Monday, Dec 27, 2010 11:47 ET
War Room
And the Tea Party's next target is ... Scott Brown?!
Look what happens when a senator from Massachusetts starts voting like ... a senator from Massachusetts By Steve Kornacki
http://www.salon.com/news/scott_brown/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/27/scott_brown_tea_partyIt was probably inevitable that we'd reach this point, but Tea Party activists and social conservative activists are now talking openly about backing a Republican primary challenger against Scott Brown in 2012.
"I think that there will be a primary challenge," Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, told the Boston Globe last Friday. "There’s enough of an underground movement in the Tea Party movement as seeing him as not being conservative enough. There probably will be multiple people who attempt to run against him."
Brown's latest (supposed) crimes against conservatism include his support for the New Start treaty and for repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the Senate last week -- this after he voted for Wall Street reform over the summer and a jobs bills back in February.
It's tempting to dismiss the right's threats. After all, Brown remains surprisingly popular in Massachusetts -- he's consistently scored better than John Kerry in polling since taking office -- he's armed himself with an impressive bankroll, and there's really no big- (or moderately big-) name conservative challenger waiting in the wings. Plus, we're talking about Massachusetts here: Brown's votes may place him to the left of most Republicans in the Senate, but he is also, on the whole, far more conservative than just about any Democrat who might otherwise hold the seat. He's doing what he needs to survive in a strongly Democratic state, in other words; surely, conservatives recognize and appreciate this at some level.