Sen. Scott Brown, fake independent voice

Just over two short years ago, Scott Brown was campaigning with tea party groups and conservative talk radio in Massachusetts and beyond, selling himself as "the 41st vote" against health care reform in the Senate. Now, facing Elizabeth Warren's strong challenge and presidential election-year turnout, he's changed his tune somewhat. Oh, he's still railing against "Obamacare" to partisan crowds, but he's also playing up his "independent voice," trying to find that delicate balance of tying himself to President Obama enough to give independent voters something to like without alienating Republicans.

The AP rounds up some examples, like Brown's statement supporting Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his touting of a three-sentence conversation with Obama on their shared support for banning insider trading by members of Congress.

There are two issues here. One is that Scott Brown is running scared from Elizabeth Warren. This is not how it was supposed to play out for Senator 41, the hot new Republican celebrity of the big Republican year of 2010. Massachusetts Democrats were not supposed to be able to find a candidate with a compelling biography, a strong voice on economic issues, exceptional media skills and enormous fundraising ability (which you can contribute to via Orange to Blue). But then Elizabeth Warren emerged, and Scott Brown had to start fighting for his political future—and if that means cozying up to Obama, he'll do it.

The other issue, though, is that this article is a preview of just how complicit the traditional media will be in Brown's attempts to portray himself as independent, not really that conservative, actually the perfect Beltway moderate. We are going to hear, ad infinitum, about the handful of votes he's taken against his party, and not about the avalanche of votes he's taken with them. We're going to hear that he voted for financial reform and not that the price of his vote was a provision that saved the big banks $19 billion. We're going to hear that he voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, but not that he's sticking to every other anti-gay position. Scott Brown's going to keep taking the most conservative position he thinks he can take while still surviving in Massachusetts. That doesn't make him an independent, no matter what the AP claims.