Thread: MA. Senator elect Brown says he supports abortion rights

Sen.-elect Brown says he supports abortion rights

Posted 11m ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts says he opposes federal funding for abortions, but thinks women should have the right to choose whether to have one.
Brown tells ABC's This Week that he disagrees with his party's position that the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion should be overturned.

Brown says the abortion question is one that's best handled by a woman, her family and her doctor. He also says more effort needs to go into reducing the number of abortions in the U.S.

Brown has said the GOP shouldn't take his vote for granted on every issue. He says he's fiscally conservative but more moderate on social issues.

Brown recently won the Senate seat long held by liberal Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, who died last summer.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... ance_N.htm

Scott Brown talks power, abortion, nude Cosmo pose

January 31, 2010 | 11:44 am

Scott Brown, the newly elected Republican senator from Massachusetts, says he's ready to play the role of "the 41st senator'' -- a powerful new vote for a Republican minority able to stall any legislation that Democratic leaders are advancing. But he's certainly not ready to start talking about running for president -- he "doesn't even have a business card yet.'' He'll be sworn in in February.

And he doesn't mind talking about posing for Cosmpolitan magazine as a 22-year-old.

"Everyone really is the 41st senator,'' Brown said in an interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters aired today on "This Week." "And what it means is that now there will be full and fair debate. And there will be no more closed -- behind-closed -doors actions. And make no mistake, I am a fiscal conservative. And when it comes to issues affecting people's pockets, and pocketbooks, and wallets, I'll be with the Republicans if they are in fact pushing those initiatives."

Brown said he would have voted for the confirmation of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term -- the Senate voted 70-30 last week.

Asked about parlaying his newfound political celebrity status into a 2012 presidential campaign, Brown told Walters: "I have to tell you, I don't even have a business card. I haven't even been sworn in. I don't have any exploratory committees started. I don't have any -- anything -- it's -- it's overwhelming, and it's extremely humbling. I don't know how -- what else to tell you."

Asked about Republican Sarah Palin and whether she was "presidential material,'' Brown told Walters: "Well, sure. I mean, she's been a mayor, and a governor. And -- and has a lot of -- a national following. But I think the more people in a presidential race, the better. She's never contacted us, and vice versa."

He asserted his own "pro-choice'' stance on abortion: "Yes, because I feel this issue is best handled between a woman and her doctor and her family."

He said the president's proposed freeze on discretionary spending in 2011, which will be part of the federal budget that the White House proposes on Monday, is coming too late: "We need to do it immediately. We need to put a freeze on federal hires and federal raises because, as you know, federal employees are making twice as much as their private counterparts.''

Asked about "Don't ask, don't tell,'' the military policy for gays and lesbians in the armed services that President Barack Obama wants to repeal this year, Brown said he'll have to seek the counsel of the military: "Because as you know we're fighting two wars right now. And the most -- the first priority is to -- is to -- is to finish the job and win those wars. I'd like to hear from the generals in the field ... the people that actually work with these soldiers to make sure that, you know, the social change is not going to disrupt our ability to finish the job and complete the wars."

On that Cosmo pose that has been the source of some ribbing for the senator-elect from Massachusetts, Brown said: "I was 22 years old. My grandmother saw it. She laughed. You know, you have to have a sense -- have to have sense of humor about yourself.

"It wasn't Playgirl. It was Cosmo. You know ... Burt Reynolds, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Davidson, David Hasselhoff also did it. And I'm the -- the only non-, you know, famous person who did it back then." [An earlier version of this post incorrectly spelled Reynolds' first name Bert.]

-- Mark Silva

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2 ... or---.html

. . . On gay marriage, Brown invoked states' right in his interview with Walters.
And on the marriage issue that you brought up, it's settled here in Massachusetts, but I believe that states should have the ability to determine their own destiny and the government should not be interfering with individual states' rights on issues that they deal with on a daily basis . . .

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... anti-tax/1

Not worried about Brown, he has to be a bit liberal to survive in Massachusetts. Illegal immigration and health care are the issues.

Originally Posted by Arizonablues

Not worried about Brown, he has to be a bit liberal to survive in Massachusetts. Illegal immigration and health care are the issues.

Has he come right out an stated his stand on amnesty / path to citizenship, or is he playing both sides against the middle.

We all though that the republican party opposed amnesty until Bush and McCain supported amnesty right along with Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Biden, Palin, etc.

And then there was the Reagan amnesty of 1986.