It doesn’t matter whether the Obama Administration jobs bill Sen. Brown voted for is a good bill or not. He is an Ethics Hero for not marching in lock-step according to the demands of those who voted him into office to break the Democratic so-called “filibuster-proof” majority. A U.S. Senator, any Senator, has an ethical duty to excercise independent judgment. In light of the weight of expectations placed on him by conservatives and Obama opponents in the wake of his upset victory in Massachusetts, Scott Brown’s willingness to break ranks so early in his tenure speaks well of his character.
It also proves why the recent news media fad of calling the U.S. government “broken” (all four major networks and CNN used the term at some point during the Sunday current events talk-shows) is hooey, and dishonest hooey at that. The orientation of all the “broken” discussions was that the proof was the failure to pass health care reform. This reflects a Obama health care reform bias. An equally if not more persuasive argument could be made that the inability to stop a massively expensive bill that commits the nation to huge, long-term expenditures at a time of record deficits would prove that the government was “broken.”
The main thrust of the “broken” complaints focus on excessive use of the filibuster by Republicans, requiring 60 votes (the number necessary for cloture) to pass legislation rather than a simple majority. The claim is either disingenuous or ignorant, for the effectiveness of the filibuster could be greatly limited if the Democrats simply voted to return to the original, pre-1975 rules that mandated that a filibuster be sustained by non-stop speech-making, just like in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” The traditional filibusters were not only great theater, they were tests of endurance that failed more often than not, or at least led to compromise. Something cannot be called ‘broken” when repairing it is easy and the means to repair it are obvious and available. Restoring integrity to the filibuster would help (if the Democrats won’t do it, then they just don’t want to do it), but whatever is wrong with our government can always be repaired by elected representatives who are determined to govern and have the courage to defy the screamers, the crazies, the talk-show hosts, the lobbyists and conventional wisdom to do it.
Maybe Scott Brown can show the way. If not him, well, there’s an election in less than 8 months.
Ethics Alarms 
I agree. Bravo Scott Brown.
But the major problem with all this is that the general population just doesn’t know how its own government works. I learned civics in 9th grade; I imagine most people took civics then, too. But if Jay Leno asked the “average man on the street” was “cloture” was, I’d bet half of them would think it was a body part or a sexually transmitted disease.
So Americans are prey to the last charlatan (i.e., liar) they’ve heard on the news, and have no idea what’s going on.
Scott Brown may be a hero, but most people don’t know who he is, much less what he’s done. Representative democracy (i.e., a republic) depends so firmly on an informed electorate, that the question is “Is the electorate broken?” not “Is the government broken?” Reelecting liars, cheats, even murderers time after time after time is not a reflection on our broken government, but a reflection upon an ignorant, lazy, moronic electorate.