Senator Scott Brown Visits U of L

A guest post by Eric Bush:

Today, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) spoke at the McConnell Center, a scholarship fund set up by Senator McConnell at the University of Louisville to keep bright minds from going out of state for college.

Senator Brown is a very funny man. He joked about his daughters, including one who attends Syracuse and is not very happy with Louisville's football team right now. He also emphasized how impressed he was to meet Coach Petino, even though his time with the Celtics wasn't so great. Senator Brown also highlighted the fact that he had a truck with 216,000 miles repeatedly to help explain that he is an ordinary man, but the main focus of his speech was jobs. He explained that as a senator, he got to travel to some amazing places to meet everyone from poor farmers to kings. When he met them, all they talked about was jobs. In the nine months he has spent as a senator, only 11 days were spent talking about jobs.

He also touched taxes. "I have never voted on raising taxes." said Senator Brown. "I hope the Senate Majority and President will realize that taxes cannot be raised in a recession. People have lived with these tax rates for the last decade. Now, more than ever, what would be the point in raising them?"

"The people were saying 'no' to health care, but they just didn't get the message." he said. Also, he talked about the FDA and the process of approving drugs, and that it takes too long and costs too much money to approve drugs, that drug companies are going off to Europe to get them approved there.

Throughout the speech, he kept picking picking up the paper he wrote his speech on and joking that he never reads his speeches, that he "speaks from the heart." He certainly connected with the students today.

Get Your Tickets to Hear Scott Brown

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) will speak at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center November 8, 2010 at 1:30 (Bigelow Hall). He will no doubt have an interesting take on the election results, given that his special election to the seat formerly held by Teddy Kennedy propelled the conservative surge.

Tickets are available, while supplies last, at www.mcconnellcenter.org

Moveon.org's Take on Brown Victory

Moveon.org's website calls Sen.-elect Scott Brown's victory "devastating." That's the only nod to reality.

According' to Moveon's election night polling, those citizens who voted for Obama last year but Brown on Tuesday did so because Obama has not been "progressive" enough in unwinding the policies of President George Bush. That is, Brown won because (1) Obama is not liberal enough and (2) repeat after me: it is all Bush's fault.

Moveon's poll supposedly shows that 49 percent of the Obama voters who voted for Brown support the Senate health care bill or -- get this -- think the bill does not go far enough.

It seems that the message for Obama from the base is too introduce a new health care bill that goes further in raising costs, increasing the deficit, reducing freedom and socializing one-sixth of the economy.

The Terrorism Component to Brown's Victory Helps Grayson

Much has been said about Scott Brown's opposition to Obamacare, high taxes and deficit spending. But Brown's internal polling showed that terrorism and treatment of enemy combatants was the "most potent issue," according to NRO's Andy McCarthy.

That has direct implications for Kentucky's Republican primary to replace Sen. Jim Bunning. Trey Grayson has reiterated his opposition to closing Gitmo and to giving civilian trials to enemy combatants. Grayson likewise argues that the U.S. must stay on the offense in the war on terror.

Dr. Rand Paul, in contrast, avoids the whole subject of terrorism like it is the Swine Flu. And no wonder: many of his libertarian followers, according to their comments to this blog, blame the U.S. for 9/11. Ignoring the high rate of recidivism among enemy combatants, Paul has said that he would send Gitmo prisoners back to their country of origin because it would "take them a long time" to get back here to try to kill us again.

After the attempted bombing of the Detroit-bound plane on Christmas day, Grayson quickly issued a statement. Grayson pointed out that some of the attack's planners had been released from Gitmo, only to become al Qaeda leaders in Yemen; the attempted bomber's master-minds thus are the poster-terrorists of why Gitmo should not be closed. Paul issued no statement about the attempted attack.

This is the dilemma for Paul. He has many loyal and energized followers who hate the U.S. war on terror. But unless and until Paul speaks to the issue of national security, he cannot appeal to the third leg of the Reagan coalition: voters who value a strong national defense.

Those national security voters are one reason that Scott Brown was able to reassemble the Reagan coalition. As McCarthy writes,

Scott Brown went out and made the case for enhanced interrogation, for denying terrorists the rights of criminal defendants, for detaining them without trial, and for trying them by military commission. It worked.. . . .

Yes, the Left will say you are making a mockery of our commitment to “the rule of law.” MSNBC will run segments on your dark conspiracies to “shred the privacy rights of Americans.” The New York Times will wail that you’re heedless of the damage you’ll do to “America’s reputation in the international community.”

The answer is: So what? The people making these claims don’t speak for Americans — they speak at Americans, in ever shrinking amounts. If you’re going to cower from a fight with them, we don’t need you. Get us a Scott Brown who’ll take them on in their own backyard. And he’ll take them on with confidence because he knows their contentions are frivolous — and he knows that Americans know this, too.

So while both Grayson and Paul celebrate Brown's victory, and both echo Brown's opposition to Obamacare and deficit spending, only Grayson has thus far tapped into Brown's "more potent issue."

Way To Go, Scott Brown!

It turns out the best polling was done by the Black Eyed Peas: "Tonight's gonna be a good night," and it was for Republicans, Reagan Democrats and Independents who took back the People's Seat. Simultaneously, they injected note of sanity into the debate, including the need to bring the health care issue out from behind the closed doors with Scott Brown's promise that when it comes to health care reform, "We can do better."

Statements of congratulations are flowing in. First, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who really, really needed the extra troops:

I want to congratulate Senator-elect Scott Brown on his decisive victory. There’s a reason the nation was focused on this race: The voters in Massachusetts, like Americans everywhere, have made it abundantly clear where they stand on health care. They don’t want this bill and want Washington to listen to them. Americans are investing their hopes in good Republican candidates to reverse a year-long Democrat trend of ignoring the American people on the issues of health care, spending and the growth of government.

And from U.S. Senate candidate Trey Grayson:

Kentuckians had it right in 2008 when we overwhelmingly rejected the radical liberal agenda of President Obama and the Congressional majority in Washington. It appears much of the rest of the country is now coming around to our way of thinking after a year of an attempted government takeover of health care, closed door negotiations, secret back room deals, the push for a cap and trade law to create a national energy tax, and more out-of-control spending and borrowing than our nation has ever seen.

My heart felt congratulations goes out to Scott Brown, his family and campaign staff and volunteers.It is not just a victory for Massachusetts, but for the whole country. Let’s hope that much like our own Ron Lewis’ race in 1994 this race will be a bellwether for the election results this fall. Americans didn’t vote for more intrusive government, higher taxes and a skyrocketing national debt in 2008, but that’s what we’ve gotten from this Congress. If I’m elected to the U.S. Senate my top priority will be working to restore our nation’s fiscal health.

Congratulations, as well, to those former Romney operatives who ran a brilliant campaign, even the ones who wouldn't bother to return Scott Brown's phone calls when he was a nobody.