Voting a majority of the time with Senate Democrats doesn't make you the "Anti-Shaheen", Scott Brown! - Granite Grok

Voting a majority of the time with Senate Democrats doesn’t make you the “Anti-Shaheen”, Scott Brown!

Funny, I don’t remember Scott Brown saying this at our meeting:  “I was the most bipartisan senator in the United States Senate.” (Scott Brown on Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 in a meeting with Republicans in Portsmouth, N.H.).  Remember these numbers: 22%, 46%, 62%.

Shaheen votes 99% with the Democrats, Brown votes 62% of the time with DemocratsAnd he boasts about it?  Shades of “Monkey Business” (in another way) – he dared the Press / us to catch him?  Shaheen may be co-joined with Obama at the hips, waist, and shoulders but 62% would be more than just a shoulder bump from where I stand.  Hey Andy Leach – Did you know about this?  That Scott is openly creating his own oppo research and giving it out?

And you were worried about me videoing last Wednesday….how’s this going to play with the Conservatives in the Republican Party – unless your game plan was to write them out of consideration?  Scary proposition in an off-year primary when it is the Conservatives generally outvote the Independents and moderates.

Be careful of what you boast – somebody will take you up on it and they did!  From Politico (emphasis mine, reformatted

…”I was the most bipartisan senator in the United States Senate,” Brown said, according to a report published in The Portsmouth Herald. “I voted 50-50. So I worked with everybody. And here’s the problem, I was the most bipartisan senator.”

Well, I would certainly agree with that – that IS a problem.  Helping the opposition to  move towards their end goal by moving that Overton Window away from the Founders intent is not a good thing.

Brown made the exact same claim during a visit to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua on April 4, 2013, where he added, “That’s, I think, what people want.”

That is the “I need to do something” syndrome – without understanding what that something will do to from a philosophical basis.

But does Brown really have the strongest record of bipartisanship? PolitiFact New Hampshire decided to look into the question…But measurements of party unity or opposition votes – that is, the rate at which a lawmaker sides with or against members of his or her own party – is the gold standard measure of bipartisanship, experts said. So, for the purposes of this check, we’ll stick to that.  Brown pointed to four sources, including a “Best and Worst” list from Washington Magazine labelling him as the “Least Partisan” senator of 2012.  Brown also cited research from Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, which he said deemed him the country’s second most bipartisan senator in 2011. Each year, Congressional Quarterly prints a report detailing senators’ party unity and opposition votes, defined as votes cast either with or against a majority from their party.

Remember, Scott Brown is asking the NH Republican Party to send him down as a Republican and as a Republican vote.  Consistency, if you have been reading the ‘Grok lately, means that I should have a very good idea of how you are going to vote BEFORE you vote.  Voting from Principle means that I can.  Voting “to be bipartisan” means I can’t.  Consistency breeds Trust; a big part of Trust is Loyalty  – Loyalty down means Loyal up.  If our Loyalty going up is not returned, there is no Trust.  WHY would I send someone to DC that I cannot Trust simply because you have an R next to your name?

According to the data, Brown, who took office in February 2010, sided with a Democratic majority on 22 percent of votes in his first year, ranking him seventh among all senators.  The next year, he voted with Democrats 46 percent of the time, trailing only Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. In 2012, he rose to the top of the list, siding with a Democratic majority close to 62 percent of the time, according to the annual report, which was printed in the January 21, 2013 issue of CQ Weekly.

…Over his final two years in the Senate, Brown’s cooperation with Democrats increased. He and Collins were in a virtual dead-heat, differing with the Republican party more frequently than other Senators in 2011 and 2012, according to the Washington Post list.

…Meanwhile, Bloomberg Government, a subsidiary of the media service that focuses on government information, studied unity votes as well, excluding some types of votes such as nominations and treaty votes. This research, covering Brown’s final two years in office, showed he voted with a Democratic majority 53 percent of the time.

Remember, Scott Brown is asking the NH Republican Party to send him down as a Republican and as a Republican vote.  If one is voting the majority of the time with the Democrats, how would that be representing Republican voters?  How is that representing the NH GOP: “Vote for me and I’ll make Ray Buckley and Kathy Sullivan happy”?  This is not snark!  This is someone looking at things hard and going “WHY would I waste my valuable vote for someone who has a demonstrated past to vote counter to my beliefs and my interests? Results matter, and in the political process, votes are the end result.  I want votes that resemble my beliefs – not Kathy Sullivan’s, Jeanne Shaheen’s, or Obama.

Don’t LIE to me and say you are the “Anti-Shaheen” when you are, in truth, voted WITH her most of the time.  Don’t call me STUPID and expect to get away with it.  I’m an engineer – and your numbers aren’t adding up and your formulas are unbalanced.

Remember, Scott Brown is asking the NH Republican Party to send him down as a Republican and as a Republican vote.

22%, 46%, 62%. His own votes.  Monkey Business.

 

(H/T:  John)

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