While It Lasts

It seems clear to me that the Massachusetts Dems won't make a mistake next time with some weak-tea machine candidate without the common touch, so that means the supposed comer Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has to be pretty damned good to keep the job.

Something tells me he'll be a one-partial-term Senator:

Asked by the Boston Globe how he'd like to see the bill improved, Brown fumbled -- appearing not even to know what it was he wanted changed in order to garner his support.

Brown left open the possibility that he could support a compromise.

"I want to see when it's going to come up, how it's going to come up,'' he said. "I'm always open to trying to work something through so it is truly bipartisan.''

Brown, whose vote could be critical as Democrats seek to find a GOP member to avoid a filibuster, assiduously avoided talking about specifics.

When asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: "Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I'll get a team and go fix it.''

Even the Globe struggled to explain Brown's position: "He appeared to oppose the creation of a consumer protection agency within the Federal Reserve. 'It’s more government, it’s more government regulation at a time when businesses are trying just to pay their bills,' he said. 'Is that good? . . . If it’s an area we need to fix, then I’m certainly open to it. But I haven’t heard that that’s the biggest thing that’s problematic with it.'"

It sure won't help him -- and possibly hurt him further with the 'baggers -- if he continues to take the solid party-line position with his GOP against even debating banking reform. Especially when those banks are getting indicted.

Scott was in the right place at the right time and has obvious retail skills. He'll be out in 2012, when more Dems are swept in on the coattails of President Barack Obama, whose landslide victory could not have been predicted back in the early health care reform passage days of 2010.