Scott Brown talks power, abortion, nude Cosmo pose
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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.’
[Corrected: An earlier version of this post spelled Burt Reynolds’ first name as Bert.]
-- Mark Silva