"

Scott Brown could be another lone wolf the Senate doesn't need

Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.) holds up a Boston Herald newspaper during his victory party in Boston. (Photo - AP/Elise Amendola)

When I heard Scott Brown, the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, describe himself as a "Scott Brown Republican," I groaned. It sounded as if he's coming to Washington to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.

We don't need another knight in shining armor, don't want another political messiah come to deliver the nation from evil. We've already got one in the White House and one in Alaska ready to ride her snowmobile into town and save the day. Both the Senate and the House are liberally sprinkled with lone wolves who believe the legislative process revolves around them. Instead of "E Pluribus Unum" -- "Out of Many, One" -- our new motto could be "I Did It My Way."

I hope the erstwhile Cosmo centerfold is smart enough to realize there is something more corrosive to our political system than bitter partisanship -- and that's, ahem, naked self-interest. Clearly, though, his status as the Next Big Thing appears to have gone to his head: When asked by ABC's Barbara Walters whether he had presidential ambitions, he refused to rule out a run for the White House in 2012. He might want to take a long drive in that ancient pickup truck of his until the spell wears off.

Actually, a lot of what Brown told Walters in a lengthy interview sounded quite reasonable. On abortion, he supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose. On gay marriage, he believes the issue should be left up to the states -- and in Massachusetts, which allows gay marriage, he says the question is "settled."

On health care, his record makes more sense than his rhetoric. As a state legislator, he voted for the reform bill that established universal health insurance in Massachusetts. But now he opposes the Senate reform bill, which is modeled on the Massachusetts program. At least he's not the first senator from his state to be for something before he was against it.

Yet on the two big economic issues -- soaring unemployment and the need to confront the federal deficit -- Brown doesn't sound reasonable at all. He told Walters that his problem with President Obama's announced freeze on discretionary federal spending is that "we need to do it immediately," not in the 2011 fiscal year. Leaving aside the question of how Obama would implement an immediate freeze, short of impounding funds, it would be insanely counterproductive to cut federal spending when the economy is struggling to find its legs and begin creating jobs.

But the most troubling passage from the interview was the part about being a "Scott Brown Republican" and intending to "go down there and be accountable, accessible, open and honest . . . to bring good government and fairness back to the equation."

It's impossible to argue with that laundry list of virtues, except to note that he left out motherhood and apple pie. The last thing Washington needs is another politician who refers to himself as his own brand and promises to chart his own lonely path.

More . . .

"