John Heilemann on Scott Brown's Vote

Republican Senator Scott Brown's vote for a Democratic jobs bill surprised supporters, and spurred predictions about future bipartisanship. Some began to speculate that Brown--hailed as the destroyer of health care and Democrats' filibuster-proof majority--could even prove a boon to the White House.

But John Heilemann knew all that a week ago. In a February 14 piece for New York Magazine, Heilemann observed that "For all the tea-party atmospherics around the Massachusetts race, there are plenty of indications that Brown is hardly a right-wing loony, and even some signs that he might be--wait for it--an honest-to-goodness northeastern moderate right out of the old school." In fact, Heilemann argued that far from being Brown the Democratic Death-Knell, Brown "should be the ripest of targets for bi-partisan appeals in the Senate."

Heilemann all but predicted Brown's jobs bill vote, and beat today's commentators to the conclusion that Democrats shouldn't count on Brown except when his polls numbers are threatened. As Heilemann wrotes, "on the critical issues of 2010, unless his own poll numbers begin to plummet, Brown seems likely to be another brick in the Republican wall of opposition." That's precisely what bloggers wound up deciding post-vote.