Published June 30, 2010

Sen. Scott Brown may be popular, but he’s under fire for trying to block a jobs bill that could help thousands of families in Massachusetts. Just look at some of the comments from Hubbubers:

Scott Brown’s vote against unemployment benefit extension and medicaid has shown his true colors. He sides with the big guys and doesn’t care about those little guys suffering from the down turn. His latest vote was a disgrace!

Scott Brown has surprised me a couple of times with breaking with his party, but only on much less meaningful measures – and he’ll tout those as proving his independence from the GOP.

That’s got to be hitting the junior senator where it hurts. He prides himself on political independence.

Now the newsroom gets word on a new jobs bill — a Brown jobs bill — that would tap $37 billion in unspent stimulus cash to fund summer jobs programs, unemployment insurance and state aid.

From Brown’s statement today:

“I have been in Washington for five months now, and if you’ve followed my voting record you know that I have crossed party lines to support good ideas when I see them. But, as you know, bi-partisanship is a two-way street. I hope that my Democratic colleagues will support this common sense legislation because it is not only good for Massachusetts, but the entire nation.”

See? He’s still independent. Here is Brown’s press release from the future.

Update: Felix Browne, a spokesman for Sen. Brown, called to say I mistakenly wrote $37 million. That’s not very much money these days. Not that it’s any excuse, but I composed this post on my iPad, which has caused me to commit much worse errors. Anyway, the correct number is $37 bajillion.

Update: The correct number is $37 billion.