Was there any organized resistance to his candidacy from conservatives? It seems to me that Tea Partiers started getting interested in the race and donating once it became clear Brown was a viable candidate.

Your argument that Tea Party conservatives are inflexible and demand ideological purity is based on a sample size of one election in NY. On this basis you are insistent that conservatives do not know the difference between a special election in Massachusetts and a primary in Florida.

I’m going to make an argument. If any conservatives here disagree, raise your hand.

Florida is a state where the Republican Senatorial candidate is almost certain to win the election. As such, it makes political sense for conservatives to favor Marco Rubio, who is the more conservative of two viable candidates for the Republican nomination.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic primary is a mess. This is a state that has a track record of electing social conservatives, in an election where people are likely to rebel against the economic policies of this president. Further, the real moderate, new majority type in this election is Arlen Specter. If this is the year of the moderate in Pennsylvania, there is no stopping him anyway. So why not go with a conservative in the mold of Rick Santorum who, prior to a disastrous 2006, had been popular in Pennsylvania?

Conversely, in California, it seems like it might make sense to take a flier on moderate Meg Whitman. Her nomination comes with caveats, however, not least of which that her corporate past may make her unappealing to moderates. At a time when conservatives are looking for the Republican party to break from the corporate agenda that drove it into the ground, is she the right person? Possibly. Let’s see how she does.

In other words, we’re willing to compromise our values IF and WHEN we get something in return. That seems like a very reasonable position to hold.

Does anyone here disagree?

How can you compare Massachusetts to Florida and Pennsylvania? That is the question.

I predicted here on January 12 that Brown would WIN. That was in a post that was predicting defeat….

John Vecciones post Dems won’t lose Kennedy’s Seat

franco 2 // Jan 12, 2010 at 2:08 pm

I don’t know much about the inner workings of MA electoral politics, and I’m sure it is true that it is a tremendous uphill battle, however I have the (anecdotal) feeling that there is a political tsunami on the way. Let this be my prediction FWIW

Brown wins the seat.”

I don’t have a political science degree to help me find elaborate ways to avoid looking at reality, like you guys.

FF may have interviewed Brown in November…woop-de-doo. FF isn’t in touch with folks outside the beltway and hasn’t taken into account how the politics have shifted from 2006 and 2008. FF doesn’t understand the “Tea Party” movement, mis-characterising it as a phenomenon of right-wing purists. In fact the tea party folks are a threat to the Statists here, and so you guys either are intentionally trying to smear/dismiss them or are in need to find refuge in denial.

Brown was “endorsed” by Rush, Beck, Levin and Hannity and more. The tea partiers were for him before anyone, and the tea party movement is useful in that it is inherently non-partisan at least it isn’t affiliated with any party, nor should it be.

Scott Brown is closer to the Tea Party movement and even talk radio, than Frum, Brooks and some of those the wimpy Republicans in the Senate. Did you hear his victory speech? It was very blunt about how Obama is handling terrorism, health care and government. If he is so “moderate” how come he is using such pointed language?

“Brown is not a Tea Party conservative. He is not a talk radio conservative. He’s a reasonable, intelligent, New England Republican who knows what it takes to win in his state.”

Are you saying Keith Olberman is wrong in his assessment of Brown?

“In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, TEABAGGING (emphasis mine) supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States.”

Evidently the whacko left thinks Brown is a tea-partier of the worst kind, so why should we argue amongst ourselves about where Brown stands politically? The leftists are the ones that need to be defeated…let’s stop the circular firing squad on this site and get down to the business of throwing the statist socialists out of office.

How can you compare Brown to Toomey and Rubio? Did the Club for Growth secretly endorse Brown somewhere? Brown is not a Tea Party conservative. He is not a talk radio conservative. He’s a reasonable, intelligent, New England Republican who knows what it takes to win in his state.

If you have to bribe people to get a bill passed, then maybe the bill isn’t worth passing…just a little advice for our Liberal Democrat friends.

And, oh yeah – see you in November.

“Tonight the Tea Party witnessed the spoils of allowing ideological flexibility; they learned the benefits of backing moderate candidates when they run in moderate jurisdictions.”

What a crock! This sentence is meant to cast tea partiers in the passive role with the centrists as the leaders and wise teachers. It was the tea party movement that advanced Brown while those like Frum and Mak were conceding Ted Kennedy’s seat to the Democrat. Had they been able to choose a candidate, it wouldn’t have been Brown – they would consider him way too conservative for Massachusetts.

No, the lesson here is that people are fed up with the status quo and people are actually more conservative than the mainstream GOP give them credit for. Moderates WILL vote for someone more conservative than they if the candidate demonstrates he/she has principles and isn’t just a GOP operative. Tea party folks are not the knuckle-dragging social conservatives Frum and Mak wish to cast them as. Brown is against partial birth abortion and for parental notification. He also wants States to decide things like gay marriage.

If Brown can win in MA Toomey can win in PA and Rubio can win in FL. That’s the lesson here.