Could It Be? A Pol For Me?

It's not just going to be Johnny Damon coming out of left field this .year, it would seem. Damon, the left-fielder for my New York baseball team last summer, has now switched his allegiance to the Detroit area. While not surprising, such dramatic shifts are always newsworthy. No out-of-the-blue decision, however, has been so stupefyingly, well, out of the blue than the one made by Scott Brown this week.
Brown, the man who replaced Edward Kennedy as a senator from Massachusetts, was ushered into office amid glorious expectations of the Republican Party for undermining the Democrats' "filibuster-proof" majority...a good idea, if you ask me. However, as of today, Brown, who has as recently as five days ago been mentioned in presidential talk, is now being vilified across the blogosphere and the internet as a traitor...and worse, a RINO! His crime? he voted for a $15 billion jobs bill sponsored by, gasp, Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada! It must also be noted, however, that four others from his party chose to do the same thing. This is as close to bi-partisanship as we are likely to see anytime soon. Me? I believe in checks and balances, the two (or three or four) party system, and elected officials who will work for the betterment of ALL, and not just those who have paid money to get them elected. Amid being pilloried far and wide, Brown's comment to all the hoopla?
"I came to Washington to be an independent voice, to put politics aside, and to do everything in my power to help create jobs for Massachusetts families," Brown said in a statement after the vote.
OMG!!! I am stunned. As my buddy Rhubarb would say, "What have YOU been smoking?" An elected official looking out for those he represents without concern for potential fallout? Amazing...this incident is also testament to the fickleness of the masses.
It actually reminds me of my time as a city councilman in the small town in which we lived for 29 years. During debate over a particularly ticklish situation, I commented that we should have a public meeting to let the public know ALL the facts and not just what they'd heard at the coffee shop, there was a general looking down at papers, shuffling them and general harumphing. As generally happened in those days, my argument fell on somewhat deaf ears, not much to my surprise.
It's not about the people, according to Mel Brooks as the governor in Blazing Saddles: "it's about us keeping our phony baloney jobs!"
Until Scott Brown...maybe more will take the hint.
But I doubt it.