Scott Brown Leads New England Republicans Support of Financial Regulation Bill

No beating about the bush: Scott Brown led the defection of the New England Republican Senators: himself and the Maine sisters, from the solid Republican ranks in support of the worthless Financial Regulation bill passed today.  The blog Legal Insurrection, written by a Cornell Law professor, is a very good conservative blog.  The professor, William Jacobson, was a very strong supporter of his campaign. Jacobson doesn't run and hide about it:

When Brown announced that he would support the legislation, his press release stated in part as follows:


While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. It includes safeguards to help prevent another financial meltdown, ensures that consumers are protected, and it is paid for without new taxes. That doesn’t mean our work is done. Further reforms are still needed to address the government’s role in the financial crisis, including significant changes to the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate.”

Reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac never is going to happen unless Democrats have no other choice. Not at least as long as Barack Obama is President or Democrats control all or part of Congress. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are off limits for Democrats, just as they were when the the Bush administration warned of problems.


By supporting legislation without including reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Brown lost leverage to address the root of the problem, and squandered his 41st vote.

Jacobson gets it right of course.  This was a ridiculous bill to support as it still doesn't address the real problem.  Jacobson continues with a lot of good analysis on why the bill is a bad thing.  But, he finishes with this:

I'm not going to engage in the name calling some have directed at Brown. I believe Brown was sincere in his belief that the legislation does more good than bad. And I'm still glad that I supported his campaign, because Brown stood firm on health care and other negative Democratic initiatives.

But Scott Brown failed to see the forest for the trees on financial reform.

Whatever good the financial legislation accomplishes could have been accomplished without another impenetrable behemoth, sprinkled with lobbyist-induced goodies, which expands government for the sake of expanding government, and which constitutes a cure which is worse than the disease.

Like Jacobson, and I'm sure at least most of RTP&GG, I'm upset with Brown. Not only did he vote the wrong way, but he actually led the two other Republicans into voting with the Democrats. However, also like Jacobson, I am still not upset with Brown's victory for Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat. That's the best we can do in that part of the world. We'll have to deal with this kind of thing if Republicans are going to become the majority party again. That's the important thing. Well there are two things. The Republicans need to take control of the houses, and then have a majority of  fiscal conservatives to get the job done that needs doing: shrinking our bloated Federal government.  They can't, as an entire party, be the Democrat-lite party they were during the Bush administration.  But there will be various shades of Republicans.