Foxy Congressperson of the Week: Senator Scott Brown

Scott Brown, foxin' it up on Capitol Hill. Public Domain through wikimedia commons.

Those of you who were in Boston during the winter of 2010 (when Scott Brown was elected to Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat) will not be surprised to see Brown on the list of foxiest congresspeople. Those of us who were lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) enough to witness the drama that was the Coakley-Brown contest already know the two main things that make Scott Brown attractive: he once posed naked for Cosmo and he drives a truck.

Those are not the only things that make Brown attractive, though. First of all, he is currently the only Massachusetts senator that does not look like Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas. So there are points in his favor right off the bat.

Secondly, if you’re into this kind of thing, Brown is the first republican in living memory to have been elected to the seat previously filled by liberal lion Ted Kennedy.  When I moved to Boston, I slowly became aware that while most of the country respects the Kennedys, Boston practically worships them. I attended a Boston Pops concert in the Common last fall which featured a fifteen-minute musical tribute to the three most famous Kennedy brothers, and which ended with a long standing ovation. In other parts of the country, fifteen-minute musical tributes to politicians end with fruit being thrown at the performers, but Bostonians love them some Kennedies, which is why it was so impressive that Brown was able to overcome Kennedy’s legacy of liberalism and get elected as a conservative. And we all know how good overcoming adversity looks in a suit.

When I went to Brown’s office to deliver the certificate, the building was crawling with members of the military. When confronted with dozens of young men in peak physical condition and in uniform, it’s pretty hard to want to give a certificate of foxiness to a middle-aged man. I briefly toyed with the idea of crossing out Brown’s name on the certificate and handing it to an eligible-looking young man instead, but I overcame that urge and found my way into Dirksen. Which turned out to be a whole different struggle.

I had looked up Brown’s office number before I left, but forgot it somewhere on the ridiculously long metro ride from my apartment to the Hill. I ended up taking seven elevator rides in five minutes, walking back and forth on floors three through six (and making an accidental detour into a different office building – should they really have different names if they are connected on every floor?). I finally found Scott Brown’s office. I walked in and introduced myself to his front desk staff, who chuckled good naturedly while I explained my mission. As usual, I was assured that the certificate would be passed around to various members of the office, and I asked for contact information for the press guy, who I had several questions for, as part of my promised strategy to make a greater effort to get a response from the offices I contact. I e-mailed said press guy, and he hasn’t returned my e-mail yet. I haven’t totally given up hope, though, because the e-mail was sent over the weekend and could still reasonably be responded to early this week. It could also be reasonably responded to never, but I think sometimes life is more fun with optimism and this is one of those times.

About Annie White

Annie is a senior in CAS studying political science.

View all posts by Annie White →

One Comment on “Foxy Congressperson of the Week: Senator Scott Brown”

  1. Anne: Real deep. That’s really what we strive for in politics , good looks, well dressed, well off, elitist , snobbie Republicans when the economy is still in the Great Republican Recession of 2007.You left Mittens Romney out. Maybe that pretty boy will make the list next time. Herman is cute, though!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *