says something about Scott Brown.  It says that in this early test, he is putting his money where his mouth is and trying to be the independent voice he claimed he would be.  Let's hope it continues.